updates as at 28/12/13

some updates as follows,

1) lift update, we suppose to get the vendor to do it right after Deepavali, but then he was engaged himself with a big project in Relau and after he has solved it, he found himself need to settle another breakdown lift case, by the time he get himself available for upgrading our lift last week, he told him to put on hold until after Chinese New Year, as the upgrade will take abt 1 month according to his estimation, but to play safe, we better do it after CNY because we worry that if he can't get it done within a month, then residents will need to climb staircase during the festival season shall another lift also down.

2) IWK pipeline issue, we still in the tug of war with our neighbor Villa Condo concerning this matter, understand that their side again called in the reporters to tell of their version of story, but we did explain to the concerned authorities that we want to make sure that the contractor (recommended by IWK & SPAN) can convince us with the right solution or else we don't not want just waste our money into the their guessing job. For residents' info, few contractors came & gave different views on the matters, one said pipeline collapsed at our side then repair cost will be abt 19K (shared by both side), another one said unlikely pipeline collapsed but major clog at the joint area (with villa pipe), need to use very powerful jet to clear it, cost abt 14K, but our stand is Villa Condo should take care of their own waste, they must find way to channel their waste into their existing IWK outlet without flowing through our pipe, or else in the future the problem will be keep repeating, ie once clogged both sides will be pointing finger to each other, so now we are still waiting for the right solution on the matter.

3) facility upgrade, glad to inform our beloved residents that God has blessed vista condo in the financial area, so now we are in the good position of either to upgrade an existing facility or add one new facility in first quarter of 2014, budget in between 10k to 15k, at the moment we have those projects in mind, such as gym room, basketball/badminton multipurpose court, kids playground, so we are now gathering more info, proposal & quotations from vendors & will present it to residents in AGM or EGM for our residents to decide which project they want, we will send out the notice once info ready, meanwhile if you have any suggestion (besides the above mentioned items) pls feel free to write to us.

thanks.

some good news for future MC :)

there's some little good news for the future MC....

last week we received news from YB yeoh that our request for RM20,000 for water tank lining replacement has been endorsed by him, and he needs us to present the copy of the quotation with the letter to state EXCO office personally, for which we made a trip there on the following day....

well, to heard abt this approval is actually a great news for us, but then the greater one awaits us in EXCO office...

we heard from EXCO's assistant that this deal will be on the 80-20% arrangement, which means MC will pay 20% and 80% will be absorbed by state gov't, and he further explained that it's for low medium cost apartments.

see the significant here? this time they themselves classified us as LMC (low medium cost) apartments without us insist on it (still remember earlier on when we applied fund for blk k lift upgrade, we got to show them many document to convince them that we are LMC), have been recognized LMC really makes future jobs of applying fund for big project a lot easier :):):)

we further heard from him that we are qualified to apply fund as LMC for the lift upgrade (or new one), water tank replacement, new loof, etc, except building repainting which is only for the gov't built apartments & flats.

wow! we feel so happy when leaving the EXCO office, the path for future fund application has been made wider & straighter, especially for those important equipment like lifts & water tanks, which also posting problem for other apartments as well, now we feel assured that shall vista condo need big money for these equipment in the future, there's one channel we always can approach to get help with the status of LMC.

thank God for His help on this :)

another shot on sinking fund...?

so, monday we are going to meet the COB, again, for our sinking fund....

RM400k, we always believe that, through God's help, will eventually return to it's rightful owner, the residents of Vista Condo, the question is, when....?

it's truly like a Marathon race, without patience we can't continue race, but then in Marathon race, the runners do know where is the finish line & they know roughly when can hit the finish as long they continue to run, but in our sinking fund Marathon, we really have no idea when can hit the finish line even though we continue the race :(

but then compare to another few projects, our neighbors who also under the same developer, we are much ahead of them, as we have formed MC & won the court case, but for these 2 projects, their sinking fund are much more than ours, we believe both also amounting to abt million.

(to make the matters worst, now both of these 2 mentioned projects, they also can't continue to use the swimming pools, as the developer refused them for the access, really too much lah!)

so, monday, we can't tell what will be the outcome of the meeting, but we pray & hope that there will be a breakthrough in our pursue of the sinking fund, even though in the past few meeting the developer have failed us....

we will continue to run the race, finish it as soon as we can, for indeed we have tried many ways, we have negotiated with them, took legal action against them, plead to them, getting authority & dept in charge to talk to them....., even though don't see the money yet, but as long as we are still serving in the MC, we will not give up!

God, please help us to win this battle.

IWK / Sinking Fund / Cost Saving

few more matters for our beloved residents information,

sinking fund - we have just received a letter from COB to ask us to attend a meeting on 16/12/13 together with developer & their management agent in Komtar for the sinking fund matter, we hope to see a breakthrough in the meeting, but also dare not to carry too much hope, worry that as expect much, then may get disappointed much too....:(

at the moment we still in the tug of war with developer concerning the sinking fund, as we have obtained the court order that the developer should transfer the fund to us, but then as on of their creditor have appointed a receiver to handle their case, a complication developer, so now we still consulting few more lawyer for the case, but we are not giving up yet, everyday still praying, hoping & trying every available to recover back the money for our residents.

IWK piping problem - we were told by some Chinese speaking residents that the local Chinese newspaper reported today concerning the IWK pipe clogging in our place has caused some units in Villa condo can't flush well their toilet & they need to bear with the stinky smell all the time. well, it seems the blaming game continue, ie they blame our side clog & we blame their ppl have caused the clog since the joint section is mainly serving them.

few days ago they did get some IWK technicians & MPPP ppl to inspect our manhole & concluded that the clogging is due to pipeline collapsed at our car park area, for this has caused the clog at the joint section & one of our manhole at blk j, they even proposed to bear half of the repair cost. our stand in this matter is if the cost is not too high, then we can agree to go ahead, but if it's too high then should get YB to help, because in the past we have cleared the joint section few times without charging them, as we understand that their finance are always not in good shape, so we have exercised good neighborhood spirit by clearing the clogging without asking them to share the cost, but if the figure is too high then we should not continue to help them to carry the burden. so now we have asked our management boss to approach YB for help, let's see how it goes.

T5 - we have received more good reports concerning the T5 to replace the existing T8 fluorescent tube, most of the electricians said can save in between 20% to 50%, well, the only thing now is to negotiate the price of T5 tube with it's casing, best offer now is RM30 including labor charge for replacing the old tube but we hope can get cheaper than that, but we do ask our electrician to only replace the reported faulty T8 tube with T5 tube, at the moment we would not change all the T8 in one shot unless we manage to get lower than RM25, which can see the ROI (return of investment) in much shorter period of time.

thanks.

updates as at 30/11/13

few matters would like to update our beloved residents,

lift upgrade,

the works for the blk k 2nd lift upgrade suppose to be started last week, but the same vendor who did the job for the first lift was stuck with another project with one of apartment nearby, he did inform us that next week he should be able to do for the blk k lift, once we get his confirmation then we will put up the notice to inform our blk k residents concerning this.

we are quite concern abt the length of time needed for the 2nd lift upgrade, for which he has told us should take less than a month since he has covered many area (especially wiring & panel for the lift calling button) during the first lift upgrade, we pray hard & hope that it will take much shorter time for the 2nd lift upgrade.

saving cost,

concerning the saving cost, especially on the common lighting, namely corridor lights, staircase lights, car park area lights, swimming pool lights...., etc, we always waiting for the right time to change & right kind of lights to be used in order to save money for our place, well at the moment the electricity cost for supporting all these mentioned light is in between 2k to 3k per month, we are aiming to cut down half of the electric cost per month....

earlier on we heard abt the LED light, but to switch to LED light will involve too much cost, basically not just change the light but the casing too, another problem of the LED light is it can be stolen because it's consider expensive at the moment. We are now considering the 4ft T5 light, which can save up to 40% of current, cheaper than LED (abt RM35 per tube compare to RM8 on the fluorescent tube), another nice thing abt this option is we don't need to replace the existing casing but just to bypass the wire at it's ballast.

now still waiting for further confirmation on how much the T5 can save cost & it's durability, if it's true can save cost & also can last long, then we should go ahead with it, but we can't afford to change all the common lights at one shot, perhaps phase by phase, or wait until the existing one has spoiled then replace with T5 tube.

welcome feedback on this. Thanks.

no posting this week, resume next week :)

hi,

take a break this week, school holiday, bring kids go jalan jalan :)

like to wish all vista folks happy school holidays, if you are traveling outstation with family for the holidays program, berhati-hati di jalanraya.

regards.

