General Updates

like to update our beloved residents few matters...

1) residents' gathering 2012 - sad to inform that the earth hour party would not happen this year, too many peoples will be away for Cheng-Meng, we would not like to spend money to organise the party but not many people can make it...., but instead we are planning for a gathering in April, most likely 2nd Saturday of April to have a "Vista Condo Mini Carnival", it's a carnival type of party, where a clown will hired to entertain the kids with magic trick & games, also plan to have lucky draw with pricy items, food booths like satay, keow teow, ice kacang, promotion booths like telecommunication product..., pls wait for the notice announcement....

2) sinkhole at entrance - after few weeks of filling in sands & renovation waste (stones....), we monitored & found out that it's no more sinking, then the contractor patch the hole with cement, hope it can last long enough, best still if it's a permanent solution, we have contacted some dept like IWK, but the problem is once they denied that it's their problem, then really not much thing we can expect from them.

3) falling trees at swimming pool - it's a third time tree at Jalan Paya Terubong had fallen into our swimming pool compound, each time we have a problem of getting the right party to remove it, when we called MPPP, then they will ask us to call JKR, as we called JKR, they told us as the tree had came into our place then we should remove it by ourselves, or even said we can get bomba's help, so as we get them to come in, we were told as it's not life threatening situation then they would not do anything...., previous 2 times YB Yeoh ppl pity our situation then they sent ppl to help remove the tree (even though it's not their responsibility), but this time we decided to call reporter to come in & to make it big, the purpose to get responsible dept to do their jobs, not jz remove the fallen tree, but also those trees & branches which r going to fall anytime.

4) extortion incident - we jz received complaints that recently extortion happened in blk k, where a young fella from blk k asked money from another 2 blk k resident at 2 different occasions, we managed to talk to one of the victim's parent, advised him to make a police report even though his kid didn't give much money to the guy, we also informed our resident who has good contact with police dept concerning this incident...., here we would like to advice all the vista residents that we should not tolerate this kind of criminal act, if it happen to any resident pls let us know immediately & we shall get police to do their part.

thanks.

sinking fund, a court case now.

we are taking legal action against developer, at last, it's not the option we like, but really have no other choice.

the case have been filed to the Penang high court, the first hearing will be on 14/3/2012, this coming Wednesday, few of us in MC plan to go there to follow up on the development(although first hearing will be handled by lawyer only), if residents also plan go there to give morale support, most welcome. we will put the detail (such as time...) in the comment section of this article.

we only decided to go ahead with the legal action after few rounds of discussion with developer, EXCO member & state assemblyman, as we see that the sinking have not been transferred to us at the promised time frame, we understand that if we continue to wait, at the end the still have no guarantee that we can get back the money, or if even it does, it may be another few more years....

so, consider the building need to be painted, the lifts need to be upgraded, the water tank lining need to be replaced, and as all these mentioned jobs need to be done urgently, we went ahead with this action after consulted few lawyers & even also few state assemblymen.

the greatest concern of taking legal action is always the cost involved, for as we are trying to claim back from the developer abt RM400K, the normal charge on the legal cost is abt 10%, or in our case can go up to RM40K, for this is something far more what we bear at the moment, but thank God, the lawyer firm we are engaging is one who have good sense of social responsibility, (by the way, not a small firm, also good experience one) they willing to come out with the package which is something we can afford, but not to disclose now, wait until the case is over, so not to complicate the issue.

we are now praying hard, may the almighty God grant us victory...., for those who plan to come, see u guys on Wednesday.

thanks.

tahun merdeka ke-3

it has been 3 years since Vista Condo residents manage our own common properties through the selected committee, ie JMB (yr2009 & yr2010) & MC (yr2011 until now), still remember this all started in yr2009 March, exactly 3 long years....

any different or benefit (or even harm) under the residents-appointed committee compare with those days under the developer? I would say generally pros more than cons, but also rooms for improvement, overall still better, again it jz my personal opinions.

