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.
Saturday, March 30, 2013
Saturday, March 23, 2013
(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....
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....
Friday, March 15, 2013
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?
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?
Friday, March 8, 2013
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.
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.
Friday, March 1, 2013
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.
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.
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