tough financial challenge ahead

Najib announced the infamous GST last week, it will definitely hit us very hard once it implement in yr2015, imagine by then almost all the vendors will impose us 6% of service tax, even the replacement parts also will be facing increase of price due to tax on the goods, such as lift parts, electrical components, even pipes & gutter, etc, how are we going to cope with this?

few days ago the latest bad news, electricity bill seems can't avoid the increase too, even though haven't finalize the new rate, but it have been saying the increase is in between 8% and 20%, alamak....!!!!

some may say, hi, not to worry, after all it will only happen in yr2015, and now not even yr2014. bear in mind that another one month then we will be knocking at yr2014's door, by then all can see the GST is not too far already :(:(:(

at the moment our income still can manage to cover all the necessary expenses, even got surplus to replace some of the old parts before it give way & cause danger to our residents, but then once the above mentioned increase of cost hit us, the income will definitely can't cope with expenses, let's do the quick estimation, total income is 25000 (85% prompt payment by good master & car park rental), but expenses will be (TNB 8000, management 3400, guard 4200, lift service 1500, electrical service 550, pool 870, pest control 320, water 800, barrier/cctv service 300, firefighting 200, parts replacement 4000), which means only got abt 1000 for contingency use but no saving, it's not good....

we would not like to suggest increase of maintenance service charge because residents will face the tougher financial difficulties as they too need to cope with their own cost increment due to GST, but, how ah?

we must think of ways now to create long term regular income for our management fund without increase the service charge, anyone have innovative idea to share with us?

thanks.

guard got bad harassment last week

past few days we have been busy talking to the guard boss abt one of his guard who was harassed badly on last Sunday, not by our resident but a lorry driver.

it was on Sunday morning, a lorry was sent in to move some of the stuff from one of the blk j unit, it was called by a resident who was moving out from Vista Condo, and the guard actually trying his best to make sure all will take place smoothly.

but later on he found out the lorry was parked at the middle of the blk j car park area, and blocking all the traffic, so he did his job by approaching the driver to move his lorry to the appropriate place so that other cars can pass.

somehow the conversation turned sour, some strong words have been used & exchanged during the argument, and in the height of the heat, some form of "physical contact" occurred & threatening as well....

the guard boss viewed this matter seriously, on the same day his ppl (manager, supervisor, etc) came in to investigate, have found the unit owner's particular and started searching the lorry driver's identity, well, trust that police report was made too.

after few days' searching effort, lastly they manage to contact the unit owner & set up the appointment to meet in the guard house to sort out the matter, we do not know how's the detail of the solution in between these 2 parties, but what we want is the guard management must give enough back up & support to their guards in Vista to carry out their duties, and for this case we do see some good initiative taken by their boss to protect his guard.

but, for the night guard, we have made request for him to be replaced, as he is too easily letting ppl without card (and outsiders too) to come in, this request should be granted a go-ahead in few days' time.

security is an important matter, we can't afford to take it lightly.....

thanks.

General updates as at 3/11/13

few matters would like to update our beloved residents,

1) abt the T&G for the lift, yes it still need to be decided by residents at AGM or EGM (which will be called after both lift get upgraded), so far what we did just gather opinion through various channel, this blog is one of them, we also check with residents personally for this matter, the feedback we got are mixture, almost 50-50, even among the committee members also the same :)

2) underground main pipe leakage at blk j, sad to inform our residents that since few again we found there's water sipping out from one of the main pipe (concealed underground) at blk j, outside the pipe room, facing swimming pool, and the situation got worse each day, then few days ago it become so serious so we decided to give few vendor a calls & check with them proposal/quotation & even payment term if go ahead with replacement, lastly get the best proposal from one of them (blk j contractor's contact), and now replacing the pipe, abt 5.5K, payment 1k per month, few painful because need to spend money again.. :(

3) another bad news is 2 weeks ago a blk j rain spout fell on the ground at end of blk j, facing the hindu temple, this is something we didn't expect, because this spout is one we consider least risky compare to other spouts, especially those spouts we didn't manage tighten the clips due to some residents had refused to let the vendor to use their balcony to tighten the clip which near their unit, but for this spout, as it just next to the common stair case, the vendor has in the past tighten the loosen clip, but still fell :( anyway we didn't suffer much financial loss as this under insurance coverage, so now we have asked the vendor to check all the rain spout & to carry out the necessary repair action.

4) Indah Water (IWK) dispute with our neighbor Villa Condo committee, as some of the residents may know, the Villa Condo has been using our IWK main pipe to channel their last 2 blocks' waste into the IWK main pipe, through the join pipe in between Vista Villa condo. And recently this join pipe has clogged but they insist the fault is ours, which we thought it's not because the join only serve the Villa Condo. For we have contacted & talked relevant authority (IWK & water...) & decided to ask the lawyer to send them a notice to ask them to find their own way to channel out their waste, and should not use our pipe as Vista and Vista are different project, and we also asked them to set up their own TV broadcast system due to same reason, for info they have been tapping into our TV system all these years but due to good neighbor spirit we just support them, but since their committee blaming us for the problem of IWK (for which we also have supporting them for years!) then we thought since they are not grateful, no point we continue to extend our support.... :(

thanks.

T&G system for lift...again checking

so the upgraded lift is abt to complete the 2nd week operation, thank God, so far so good.

few nights ago, while MC having their regular meeting at the foyer, few residents stopped by, give some suggestion on various matters, we are thankful for their initiative & keenness to see improvement here in this place, and during the conversation, they strongly recommended T&G system for the lift....

well, for this matter, we did check with residents at this blog some time ago, and surprisingly most of the residents who commented, actually not really in favour of installing the T&G system inside the lift, reasons cited included inconvenient, got to pay extra for the card, then if card missing got to pay again, also other reasons like if going out from the house & forget to bring the card the got to climb stair, etc...

and another reason we didn't pursue the idea is those days both blk k lift were in bad shape, we ourselves also have no confident to install the T&G system, worry that it will bring more difficulty to blk k residents.

but lately we heard some residents asking us if T&G will be installed in upgraded lift, in fact some of them do urge us to install as they saw few nearby apartment also got this system in the lifts, of course the selling points are security in Vista Condo will be improved, it will also helps in the service charge collection, perhaps it will help to increase Vista Condo property value as well :)

so, what do u guys think?

thanks.

upgraded lift running, and under monitoring

the upgraded lift of blk k started the full operation last Saturday afternoon, except on the same night due to some technical issue which halted the operation but resumed on next day, so far it's ok, so which it has been running for one week already.

we are still monitoring the performance of this lift, of course as we always carefully telling our residents that it's upgraded lift but not completely new one, we should not expect it run as smooth as new lift, but then compare to other 3 lifts of Vista Condo, we should feel the different, quieter & smoother.

we are not in the hurry to start the 2nd lift upgrade, mainly because we want to make sure this upgraded unit is stable & reliable enough to carry out it's duty when we shut down another lift later, another reason is at the beginning of November there's a holiday week, Deepavali & Awal Muharram, we have received request that have both lift running because some blk k residents their relatives & friends will be visiting them during these holidays.

so tentatively we set time for 2nd lift upgrade at the week after these holidays, and we do expect the 2nd upgrade will take much shorter than the 1st upgrade, reasonable time frame should be 3 to 4 weeks.

so now our prayer to God is this upgraded lift will continue to perform well, and later on when we do the 2nd lift upgrade, it won't take more than 1 month..... :)

thanks.

so close, yet so far away.....

another week :(

our patience is running very thin now, how long should we wait some more?

now new doors are up, formica also done, door safety sensor also fixed, but why the lift is not running? we also ask the same question.

yesterday chased them again, they left our place at abt 7.30pm, explained to us it took very long time to install full height sensor, reason for lengthy time taken because need to hack door/wall & others, so now full sensor installed, one thing left is to put new floor, then lift can run on Monday as they plan for new floor to be done on same day.

we told the vendor no point to wait until Monday, if they plan to do new floor on Monday, and they must up the lift on Saturday & Sunday for residents to use first, then on Monday when our residents go to work or school, only they should shut it down (1 lift) to do new floor, because we feel that if we don't run the lift but just wait for the new floor, then it's waste of time.

now Malaysia time 12.45pm Saturday noon, 2 senior lift guys are there doing the lift job, our message to them is clear, pls up the lift today.

well, just feel important to mention here too, we do check with them concerning the safety, yes it's safe to run the lift now.

calling them almost every 2 hours to monitor....

on the repainting of buildings....