(as once awhile still heard some unhappy residents complained that last time was better coz their visitors & friends can drive their car in, or they themselves can park their vehicles inside even though got outstanding SC payment, or no need swimming trunk in the pool....)

the biggest breakthrough is in the financial area, at the moment we managed to keep something like 25K to 30K in the bank account, even after we have spent so much money to repair those facilities problem which the developer had left to us, compare to those days under developer appointed agent, where they were running on the deficit, ended up no money to address even the urgent matter like water tank (almost all) leaking, generator also was not being service for long time until termite built their nest, lifts were in bad shape too...

another benefits we saw under the JMB & MC is some new facilities added into Vista Condo, namely CCTV, new management office, rental car parking lot (money making machine!), also get the external wall & lift lobby re-painted, guard house renovated, not to forget also the entrance shade is installed, car T&G system repaired & also the newly installed bike T&G to boost the security in Vista Condo.

i notice residents' attitude do change too, at the moment the collection rate is approaching 90%, compare to those days under developer abt 60%, residents also behaved better now for they have learn to park their vehicles at their own lot, unlike before parked as they like or at their convenience, no simply throwing of rubbish everywhere, no making noise at midnight hour like before, perhaps our residents feel more of the ownership in this place.

how abt the down side? i guess still have some, especially still can't employ a maintenance hand like Mr Cheah of Awan Setia, the chinese guy who almost available all the time whenever there's complaint from resident, for he can do electrical & plumbing stuff. at the moment our own electrician will take abt 2 days to attend to the complaint for the non-urgent case, but urgent one he will come as soon as he can, the same to the plumbing issue, can't attend as fast as those days, not too bad too coz the guy is from blk j, most of the time he is in Relau area.

want to say this, last 3 years has been a good journey as we have seen quite a improvement on our facilities, we believe with the cooperation of residents, the coming years we should see more positive things happening here, the vision of "Vista a Real Condo" is truly a attainable goal!

thanks.

Earth Hour Party.....is coming again!

every year, last Saturday of March, the world celebrating Earth Hour, to remind mankind to appreciate & preserve the nature.

we celebrated last year, good turned up, the guest of honour is YB Yeoh Soon Hin, before the party he sponsored 10 set of hamper as lucky draw prizes, then after the party he allocated abt RM15k for the entrance shade, thanks YB.

we have decided to make Earth Hour Party as annual event, so that we can continue to remind our residents to be more environment & nature minded, also at the same time to build closer relationship with each other, so that we will eventually building a caring community in Vista Condo, killing 2 birds with one stone, not bad, huh?

also if again we manage to get YB or other VIP to commit some fund or financial aid, there will be a bonus for residents, hehe! some residents said we are "money-eye", maybe they are right... :)

oh yeah, this year we will organise 2nd Vista Earth Hour Party on 31/3/2012, evening 7.30pm, we are going to retain few items like lucky draw, games, VIP's opening ceremony...

but food wise will have some changes, instead of buffet dinner of fried rice, chicken, veggie, fruits & drinks all packed on the same few table, this time we will hv few food stalls to be set up at the different corner of the foyer, may be from different vendors but will be halal one, at the moment we are considering satay, fried koewteow, ice kacang, BBQ, etc..., pls give ur suggestion also.

abt the fee, haven't decided yet, but should be affordable one for our residents, for we hope to attract more residents to join the party, but at the same time we can't effort to give a free makan as it will create big burden for the management fund, but we will try to make it as low as possible....

once we finalise few more things, we will put up the notice to ask residents to sign up, again we would like to encourage residents to sign up early, so that we can prepare right amount of food...., please help us to pass the words around & encourage ur neighbor to sign up, children will hv much fun, lucky draw prizes will be good, food should be better than last year also.

so, after u see the notice, pls sign up, also bring ur neighbor & friends to sign up too, let's make this Vista annual event grand.

(some yr2011 earth hour party photos are available at this blog, pls check the yr2011 March article)

thanks.

General Updates

like to share with our beloved residents some info...

1) Sinking Fund - we have filed in the case thru lawyer to the Penang high court early this month, our lawyer have meet with the court few days ago concerning this case, will fix the date for hearing, as for now we should not discuss much on the case outside the court, but we update residents once some progress made.

2) Vista ERT - the emergency response team have a first meeting on 5/2/2012, 9 members hv came for the meeting, another 3 can't make it due to some unavoidable matters need to attend to, some decision include to organise 2 session of 1st aid training on 4/3/2012 & 11/3/2012 for ERT members & residents (pls feel free to come, 9pm at foyer), to install the emergency alarm/bell/buzzer at the foyer for informing residents in case of emergency situation like fire, swimming pool accident, etc. Also discussed some future plan like bomba training, police matters, we still welcome residents to join the ERT, which will be eventually benefits our residents if we hv more members.

3) Bike T&G tag - up to this time abt 180 tags have been issued, which is abt 90% of number of bikes in Vista Condo, still hv abt 15 to 20 bikers haven't collect their tags due to unable or unwilling to settle their outstanding SC, for this they hv to park their bikes outside Vista compound at their own risk, we would not like to waste anymore time to persuade them to pay, for it is a common sense that everybody need to pay SC in order to upkeep the common facilities, who are they be so special that not paying the SC but still enjoy the facilities in Vista Condo???

4) New Security Guard - we have tried the new guard company for abt 3 weeks now, so far we are ok with their performance, one thing we like abt them is their boss have more initiative to advice us how to improve our security here, & they actually put their suggestion into action, like swimming pool user need to record their names, residents moving house need to obtain the letter from the management, etc, another thing is they are ready for confrontation if weird people try to kacau their guard, for few occasions they hv sent their back up personal to settle matters like this, tough peoples they are!

5) Yellow line at Lebuh Relau 2 - we have received news that MPPP very soon, going to draw some yellow line near Vista Condo entrance in order to slow down those vehicle moving along the Lebuh Relau 2 near our main entrance, for again we want to thank YB Yeoh Soon Hin & MPPP councilor Mr Prem for taking our complaint & request seriously, we plan to give them a simple appreciation lunch after it's done.

thanks.

interesting logic & statements by defaulters

recently MC members have few interesting conversations with some defaulters, these started when the defaulters failed to get the motorcycle T&G tag from the office, & took the MC members to task.

most of them do have cars, and as they have some outstanding SC payment with the management, ended up the car T&G card were barred, then hv no choice but park their cars outside, but still managed to drive their motorcycles into Vista compound before we implement the motorcycle T&G system, but as now they do facing some problem in the this area as the guard told them the grace period will be until 15/2, after the date their motorcycle will not be allowed to come in.

some went to the office & settle the debt, then collected the T&G tag for their bikes, some complained that they can't settle the debt in one shot, so the management staff asked them to sign contract, 1st payment RM500, then subsequent month RM200, failing to observe this will hv their T&G tag barred, so they too took the tag & start using it...

but also a few, as mentioned earlier, took MC members to task, gave us many excuses for why they didn't (or should not) pay their SC (service charge), of course this kind of conversation is always unpleasant one....

few said they have been facing the leaking problem at their ceiling, & if management do not help them to patch the leak, then it's only fair for them not to pay the SC, we told them the leakage is due to the upper floor pipe or floor problem, it's only right for them to settle the problem with the upper floor neighbor, we only can help to bring them together & talk, but hv no right to instruct any party to do the repair for this as it is not a common property, some accept our explanation, but some not so convinced.

another one failed to get the tag, and of course didn't pay SC also, told us that we should allow his vehicle to come in coz he has bought the car parking lot from the previous owner, we felt sorry for him, and advice him to talk to his lawyer to get back the parking lot payment coz obviously if what he said is true, then he was cheated by the seller.