after 1 week of urging, confronting, chasing, making a lot of of noise to the lift vendor to quickly settle the new door, wall formica & flooring for the blk k lift, we still didn't see it completed even until today, besides impatient, also a lot of frustration, we know that it's at the end of tunnel but it doesn't seem arrived already, now we fix the target date at next Monday or Tuesday, hope to see the lift running then.

but while we are angry & upset abt the slow process, we are also thankful for at least it's making progress although it's so slow, it's so torturing, reason being, last week we received a phone call from a supervisor of one apartment project in Penang Island, asking us how to take back the 20% of the deposit money (which they deposited in the government treasury dept) for the lift upgrade project because they want to scrap this project, after giving the contact person in the EXCO for them to pursue the money, we also found out there's some issue in their project with some vendor & until now didn't even start work & their project was approved abt the same like ours, so now as we are not too happy with the pace with our vendor, we also feel fortunate for at least it's still on the right track.

in last posting we saw a comment of a potential buyer of vista unit abt when to repaint our building, honestly we have no answer on this question but trying now to work out a solution or formula to repaint our building. For info, sinking fund still stagnant as we are now seeking EXCO & senior lawyer's help on how to make use of the court order (that the developer should release the fund of amounting to nearly 400K to our residents) to recover the money, and we also have visited the state gov't office for the gov't fund (same as lift, 80% by gov't, 20% by residents) but first attempt was rejected, we were told by them that the fund is only for low cost & gov't owned apartments... :(

but anyway, we have asked contractor to view our building & give us quotation to repaint the external wall, ie not including the wall facing the corridor of every floor, in another word, only paint those walls which can be seen from outside, now still waiting for their quotations. Our another restriction is we can only pay them in installment, perhaps first payment can be 20K, but then the subsequent ones will be maybe 4k per month, so this will take up to 2 or 3 years to pay up, hopefully we will be able to find contractor who is kind enough to agree on this, do u guys got anyone can recommend?

thanks......

upgraded lift is confirmed in working condition now!

few days ago some blk k residents got chance to use the upgraded lift as the other lift was down, the vendor anticipated it may take awhile to fix the problem so they open the upgraded lift for residents to use, or else our residents will need to use to stair case to go home.

actually the lift is 95% completed as far as upgrading is concerned, because the vendor were planning to change the car door & putting the formica at the 4 walls before it release to blk k residents for the full operation.

so for those who used the upgraded lift that day & saw the wall & door still old one, pls don't get disappointed because there should be new doors & much nicer wall in another few more days' time.

so on the same afternoon, as the vendor managed to fix the problem of the other lift, the shut down the upgraded one, dismantle the door, sent it to their own vendor for the new door fabrication, at the same time arrange for the new formica to be placed at the 4 walls of the lift, hopefully it won't take long to complete this last phase of process.

after the upgraded lift in full operation, we will not shut down another lift for upgrading immediately, but we will monitor the performance of the upgraded one, only when residents are confident with it, then we will go for upgrading of another lift, this time should take much shorter time, as some of the wiring which the vendor has done earlier, are actually for both lift, so if the process is smooth then can be 3 weeks, but as we have learned from the the past, it's better not to give false hope, anywhere we told him, this time we can only tolerate maximum one month...

so, we will still be praying for the smooth upgrading process throughout the 2nd lift upgrade, thanks.

General updates on various matters

few matters like to upda our beloved residents,

1) for those who read Chinese newspaper, maybe you guys have noticed few months ago our neighboring apartment had accused us causing their sewage piping clogged, they even brought YB & reporter to view their sewage manholes, and came out with the conclusion that some part of pipe in our side has collapse but without sufficient proof. But instead of arguing with them, we have asked our own contractor to check all our manhole, and found out it's all in good condition but we still ask our contractor to clear it again, just for in case. We even changing the pipe near the main entrance to solve the floor sinking problem even though it seems not related to their clogging problem, so by doing so it should have solved their clogging problem if their theory is right.

But unfortunately even after we have make sure our side is ok, their clogging problem got worse! so bad that some of their manholes even overflow & causing bad stinky smell at their 2 blocks which nearest to Vista Condo, so we were called by the MPPP, COB dept to attend the meeting on Friday, during the meeting we managed to convince them since all our manholes are clear then we should not be blamed for their clogging problem, but we will still arrange for the joint inspection to show them our manholes are clear, and we even willing to provide the access to IWK to go through our manholes to clear their manholes or repair their piping crack (in case) since no way anyone can go into their manholes since they are full of shit...., the purpose we update our residents concerning this issue is so that no one is misled by those false accusation...

2) abt the lift upgrade, lift vendor has finished all the jobs in motor room, all the wiring for the hall calling button, has perform fast speed test & calibrated the lift for every floor, every things seem ok now, but a little bug on the lift digital display wiring, so now they are rectifying the problem, according to them not a serious problem, and we still praying hard that they quickly settle this problem so our residents can start using it....

3) like to urge residents don't feed the pigeons, we will put up the notice for this matter, as now the pigeon have caused some problems here, their shit had dirtied the foyer & swimming pool, even for long run can damage residents owning at the balcony, the swimmers also feel not comfortable as these pigeons also shitting & drinking the water of our swimming pool, worry that they may have left some germs there too, but it's true that pigeons' shit is bad for health especially for kids playing at the foyer regularly, so if you know of anyone have been feeding the pigeon pls ask them to be more considerate & stop feeding any kind of birds.

thanks.

further update on lift....

as at 14/9/13

the vendor didn't manage to install the lift button on Thursday as they still lacking few parts & tools for that, but manage to get them ready on Friday & started the works of fixing the button at abt 4pm.

they drill hole, fix the device, configure the wire and use the same digital display, do it floor by floor, carefully but slowly too, to make sure not connecting the wrong wire, and until 1am in the Saturday early morning, still trying their best to complete it, but too bad, didn't manage to....

well, they will continue today (Saturday) and have informed us if all go smoothly then on next Monday, we can buy off this lift, but then we will rather see it as a possible but not target date, for we also worry that we may again disappoint blk k residents for giving false hope.

to be honest, we are not sure when the lift can be up for blk k residents, sometimes we also feel discouraged & overcame by negative thought like "why are we so keh poh (busy body) to upgrade the lifts, why not just leave it & let the next MC committee to find way to fix the lift problem", forgive us for this kind of thought because we are human too...

but one thing we are sure, we are at the end of the tunnel, the completion is at sight, and with God's help, we believe everything will be all right at the end :)

thanks....., will update further once info ready.

little updates on lift....

almost everyday we chase the vendor on the lift upgrade matter, so lastly this morning (sunday) he replied us with something more positive, in the sms sent by him, "Hari ni ada di vista condo..., i cuba test run hari ni..."

we have been crossing our finger praying almost everyday for this matter to be concluded soon, and everyday we got residents asking us "when ah?", of course they refer to when the lift can be ready for blk k resident to use, at first we just reply them like the vendor replied us, something like "going to be soon, maybe in few days' time will do the test run", but later on we found out it didn't happened, so now we also dare not to commit to residents abt any date, until today at least the vendor told us that there's a good chance he will test run the lift.

will the test run be happening today? we only can know by the evening, in another words if until night no one call us to witness the test run, then we got to again chase him for tomorrow, then after that will be day after tomorrow....we will continue doing that until we see it happen.

will update you guys as soon as we got news from him, pls be patient....

thanks.


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update as at 10/9/13

the vendor has completed what need to be done in motor room on Sunday, test run the lifts few rounds, everything seems ok.

now they are arranging to install the hall calling button at each floor for residents to use both lift, which means 2 set of button for 2 different lifts, but this will be just a temporary arrangement, in the future when everything completed, there will be 1 set of calling buttons for both lift like what are we having now.

to install hall calling button will involve wiring job which need to shut down another lift for 1 to 2 hours, so we ask them to do it at midnight, so that it won't affect residents to use the lift during day time.

will update again when get further news, thanks.

updates on lift upgrade & playground/mini recreation center

some development on the matters,

the lift vendor managed to try run the lift on Saturday on the slower speed, and will do the fast speed test run after get few more things done, according to him another 2 days' time will see the completion.

well, as we said earlier, we are not expert & should not pretend to be expert, so as we heard this from him, we only can tell him pls get it done as soon as he can, but can't argue with him much abt the technical detail, unless we can have residents among us to check on the facts.

we hope that the try run on full speed will be smooth one & will soon have 2 lifts to serve blk k residents well until we are confident enough to shut down another lift for upgrade, but this time we wish they can plan better than another one, also according to him, this time should take much shorter time as he & his worker (and his own vendors) have understand the system better, but since we have "not so good" experience with him for the first lift, our expectation on the length of time to be taken is rather reserved.

concerning the playground, or the nicer term, mini recreation center, we have moved the fence toward the pool, and pleasantly found out the space is quite wide, we have received the quotation abt the exercise/gym set, and soon forward to ADUN or MP for their consideration to allocation fund, and perhaps if it take too long for them to approval our request then we can even to purchase 2 set first for residents to use.

of course if anyone like to sponsor, then best lah... :)

thanks.