also some complained abt the condition of the lift, corridor light, dogs, cats, monkeys, vendors......etc, what they tried to say is as long as they have found some fault then it will qualify them not to pay the SC....

most of us in the committee are NOT trained to argue when facing this kind of peoples in this kind of situation, so we only can tell them the standard answer, everybody need to pay SC or else the management will not have enough fund to upkeep the facilities here, but this answer would not satisfied them as they will come up with other argument such as fund mismanaged, ineffective vendors, & other baseless accusation, few occasions we ran out of patient & suggest them to sack us in the coming AGM or EGM as we have failed in our duties in their eyes....

sigh................!

motorbikes T&G / safety mirror / ERT

this few weeks few new things have been (& will be) introduced to Vista Condo, they r:

1) Motorcycles T&G system : it started 1/2/2012, which supposed to be started in January but due to some technical improvement needed, so push to February. So far abt 70% of Vista motorcyclist collected their T&G tag, also see some good sign that some hardcore defaulters came forward to settle their debt in order to collect the tag, few have voiced out to us that they can't pay all the debt at one shot, so basic requirement is they need to pay at least RM500 now then every month pay another RM200 in order to keep the T&G tag active, for this we also ask them to sign the agreement with the management. general response from residents are quite encouraging as they can see the system will help improve security in Vista & also increase the collection rate, of course also some inconveniences caused to motorcyclist but hope they can bear with it, we will also lay a bumper near the incoming scanner to prevent the motorcycles from sliding down when scanning the tag.

2) Safety Mirror/Convex Mirror - we also want to thank the state gov't, YB yeoh Soon Hin & MPPP councilor Mr Prem for helping us to get MPPP to install a safety mirror (convex mirror) at the opposite of the Vista Condo entrance, this mirror is very helpful & important for safety, as our residents now can see clearer other vehicle before we go out (or come in) from Vista Condo, we have submitted this request awhile ago, and the original plan of Mr Prem is to get the developer (of those new houses opposite Vista) & JKR to install the convex mirror, as there's some delay on their side so he decided to get MPPP to do one for us. I must commend YB Yeoh's help again, for he is really a blessing for us in Vista Condo, as he has helped us in many things.

3) ERT (Emergency Response Team) - 4 residents submitted their names to the office, 1 resident wrote to us, & get other few called us to sign up as ERT members, plus those in the MC, we should have abt 15 persons to show up in the first ERT meeting on this Sunday, 5/2/2012, 8.30pm at the swimming pool foyer, for those who interested but no yet sign up, are welcome to join us too, some light refreshment will be served. Jeffery & Tan will chair the meeting, some matters will be discussed like roles, responsibilities & boundaries of Vista ERT, we also want to hear from those experienced guys, surely they can share a lot of good ideas of how to make our ERT relevant to Vista Condo.

thanks.

our Vista Condominium vision & mission

this will be the tough matters to talk abt, even tougher to write abt, our mission & vision, not too sure if any apartment project in Penang hv ever come out with their mission & vision statement, so we can refer theirs as example.

notice almost all company or factory do hv mission & vision statement, they always place them at their reception lobby, government dept hv these too, but private company seems do better in achieving that, we can safely say that successful organisation are the one who manage to bring their vision into reality, or in another words, achieving their goal.