2 facility upgrade/improvement projects

while we are still spending much time urging the lift vendor to complete his job, we do not neglect other area as well, at the moment we thought we are able to do these 2 project in order to fulfill our mission, to make Vista a better place for living.

the first one is to convert the kids' playground to be a mini recreation center, actually not many peoples will like to recognize the empty land (with few set of stuff for kids to play) near the Hindu temple as kids' playground, well, strictly speaking it's not up the standard to be called playground, as the play sets are rusted & the place also got a lot of mosquitoes, it's not suitable for residents (especially kids) to play there, so instead of just leave the land to be wasted, we are planning to remove the poor maintained play sets but to recondition the useable one, and shift the existing fence toward the swimming pool, so we will have bigger space there for kids to play & adult to exercise.

at the moment some residents are going to help to shift the fence with minima charges, we also will use (perhaps) woods to cover the drain along the fencing area (facing the forest) so that when kids play there they will not accidentally fall into the drain.

we may want to invest (or get fund from YB) in some exercise set to be installed there, so that our residents can do some simple exercise there, some other things (besides the kids play set & adult exercise equipment), like badminton/futsal/basketball court & meeting room have also been suggested, well, let's see how wide the space we can create after the fence has moved toward the pool then we will decide.

in short, we hope that after converting the place to be a mini recreation center for our residents, besides contributing to good health, it will also boost further the property value of Vista Condo :)

thanks.

(another project is to convert one of the public toilet to be a gym, but no final plan yet)

oh no, become target again :(

few times, due to some situation, which beyond what we can control (as we not good enough to do that), we can't be help but again become target of anger.

and now, due to the long process of lift upgrade in blk k, which has already passed the expected time frame given, besides blaming the vendor, the MC also become the target of anger, we can understand the frustration of blk k residents, and we don't blame residents for getting angry with us, because if we were in their shoe, we too will be angry with vendor and eventually MC for the length of time taken for this project.

but we don't want to pretend to be expert in this matter, in fact we are not very sure what should be the supposedly reasonable time frame for lift upgrade project, for we too have checked with friends who are in the lift industry, all of them agree that to install a completely new lift will be much faster than the upgrading it like what we do now, and concerning the question of reasonable time taken for upgrading, their answer is "it depends la..." as different model/brand/manufacturer will have different complexity in the system, so it be ranging from 2 weeks to abt month's time, and other factors will affect the pace like manpower & skill...

we don't want to defend vendor or MC in this matter, but rather to see what should the best thing to do now in order to help the vendor to get it done at soonest possibly, the poor vendor now almost everyday received phone & sms from residents to chase him to complete the job, some even used abusive words..., we also got some of these too, also even suggestion to replace the vendor.

the vendor after missed the first target date which set by himself, now dare not to give another target date as worry that will get another blame for it, yesterday his reply to us is "hampir siap", but we also taking a suggestion from residents to get the progression report & update our residents, for which he will talk to the management office to produce it.

concerning another suggestion to replace this vendor (as the company he attached to, have bad track record in one of the apartment as mentioned in the comment of last posting), we must say that that company do assign different project to different senior technician, for Vista is handled by Samsudin, we would say he is one of the senior technician who is considered good in Penang, skill & attitude are among the most reliable one here, no hanky panky, no over quote, no steal part for other project..., these are the not uncommon practice in lift industry but fortunately this guy is quite honest in these things, for he also helped to improve the condition of almost all the lift in Vista since he took over 2 years ago, so let's give him more grace although he may take too long this current project.

another thing want to clarify, some residents said he has taken the 20% of payment so he is not in the hurry to finish the job, the fact is he still hasn't got any payment until now, he will only collect the full payment from state gov't after the completion of the whole project, in the way he actually wants to finish the job fast so that he can have money (from gov't) to pay his own Korean supplier for our lift parts, amounting to more than 100K!

again, really really sorry for the lengthy process, we are doing our best to push him & shall continue doing it until the job is done.

thanks.

lift upgrading & house rules matters

our sincere apology for not be able to get the upgraded lift running during the Hari Raya holidays....

we did have a very tense moment with the vendor few days before Raya as he told us he can't fulfill his pledge for getting the lift ready for the Raya, we were quite upset over his explanation that "too many modification & wiring works" for the lift upgrade, we are stuck in the situation that we worry the most, ie they took too long for the upgrading!!!

from the arrival of the parts until this day, it's abt 1 month already, we expected them to complete 1 lift in abt 3 weeks' time, but...., actually now we feel quite bad as we also wrongfully gave residents false hope of having the lift running in Raya, again, sorry very much.

the day before Raya, after some unhappy conversation with the vendor due to the delay of job, we did urge him to give us the estimated time when the lift can be up, at that time he can't answer but said will let us know after Raya, we will definitely update our residents once he reply us, sigh...! really sorry for the mess.

besides the headache of the lift, we do troubled by the drinking party at the pool side, some residents have been calling us and the guard boss concerning a group of residents with their outsider friends consuming alcohol in the swimming pool compound and foyer area, according to them now it has become more regularly, some residents refrained themselves from using the pool & avoid passing our foyer area due to worry & uncomfortable feeling...

actually our house rules stated clearly "no food & drink" at pool compound & no alcohol consuming at the foyer (except special occasion like wedding), we are now asking the management & guard company to handle the matter and hopefully the related party will give their cooperation as we are all living in this community, it's very important for everyone to follow the house rules so that all the residents can enjoy their time & feel comfortable in Vista Condo.

thanks.

it's more enjoyable now as MC :)

we were told by the lift vendor that they will do the upgraded lift trial run on Saturday, and if it's running smoothly then during the Raya, the blk k will have 2 lifts to serve our residents, 1 old system & 1 upgraded system, running on the separate system, but let's wait for the outcome of trial run.

(bear in mind that when the upgrading process is done we should have both lifts running on the same new system, so pls don't make any assumption that the final product is 1 upgraded & 1 old system if you see it happen during Raya, as the job is not completed yet at the moment)

some times ago, we wrote in this blog that to help in the Vista Condo MC is a much more pleasant thing to do if our lifts are upgraded, well, we must say now this vision is almost come into real happening! even though the state gov't only released the fund for blk k lifts upgrade, but we still can use those (good condition) parts from the existing blk k lifts system, to fix it in the blk j lifts to make them better lifts to serve blk j residents, so basically the fund given by state gov't has blessed both blk j & blk k residents!

if compare to those days when JMB & MC subsequently were formed, now a day things are running more smoothly & most of the facilities are in the better condition, and some new facilities were added too. Those days are quite tough for running the management here, biggest headache always from the lifts, especially both lifts from blk k, and once awhile the blk j lift also join the chorus to go on strike, but thank God, through the help of vendor & gov't, the condition of the lifts have become better now, and when upgrading process is completed, it can even called as excellent!

really looking forward to the completion of the upgrading, and now we are shifting our focus to the repainting of building.....:):):)

thanks to all the nice & kind vista folks!

general updates as at 27/7/13

few news to share with our beloved residents,

1) we have received few reports that snake abt 5ft to 6ft long has been seen at the swimming pool & the rental parking area since few months ago, suspected it is from the jungle area near the Jalan Paya Terubong, so besides putting up notice to alert our residents, we also putting the netting at the fence facing the trees to prevent it from crawling in (still in the process of doing it), at the same time putting up one more spotlight at the rental area to make the place brighter, so that our residents can have better view on those object on the floor especially during night time, as one report says that snake was seen at night.

2) there was a commotion on Friday late night, abt 12 midnight at the swimming pool, according to security guard's report a young man with long jean but no shirt, looks not in this usual self, forced the grill door of the pool open & jump into the pool & start singing very loud, many residents (those unit facing the pool) were woke up by this, it lasted for awhile until his family members (also our resident) managed to convince him to come out from the pool & bring him home, now the security guard company & the management are dealing with the matter, got to make sure he won't cause any trouble to other peoples in Vista Condo.

3) for those who intend to sell their unit, some little good news is, we have came to know certain unit have managed to sell at abt 300K, while most of the unit sell at 260K to 280K, except those poorly maintained unit may sell below 250K, so we hope can get the building painted by end of year, then the property price can easily climb over 300K barrier.

4) we are still trying to make the appointment for our lawyer to meet up with state EXCO YB Jagdeep Singh for our sinking fund matter, can't get it done for past few weeks because state assembly restarted & besides attended the meeting, he also busy with his regular stuff, so we will try again in August, & hopefully through his help, we will see breakthrough in this matter, God pls help us......

thanks.

looking forward to the better lifts :)

so the vendor did what they promised, started the upgrading works on Monday, which until today, it's abt one week they have been working on it.

most of the works are done in the lift motor room at the top floor on our building, but also not small portion of it need to be done in the workshop, after assembled/soldered/welded only that they move it to our motor room for further works.

we hope they will honor another pledge they have made, to complete the upgrade by Hari Raya, we pray & hope that they will accomplish this mission, which we believe at the moment still on the right track, as far as the schedule is concerned.

well, not everything were so smooth so far, understand that on Wednesday night, the only lift which still running also go on strike, breakdown for abt an hour, but vendor managed to rectify the problem & the lift is running again, for that we have told vendor to send extra hand to stand by at our place daily, in between 6pm to 9pm, so that if it happen again, the problem can be attended immediately.

one final thing, we would like to clarify that this is "upgrading" process, but not changing to new lift, which from the beginning we have told residents that it's UPGRADING, so hope that after the upgrading is completed later, residents won't get disappointed why it's not completely new.

but the upgraded lifts will be as good as new one, in regards of it's reliability & performance, to make it easier for our residents to understand this, imagine an old car, we change for it the new engine, new air cond, new seat, new shaft, etc almost everything except the chassis, we weld it, patch it, & spray the new paint on it, so this old car will be in very excellent condition, like new :)

thanks.

the long wait is abt to over...

right, the long is abt to over, it's a great relieve too, for us in MC.

on Wednesday, the parts for blk K lift upgrading has arrived, quite a rush job because we only got the confirmation on Tuesday that the parts are coming, so to arrange for forklift, get the 2 store room ready to keep the parts, contact odd job worker to stand by as we heard the total weight is abt 800kg....

so lastly, it's all done at abt 1pm of Wednesday, vendor did another round of verification to make sure all these parts are according to the order he made to their supplier from Korea, then lock them up in the store room, yeah, we also purposely installed 3 extra locks to make sure parts are safe kept inside, consider how hard we tried to get this project approved, so need to make sure parts won't kena curi before installation :)

the vendor going to start work on Monday, round a clock type, so we can expect them to do the installation even in the night time, as it will be a better time to do because it will create lesser interruption to the residents who are using the lifts. of course during the upgrading, only one lift is available for blk K residents, so pls bear with the situation, he estimated the whole job can be finished before Raya, we really hope so...

to play safe, we do request the vendor to arrange at least 1 technician to stand by for Vista Condo 24 hours a day, this is to make sure that if (for in case) the only lift which supporting the residents is down, then they can attend to it immediately so our blk K residents not need to climb staircase, but we are praying that the whole upgrading process will be smooth one.

God pls help us.... :)

new guard company starting this month

anyone notice new guards have taken over the guard post?

this is the 6th security guard company we are using since year 2009, which means every year we almost changed twice the guard company for vista condo, it's very high turn around!

just for record, in the past 3 & the 1/2 years, lift vendor change once, management changed once, electrician once, pool vendor twice, it's very normal, but how come security guard changed so many times?

and in fact, this new company is the first company we hired in 2009, but the 2nd year they terminated themselves due to some payment issue with the JMB then, but this time we hired them as guard again, well, main reason is their strong back up.

in the past we did change guard company due to different reason, for both good & bad reasons, at least twice we forced to changed guard company because guard was missing during his duty, also guard get drunk when came to work, worst one is new company took over 2 days then never send any guard anymore, without telling us :(

but this time the reason to change, is aiming for improvement, the previous guard company did "above average" job, generally they were OK, even though we did once awhile heard residents complained that some times they simply opened for ppl without car (or those whose card already barred), we do missed the Chinese guard by the name of Ah Keong, he is an excellent guard, but too bad due to health reason he need to stop working, but anyway we are now once awhile meet him for a cup of coffee :)

we welcome residents to feedback to us your opinion & observation for the new guard company, we did take into consideration those opinions given by our residents, and in fact more than half of the changes of companies as mentioned above were triggered by residents' feedback, and we must agree that it has brought improvement.

thanks.

touch card for lifts? what u say...?

received an email from resident, he got some suggestion which we also heard from others as well, so like to share here & find out from our residents are they agreeable to this suggestion or not?

is concerning the touch card for using lifts.

(at the moment the parts for blk K lift upgrading still in kastam, our lift vendor's agent is doing the clearance, hope it won't take long)

few benefits we can get from installing the touch card system in the lifts, the most important one is for security, for which only our own residents can access to their floor by touching the scanner in the lift with their card, so other peoples (especially outsiders or visitors) must accompanied by own residents or else they will need to use staircase, through this the security will be greatly tightened.

another benefit is it's good for collecting the service charge, for some other apartments in Penang have already implemented it, the feedback so far are mixed one, no doubt it can increase the collection rate, but at the same time cause inconvenience like card malfunction, forget to bring the card, emergency situation, etc.....

earlier on we dare not to consider to install the touch card system due the lifts in blk K are in the real bad shape & blk J lifts are just in acceptable condition (can't say very good), we worried that after install the system, more problems will be caused to blk k residents, so those days we were thinking if blk K lifts can be in more stable condition then we should consider to install the system....

so now as we will upgrade the blk K lifts soon, and perhaps the blk J lifts will get improved as well because we can use some of existing parts from blk K lifts to replace the faulty parts of blk J lifts, by this all the blk J & K lifts will be fit enough for the touch card system, and, now is the better time to consider this question, should we install the lifts touch card system in Vista Condo?

so our beloved Vista Condo residents, can you give your opinion on this, thanks.

general updates on 22/6/13

few things to brief our beloved Vista residents,

1) we have been informed by lift vendor that the parts for the blk k lift upgrade can arrive this weekend in Penang, after that they will do some inspection to make sure good condition & right parts, then shall waste no time & start the upgrading process. vendor promise to do it round the clock, so we expect they will have ppl in Vista Condo most of the time during the upgrading, how long will it take...? abt 4 to 6 weeks.

2) wifi @ foyer, has anyone among our residents tested it? pls feedback to us the quality so if any modification needed, we can get the vendor to do. As the return to the timedotcom's kindness, we will let them to have road show in our place, hope they will give good offer for those who will sign up during their promotion.

3) sink hole at entrance, the job has completed 2 weeks ago, the vendor also have cleared all the IWK manholes in Vista Condo, but our main concern is the main entrance sinkhole, vendor should have pasted all the leak, for that the supposedly result is that area should NOT sink anymore, so we like our residents to help us to monitor that floor level is not lowered even 1 inch.

4) staff movement, we have a new supervisor now, Mr James, who started work 2 weeks ago, the previous person Mr Rashidi is actually quite a good supervisor, but too bad due to his health condition (diabetic), he needs to go gor check up every now & then, this made his attendance record not too presentable, so now we wish him all the best & may he get the better job to suit for his condition, as for new supervisor Mr James, so far our comments are OK, hope that he can stay on.

5) someone mentioned abt durian party in the comments of last article, well, we will like to have one, but got to wait for the price to drop, let's wait for another week & see :)

thanks.

so the answer is..........