(just in case some clarification needed, vision is like a finishing line, but mission is those day to day effort to move the organisation toward to the finishing line)

we do hv a mission statement since we formed JMB 3 years ago, as u can see at the top of this page, "making vista a better place for living", so for this, each time when committee members sit down to plan something, we always hv this thing in our mind like "how this decision will make vista better place for living?", or "what will the best thing to do now with the present resources to make vista a better place for living?", or sometimes can be "is there anythings more we should do in order to make vista a better place for living?"....etc, is always abt decision & action to make vista a better place for living.

but what is the finishing line? or our vision?

so since last year we felt it was a better timing now to share with our residents that we should set the goal & the vision is "vista a real condo".

so as mission is a day to day effort to bring the vision come into reality, which means the effort we hv in the "making vista a better place for living" should eventually hit the goals we set in the "vista a real condo".

but then, vision without the goals or standard or expectation is just a empty slogan, in our case we should have somethings in mind what are those elements in the real condo, for eg, response time of the staffs or vendors to the request, collection rate on the SC, house rules observation by our residents in %, performance of vendors in their duties which can be told quantitatively,the desirable standard of the facilities like swimming pool, firefighting equipment, lift, common lighting, T&G system, etc.

so now it's time for the goals & standards to be set for all the areas in vista condo in order to paint a "real condo" picture for our residents together with committee members to move toward to, and here we would like to invite our residents to write to us abt the standards u desire to see on "VISTA CONDOMINIUM", and after we finalise the goals & standards, we shall spend some times to discuss & produce "steps" of hitting these goals, again it should done together with our residents in the blog or meeting, & we deeply believe that to make vista a real condo will be materialised with every residents effort & commitment.

so, please write to us ur desired standards of Vista Condominium....

thanks.

ERT - Emergency Response Team

would like to do some promotion for the Vista ERT or Emergency Response Team.

this will be another milestone of Vista Condo for having an ERT here, in fact it will set the bench mark or example for the nearby apartment to follow our footstep. (just in case u missed some of the vista history, actually we are among the first apartment project to set up JMB & MC in Relau, and now forming ERT)

we have put up the notice to invite residents to join the ERT, so far few residents have registered with the office, some approached us personally, also some sent thru email, we would expect abt 15 members to turn up in the first ERT meeting on 5/2/2012, Sunday evening 8.30pm, at the foyer.

for those still interested to join, pls do feel free to come too for the meeting (better still if u can email us first), it's truly the more the better.

we believe that as more residents feel that it's residents' responsibility to take care of our own building & facility, Vista Condo will be a much better place for living, if more residents step forward to be part of Vista ERT, it definitely make Vista Condo a much more secured & safer place for our residents, imagine that we will have a good number of well-trained ppl always be ready to attend to the emergency situation, like fire, lift accidents, pool accidents, or even if trouble maker try to disturb our vista residents.

we have considered some of possible activities & plans for the Vista ERT, such as training at the bomba site, lift emergency situation training, fire drill, pool accident training, 1st aid training, etc. for the purpose of equipping our ERT members.

we are also pondering on the idea of getting the insurance coverage for the ERT members, just in case...., we would also provide ERT uniform, & hopefully can get YB to sponsor some communication tools such as walkie talkie.

there are still few more things which only can be decided when ERT have their meeting, such as way of communication during emergency, meeting schedule, duty roster, etc, at the moment we have talked to few residents who have ERT experience in their work place, they will be a great asset to guide us as most of us still quite fresh in this area.

so, after u read this post, do write to us to join the Vista ERT, so that together we will contribute to make Vista a safer place for our Vista folks!

email vistacondo.relau@gmail.com

thanks.

some general updates...

monkeys problem - on monday wildlife dept officer came to check the cage see if any monkey get caught, so happened 4 big monkeys hung around at the rental parking area, they went there immediately, managed to shot dead 3 of them, 1 escaped. we monitored for few days, didn't see it anymore, hope it get scared & cari makan di tempat lain, but if any1 see it pls contact wildlife ppl immediately, phone# 0124242827.

dogs problem - last week 2 dogs were trapped by cleaners into toilet & SPCA ppl came took them away, but later on 3 more dogs appeared at the blk k car park area & some residents feeding them, so our worry is these dogs will have big possible of staying, to tackle this problem, we have told the cleaners to use the same method, ie to build trust with the dogs, cheat them with food to stay in toilet & call SPCA. for we have given up hope of convincing these over-kind ppl not to feed the dogs.