YES........!!!! now the foyer area is wifi equipped, also motor parking area of blk j & K which facing the foyer area.

we have tested for few days already, signal is strongest at the round table area at the foyer, blk j parking area (facing foyer) also quite ok because the transmitter is placed somewhere there as power point has been fixed there 2 years ago, blk k bike parking area also reasonably good especially near to the swimming fencing, but too bad the signal can't both lift lobby of J & K.

special thanks to TimeDotCom for their kindness to set up this facilities, we are now also thinking how to get more area to covered...hopefully other company will be kind enough to do for us too.

oh ya, login name & password,

login : vista wifi

password : vistacondo1234

we will put up the notice soon to inform all our beloved residents.

thanks.

free wifi for vista residents, is it possible?

at the moment we are discussing with one of the internet service provider for making some of the ground floor common area to be wifi ready, the chance to get it done is actually quite bright :)

(maybe some residents still don't know that Penangfon do provide us a free internet connection at the management office since 2 years ago, this has enable the staff to send us daily update on the fee collection, bank in amount & other thing, for this it has saved our management fund abt RM100 per month)

the company we are negotiating now is a different company, we hope they can provide wifi coverage for blk j ground floor, blk k ground flr, and foyer, in fact today they did come & tested few location, seems need to overcome few technical issue, but not major one, we hope if they can't cover these 3 areas as mentioned, at least they will do for foyer area, and once it's done then our residents can enjoy free wifi connection, especially those who doesn't have one in their house.

not sure this free wifi facilities has been made available for other apartment, of course penang free wifi can be found in some shopping center, coffee shop & other public places, but not apartment yet (this company is not related to penang free wifi), we do come across one condo project in Tg Bungah area do invest in some modems & routers, subscribed a internet service to make some common area wifi ready, but then they need to spend over hundred ringgit per month for the line, and also to maintain the equipment, not sure are they still doing so as last time we heard abt this was abt 3 years ago.

we are at the moment following up with the company for vista free wifi, once all settled then will announce it to our residents, when....? hopefully in the month of July.

thanks.

brief report on meeting with EXCO member

few of us managed to meet up with EXCO for housing matters, YB Jagdeep Singh on Wednesday, at his office at Komtar 53rd floor, mainly for building repainting.

well, didn't see much breakthrough as he insisted that the state government only will help those "government-built apartments" to repaint their building, as for Vista Condo, this financial aid will not be available as we are "private apartment" :(

and, instead, he ask us to write to "HAPPY" program, under this program, successful applicant will get federal gov't to pay 80% of the repainting cost, another 20% will be absorbed by state gov't, and so far out of nearby 100 applications from Penang for past few years, only one application be approved, but anyhow we will try.

so now we would not push hard for state gov't to help for repainting unless if any resident got very strong connection with them & strong reason to do it, but now the other 2 option will be sinking fund & long repayment.

we did mention to YB abt our sinking fund, as now we have managed to obtain the court order for developer to pay but they managed to find loophole not to pay us, YB willing to help on the matter, asking us to arrange the appointment for him to meet up with our lawyer, to our pleasant surprise actually they both worked under the same company before, know each other quite well, so now we try to fix the appointment for them to discuss on our court case, hopefully get recover our money soon.

so if there's any nice thing happened during our meeting on the Wednesday, it was not so much much on repainting, but perhaps through his help, our sinking fund will be recovered soon :)

no water supply Saturday morning!!!!

blk k residents wake up & shocked to find out the water supply was cut completely this morning, abt 6.30am.

we were informed of the incident at abt 7am, Deva the committee member went & check at pump room, found out no power at the control panel (which responsible to supply power to the pump), so he went the switch room to reset the MCB, but failed as saw spark too.

so we felt that it has something to do with electrical problem, we immediately rang up our electrician Mr Lee, he came 30 min later (by then a lot of blk k already woke up & complain to guard abt the problem), after he checked, it's confirmed that one of the main component MCCB already spoiled, but as he doesn't have the part with so he need to get it from somewhere, together with other necessary tools as well, so he came back at abt 9.30am & the pump were up again at abt 10am.

we have no complaint as it has been rectify in abt 3 hours, but of course we need to learn from this incident, one resident suggested install an alarm outside pump room to detect problem like this, which we thought it's good, so we will get vendor to install one.

few residents called & yelling, asking why nobody know that the pump had not been working for few days, (it take abt 3 days to finish all the water at the water tank of blk k rooftop if pump didn't send water up there), but when ask them have they recently noticed that the water turned yellowish (it's a sign of water level is low at water tank) almost all of them said yes, so we asked them again have they informed committee or office abt this, they said no....

if we know early abt the problem then we should be able to get the MCCB replace, and what happened this morning most likely can be avoided, so we will like to urge our residents to inform office or email us quickly if found any abnormality, thanks.

repainting of blk J & K this year, is it possible?

while we are still waiting for the blk k lifts to be upgraded, which the state gov't will absorbed 80% of the cost involved, we are also impatiently looking into the options of repainting of blk J and blk K.

our target time is this year, well, it's a mission "almost" impossible :)

but as has been said earlier, we are a bit impatient...., so let's give it a try and perhaps by God's help again, we can see something happen.

sinking fund will not be the sure bet, but hopefully we don't need to wait long, anyhow we can't rely on it if we seriously want to paint the building this year.

another option is get a kind vendor (will need to get residents help to recommend if you know of any) who willing to let us to have VERY LONG repayment term, if go by RM4000 or RM5000 per month & total cost is RM350K, then will take abt 6 to 8 years, which is something achievable for us, anyone can recommend?

but the more pratical option, which we have started to work on it, ie to write to state gov't for help again, either 80%/20% or best they pay all, early this week we have snapped some photos of our building, especially those areas where the paint faded badly, put together with email & sent it to the new EXCO member who in charge of housing matters YB Jagdeep Singh Deo, now still waiting for his reply for meeting with him to discuss further.

but while waiting for EXCO's reply, we also have talked to a blk j resident (she holds high post in state secretary dept), for which we hope she will help us to arrange a meeting with EXCO soon, in fact she is one of the residents who has pushed us much for the building repainting, so now she got to do her part as well.... ;)

last night got another good news, it seems some blk k residents also friend of the new EXCO, still remember last year YB Karpal Singh visited a Hindu temple function in Vista? our blk k residents who organized the function know both YB Karpal Singh & YB Jagdeep Singh quite well (they are father & son, just for info), so we also get help from this blk k resident to talk to new EXCO member for our building repainting.

we welcome residents to share with us if got other suggestions, early on someone said can recommend a paint vendor to paint both blocks free for us, but must put their brand or logo to help them for advertising purpose, but already quite a while still no further news from him....

thanks.

general updates as per 11/5/13....

few things to brief our beloved residents...

1) election has over, but still many are soaking in the election fever... ;) for us in Vista Condo, the result of GE do affect us a bit, well PR continue to be state gov't means we still have good support from them for common property management matters, especially YB Yeoh Soon Hin as we know him a person who is quite helpful. But the bad news is the the EXCO member YB Wong Hon Wai who has has helped us to get the fund for our blk K lift upgrade is no more an EXCO member, sad......:( because we have established good relationship with him, so now we got to talk to the new EXCO member (in charge of housing matters) YB Jagdeep Singh Deo, hopefully he will be as helpful as YB Wong.

2) Sink hole at main entrance, we decided to go for long term solution for this sink hole problem, it will cost 5K to 7K, depending on how bad the damage, the reason this sink hole can be patched with conventional way is the leaking (which caused the soil & sand be flushed away from that area) is due to the crack found in the internal sewage pipe, so now we have contacted few contractor, comparing their price & service, finalized it, choose the option we feel it's good & should start work next week, we hope it will solve the problem once & for all.

3) recently few owners managed to sell their house at 230K to 250K, this is a good development, it reflect that the properties here still in demand, our big project now is try to get fund to paint the building before 2014, for this will most likely to push the value of apartment here to 300K, few option to get the fund, sinking fund still a court case, can't predict when it will be available, so most probably we will get somebody to help to introduce us to new housing EXCO YB Jagdeep Singh Deo for financial help for painting, for we have hv a resident who is holding senior position in the state gov't office.....

thanks.

resume after general election

hi,

will take a longer break, posting will resume after general election, because now everybody in the election fever, we can't get ourselves exempted, day & night follow election news, and even attended the ceramah & rally, so since can't find time to write quality article, might as well give way to election, so will write to u guys again after election.

thanks.

annual party @ 13/4/13 (1)

annual party @ 13/4/13 (2)

annual party @ 13/4/13 (3)

annual party @ 13/4/13 (4)

annual party @ 13/4/13 (5)

annual party @ 13/4/13 (6)

annual party @ 13/4/13 (7)

annual party @ 13/4/13 (8)

annual party @ 13/4/13 (9)

annual party @ 13/4/13 (10)

see u tonight at the party!

as at the moment, we have abt 40 families signed up for the annual party tonight, go by average of each family comprises of 2 adults & 2 kids, the we can expect the crowd size of >100, which consider as "big" compare to those annual party we had before, we normally have abt 80 ppl to 120 ppl turned up in the gathering, but last year was exceptional, far more than 120 (adult & kids), but again as we do expect some residents will do walk in registration later, so perhaps the number can hit 120 as well.

this year's party selling point will be the satay & ice kacang, which both got good commend last year, but too bad can't arrange the clown & DiGi to entertain the kids as we didn't have enough time to get it arranged, remember we were nearly skip the party because need to save money for lift upgrade, but thank God we did get fund from gov't for the project, but then with only 2 weeks' time we tried to put things together, then got to sacrifice few items.

lucky draw still good, total 16 items to offer, microwave oven, induction cooker, hampers, cash voucher....., actually each time when residents come for the party, they sure get more than what they have paid, imagine one adult will only to pay RM8 for at least 2 pcs of balacan chicken, abt 10 pcs of satay, ice kacang (besides fire rice, bee hoon, nugget, drink..), & even got good chance to bring home lucky draw item, then their kids will even enjoy more with games & prizes....

but if there's anything more significant than the above, then I will say is to build a caring community among Vista Residents, it's a real purpose to have the gathering every year, we hope that as residents come together, sit together having meal together, seeing their kids play together, thru this "togetherness" to bring our residents closer to each other, for it's a foundation for the caring community in Vista Condo.

of course this year's gathering is much more meaningful as we also make it an appreciation party for the 2 YBs, YB Wong Hon Wai for his approval to release the fund for the lifts upgrade, & for YB Yeoh Soon Hin for helping us in many matters, even the lift upgrade too, he has guided us how to go abt it for the fund application.

for those who has signed up, thank you very much....., for those who still want to join the gathering but hasn't sign up, pls do drop by also as tonight we plan to ask fund from YB for the building painting, so as more residents turn up to make this request hopefully he will give more consideration on our request (if he still an EXCO for housing matter) after election.

see u all.....

big projects, 2 down, 1 to go, what next?

gov't financial aid of 125K for the lifts really bring us much relief, financially speaking.

so now as we have settled the entrance shade & going to start the blk k lifts upgrade, thru God's grace & gov't's help, we have basically completed (and going to) 2 major projects, well, time to consider the next big project, the painting of vista condo.

we don't want to give false hope, but this will take awhile, again it will involve much prayer to God, calling gov't depts, sending in requests & other documents, meeting with them...., can't say how long can it be completed, but if it happen in 2013 then it's a great bonus for vista residents.

most likely after election, we will try to arrange an appointment with EXCO member, together with some contact inside gov't dept, present our request to them as low medium cost apartment, try to push for 80% - 20% arrangement, so if painting cost is 300K, then we hope they give 240K & from vista resident 60K.

give the best scenario, EXCO again approve our request, then we should check our account, if by then have huge saving like 60K, then we will straight away deposit our 20% to state treasury dept to seal the deal, but if fund is too low then will need residents to pay SC in advance or pay extra RM200 per unit, but it's still too early to discuss that, first thing first, wait for the election to be over.

well, another possible arrangement which without involve gov't aid, there will be talk to vendor who is kind enough to give us long year payment term, something like after job is completed then we pay them 30k as first payment, then monthly installment abt 4k which still affordable for us, by this it will take abt 5 to 6 years to complete, in fact now we are exploring that option....

(if sinking fund come during this period of time, then repayment need not to take that long)

but of course we are much more prefer to get fund from gov't, also like to promote our residents' annual party here, beside nice food (include ice kacang, satay...) & lucky draw (more than 15 items to be won!!!), YB Wong will be here with us too, we just want to make a simple request to our residents, can u pls come & say thanks to him, perhaps when he see our appreciative attitude, this will make it easier for us to talk to him again on future financial aid for the painting.

thanks.

Govt fund approved & Residents' annual party

hi, 2 important announcements to make....

1) hooray!!! through God's grace, we have lastly get state government to agree to release fund for our lifts upgrade, the arrangement will be, state gov't will pay 80%, and from our building maintenance fund we will pay 20%, in another words, they will sponsor RM124.8K and we will pay the RM31.2K as the total cost involved is RM156K, it's to upgrade the both lifts of blk k.

The process seems quite fast, but actually we have prayed quite awhile for the matter, even in the past we also have submitted few requests to various depts, this time really thank God, the approval came at the right timing as the 2 blk k lifts really gave way. We actually requested to upgrade 4 lifts, but were adviced to go for 2 lifts first, the reason we do both for blk k (instead of 1 lift each blk) is due to the "master-slave" system the lift, in short, we must upgrade both lift at the same block, but we will use some the parts in blk k lifts (especially still in good condition one) to be spare parts for blk j lifts.

if any setback abt this fund approval, there's we have to deposit into government treasury dept our 20%, or RM31.200 so that the government will release the work order to our contractor, hehe!!! RM31,200 is big money & where to get the money??? normally we only abt 15k to 20K in our bank account, then how ah?

but really thank God, somehow few defaulters do come paid some sizable money & also some extra collection for fire insurance, so we managed to deposit the 31,200 to the treasury dept on Thursday, but this also means we need to delay our payment to the insurance company for the insurance premium, well, the vista condo is blessed by many vendors who are kind enough to charge us cheap, provide reasonable service quality & at the same time allow us to drag payment if it's needed, the insurance company is one them, another reason we thank God for!

2) so now goes to the 2nd announcement, which also related to the first announcement, the person who has helped us on this approval is YB Wong Hon Wai, an EXCO member in the state gov't in charge of the housing matter, who also an ADUN for Air Itam area, we have decided to give him a big THANKS during our residents' party on 13/4/2013.

oh ya, this year we will still have our annual party, 13/4/2013, Saturday, 7.30pm at the foyer, program will be dinner, children's games, lucky draw, charges will be adult RM8 & Kids RM5, FOC for those below 5 yrs old. YB Wong has agreed to be our Guest of Honour, we wish many residents will attend the party & together we will say "THANK YOU YB" to him, for indeed we should be thankful because this is first we managed to get the fund for more than 100K, also not to forget in the past YB Yeoh Soon Hin too help us to build the entrance shade which worth 15K, now we are waiting for YB Yeoh Soon Hin's reply to attend our party, if yes then we will have 2 YBs in our party, this will be another historical moment for Vista Condo.

(just a thought, shall we also extend our invitation to CM :P )

our small request..., pls do come for the annual party, foods are good, lucky draw prizes are attractive, kids will be the one enjoy the most, but another big reason, say thanks to YB Wong so that he will know his kind help is much appreciated by our beloved residents in Vista Condo, will you come?

thanks.

(possible) government's financial aid on the lifts

now we are waiting anxiously for the government's decision on our request on the blk k lifts upgrade financial aid, which should be known this coming week.

last friday few of us in the MC went attended the meeting with the state EXCO member in Komtar 53rd floor to discuss on the vista condo lifts upgrade matters, we make known to him our current difficulties, ie blk k lifts upgrade is needed, but facing financial difficulty as the developer still holding on our sinking fund despite court order stated clearly they should transfer the fund to us (for the sinking fund case, we haven't give up, but at the moment still working on the court case, will reveal more to residents when the time is right), so we need government to help for lifts upgrade, especially blk k side the lifts are in bad shape.

the discussion went on well, we feel that the chance of getting the fund is quite high, they willing to absorb as much as 80% if the application get approved, as we are consider as the low medium cost apartment. If God really bless us on this matter, then we will need to deposit first our portion of 20% (amounting to abt 30K) into government's account, then once the job is completed, they will release 100% of payment, abt 150K to the chosen vendor for the project.

We were told to prepare & submit some document on the coming Monday, then if things go well, we hope can get the good news from the EXCO before next week end, as we said chance are good, but we dare not to promise anything to residents at the moment, we are praying the Almighty God will shower His blessing on Vista Condo, particularly for this matter.

(actually we did request for the upgrade for 4 lifts, but were advised to start with 2 lifts first, since our lifts system the "master-slave link system", it must do 2 by 2, which means either blk j 2 lifts, or blk k 2 lifts, so as blk k lifts are in worse shape, so start with blk k first, then we can use those parts for blk j spare parts, will wait for the right time again to write to government for blk j in the future)

so now, waiting....praying....waiting....praying....

a JMB chairman was killed in Farlim :(

we all get a huge shock when heard that a committee chairman of one of the project in Farlim was killed by a resident who has misunderstanding with him, and for a while we start to feel concern abt our own safety in this place.

in the past we have heard stories (from other projects) like committee members' vehicles kena sabotaged, also few cases where they were harassed by residents in public place using abusive words, but so far haven't heard anything more violent than that, such as beating up committee members....

even in our place, few similar incidents happened in the past, but then it was abt 2 to 3 years ago, and after that, so far so good lah.

all this while our perception is even when a resident get upset (due to whatever reason), the probability of physical attack will be very minima because we hardly heard of any incident like this, but now we start to change the perception on the possibility & rethink the way we approach matters in vista.

the struggle of being a committee is, if you want to be sure nothing will happen to you, then the best thing you can do is don't do anything, but the moment you try to do something abt the management, most likely you have just added some risk to yourself.

the JMB chairman who was killed, according to the news, was quite a hard working person, he himself is a qualified lift technician, had brought many improvements to his place, like CCTV, lift T&G, etc, in fact gained very good comments from their residents, the day when the incident happened, he was checking some plumbing matter in their rubbish room, honestly none of us here are as committed as he did!

also heard that he had offended the suspect over the regulations in their place, ie outstanding fee & motorbike parking issue, in the moment of madness, the suspect lost control, took law in his own hand, then the chairman's life is gone...

see, he try to get others to follow their house rules or regulations, but indirectly it actually cost his own life, but if he doesn't insist on it, he may still happily playing with his baby girl, who has just born 3 months ago.

the question is, how the apartment project can be improved if committee choose the approach of playing safe, or don't do anything so that nobody will get offended, very soon you will have problem of collection run low, no money to pay vendor, not enough fund to repair facilities, residents partying until 3am in the morning & nobody will stop them, cars will parked not according to the orders, worst one will be TNB or PBA cut their supply because no money to pay facilities bills.

sorry for being negative, but these all are fact & challenges we facing, really struggle, any suggestion?

hope for the best, prepare for the worst.

our attitude of running the management and maintaining/upgrading the facilities in Vista Condo is "hope for the best, but prepare for the worst".

it apply to almost all the area, maybe it's covering all :)

we have mentioned much on those big projects, such as lifts upgrade, water tank lining replacement, building painting, etc, hope for the best is that we will get the gov't fund & sinking fund soon, and we may get all these done in near future, of course this is best scenario, but how abt the worst scenario, which means if in the coming 10 year (or forever....) still no news abt the money? then we got to use our own sinking fund (collection of parking lot rental) to upgrade lifts in the coming 8 years, then perhaps another 10 years to pay for building painting, or water tank lining replacement.

other matters which also applied under "hope for best but prepare for worst" principle like,

best is monthly collection hit 95% so we will have more than enough $$$ to pay vendors, utilities bills, then still have so much surplus to upgrade existing facilities & add new facilities like gym & multipurpose court (plan this year for both), worst case we can think of is collection drop below 60% then we will need to tighten the T&G system to force defaulters to pay, which always end up some arguments (even shouting match) in the office or guard house.

abt the house rules, the best is every body observe all the rules, which at the moment we can see most of residents can follow most of the rules, the worst scenario we can imagine of this matter is 20% of residents refuse to follow, then we will get management staffs or guard to deal with them, more serious one will need to call police to help. but if we have 50% (or more) residents choose to violate most of the rules here, then we will need to leave, without residents' cooperation, the committee will not be able to continue their jobs, but it also speak of committee have lost touch with residents & don't understand their needs or feeling... :P

another area is vendors, best is of course all of them do their jobs well, our assessment on them now is overall abt 80% satisfaction, worst case if their performance drop below 60%, then change lah....

how abt committee, also the same, best is everybody do their jobs well, but then as we consider they also have other commitments like family, jobs, business, etc, so sometimes we can't push them too hard, but if come to the time when we can't give anymore time to this service, then we should leave & let other peoples to continue to serve the residents here.

thanks.

kick off the lift upgrade process in year 2013

lastly, some concrete plan to upgrade the lift after we have been talking abt it since yr2009.

to upgrade the lift, in another words is to modernize the control system, include the mechanical part at the motor room & lift car top, and most importantly the control system especially the mother board, the cost involved is abt 50k to 60k per lift, so to upgrade all the 4 lifts will need abt 250k, which we initially thought to get the sinking fund or gov't fund to do it, but as we still not sure when these money will be made available, so we are planning to use the new sinking fund money (which is from the car park rental, pls refer to the posting earlier) to start it this year!

another reason which we think we should upgrade the lift as soon as this year is somehow the part of these old lift become harder to source, especially those control boards, at the moment one of the blk k lift having the problem of inconsistent responsiveness of lift button, and it's due to the control board faulty, then lift vendor try to repair it but the board is really beyond repair & worse news is they seem can't get the replacement board as it's already obsolete! as now as we are still hoping them to get the replacement part, we thought the permanent solution should be upgrade it now, as on & off the same problem (getting replacement part) have been happening to other lift as well.

we are now negotiating with vendor abt the price, payment term & other detail, the ideal arrangement will be as follow, by May this year our new sinking fund should have abt 10k, so it will be paid to vendor as down payment to start the project, then the remaining 40+k will be paid though installment of 2k per month, so it will take 2 years to complete it, after that we can initiate another lift upgrading, in this way, we should be able to complete the 4 lifts in 8 to 10 years' time. But if sinking fund or gov't fund come in while upgrading in progress, then we should get it done in much shorter period of time!

which lift first? of course the worst shape one, but if vendor is kind enough to upgrade all at same time & allow us to pay installment in more than 6 years then we would like to do all simultaneously! let's see how the negotiation goes. (pls feel free to write to us if you have any suggestion or concern)

we will present it to residents for decision once vendor have given their best offer, thanks.

why you bar my card !!!???

each time when management office barred defaulters' card, due to over due outstanding service charge, it's also stressful time for the committee members.

we have calculated, average phone calls we received is abt 10 per months in the first few days after staffs bar their, one common question is, why you barred my card?

when we heard they ask this question on the phone, we more or less know that they are residents of vista (although we don't have their phone number in our phone memory) & their card had just been barred, but most of time we will check with them are they from Vista, answer yes, then we patiently explain to them most likely their card is barred because of outstanding SC...., after they another yes, then they tell us a long list of reason why the office should not bar their card.

today we have also received many phone calls as the office just barred some cards yesterday, let's look at the statement made by defaulters why their card must not be barred.

up stair neighbor got leaking in the kitchen or bath room, as long as management don't help them to solve this leaking problem then they won't pay SC, but their card should not be blocked. well, we tell them management only can help if it involves common piping in between them (so far got 2 cases, one have been solved, another one still in the process) but even so, they still need to pay as they are also enjoying the common facilities like lift, swimming pool, rubbish room, corridor, even guard & others, if due to one common area problem then they don't feel like paying SC is not very ok lah.

lift not in good condition also can be an excuse for few residents not to pay SC, and again, we got to explain to them that we have tried our best to keep them in good shape, but these 16 years old lift need to be replaced & we are praying hard for the sinking fund & gov't finance aid, but to be fair, out of 4 lifts, 2 still good, 1 so so, another 1 once awhile throw tantrum & not responsive, overall still not bad if compare to some apartment also at our age.

some told us they did pay, but just late for few months, so they ask can we have longer grace period, instead of 1 month. We feel a bit sorry for them, if possible we would like to give residents longer grace period, but now we are not able to do so as most of our vendors only give us credit term of 1 month or less, even TNB & PBA also stricter now in their payment term, so with our saving in the bank abt 10K at the moment, we have no choice but to stick to one month grace period, sorry can't help much at the moment :(

thanks.

happy CNY to all Vista Resident

hi,

no posting this week, take a break for Chinese New Year, most of the MC members will be away, balik kampong or travel to visit friends.

take this opportunity to wish all Vista Condo residents happy CNY & enjoy your holiday, for those who always on the road during the holidays, remember to drive carefully, oh ya, also make sure your apartment doors being locked properly & alert you neighbor if you will be away for few days & they can help to watch over it.

thanks.

super good residents

we always feel that our Vista residents are one of the most understanding & cooperative peoples in the Relau area, not just we feel that, even the guards & management staffs can testify that also.

among the residents in our place, there's one group of residents who we called them super good residents, they are not just paying fees promptly & follow house rules, but at the same time out of their own initiative contributing their finance & strength to bring improvement to the area they see the needs.

of course the most recent one is the person who wrote to us wanted to contribute money to buy drain cover for the swimming pool, so now we working on it, also allow us to mention here some other super good residents who have contributed in the past.

just 2 weeks ago, one residents from blk j heard abt throwing paint & motorbike sabotage incidents, so he thought perhaps there's some blind spots which not being covered by our CCTV, and after he communicated with us he went get the CCTV vendor to install few more camera at the block J ground floor, in the area which previously not been monitored, yes he bears all the cost! wonderful...

we also can recall not long ago, few residents, if not mistaken from 1st flr & 14th flr did use their own money hired worker & bought paint to beautify the common area at their respective floor & even ground floor too! another wonderful story to tell.... :)

some other good deeds of residents like contributed fire extinguishers, some decorative lights & other items at the main entrance, we also heard few residents have habit of cleaning the corridors, well, we think this is good as long as the water don't go inside the lift :)

earlier on also got few uncles & aunties planted some herb & other plants near the foyer area, not just for their own use, but for other peoples too.

still there are some other things, just off hand can't recall.....

we are so proud of vista residents!!!