ERT (emergency response team) - after we put up the notice, we have some residents approached us wanted to join the ERT, and as all the MC members should also be the members, so at the moment we already have abt 15 names registered in the ERT list, the 1st ERT meeting will be held 5/2/2012 evening 8.30pm at the foyer, & it should be follow by series of training with bomba & other relevant dept, anyone interested can still join this meaningful & important vista body, pls email us your detail, all are welcome to join to make Vista a safer place.

motorcycle T&G system - motorcycle T&G system will be launched on 1/2/2012, there will be "no tag, no entry" for motorcyclist, except some delivery service like newspaper, postman, caterer, etc. actually the system was ready since last week, but we wanted to play safe & have passed the few tag for committee & residents to try it up, generally the feedback is ok except some balancing is needed at the incoming scanner as the floor is not as even as outgoing one, but according to them it's not big issue, jz a matter of getting use to it, but we will monitor the situation & will act or adjust accordingly if it's needed.

sinking fund - developer didn't deliver the RM50K as they had promised earlier, so we are not going to negotiate with them anymore, some tougher actions is on the way, very very very soon...., notice the actionS is in plural form?

fire fighting facilities - some minor upgrade have jz been done last week, service & part replacement on the pump, also replaced some new hose at blk k lower floors. after the fire incident, few blk k residents went around telling ppl that our pump have no water, sigh, no time to entertain these ppl, besides creating trouble, what else they can contribute? we have no problem if residents would like to express their opinion, but for these ppl without finding out the actual fact but jz passing wrong info to other ppl, it's not benefiting any party at all!

staff movement - night guard Adam has left the job after involved in a fight with one resident, so there's a new night guard now, management office also have a new supervisor Suresh, hope the new guard & new supervisor will do well & enjoy their work here.

thanks.

vista a real condo...obstacles

we believe that if we manage to remove those obstacle stand in the way to make vista condo a real condominium, we can safely say that we have solve half of the problems, & to achieve the goal in yr2013 will hv a very good chance.

some of this obstacles involve peoples, to remove these obstacles doesn't mean to remove the peoples, but to help them to change the bad habits...

1) defaulters - still a biggest problem in vista condo, actually if we r not thinking of improving our standard of facilities here, the current collection rate is good enough to cover the expenses for contracted vendors, utilities bills, maintenance actions..., & also have some balance for upgrading. But then, in order to speed up the process of making vista a real condo, we will need them to pay on time, at the moment abt 85% r paying either very promptly or delay a bit, which is still acceptable, but abt 15% (or abt 40 units) always waiting for tougher action (like legal notice..), this is harmful enough to slow down the process!

so, some solution like T&G for bikes and lift will be eventually implemented to tackle this problem, we can foresee some of them will react badly as they forced to pay the old debt, but come on...! they got to be fair to other residents who are the good pay masters, they should not just continue to enjoy the facilities & expect good paymaster to pay the bills on their behalf, what kind of logic is that?

2) another group of peoples which will hinder the process are the erratic residents, condominium is a standard for a class of apartments, to maintain a vista at the condominium standard need all the residents to cooperate, but then, when u still see peoples feeding the stray dogs & cats, peoples making a lot of noise after midnight, peoples throwing rubbish everywhere, peoples swimming w/o proper attire, peoples argue or quarrel with guard as they cards be barred, peoples playing football at foyer, peoples keeping the personal things at common areas, peoples left their debris at ground floor after house renovation, then u know that these peoples r not so ready for the condo living.

no doubt we can use house rules or supervisor or guards to deal with them, but the better way is vista condo residents must have desire to make this place a real condo, and their should have good common sense & discipline of observing a condominium lifestyle. how to tackle this? there's no way we can tackle this problem unless these ppl suddenly come into their senses, we pray & hope that after they hv seen some of the improvement taken place here, they too hv desire to be a good resident to bring further improvement, in fact we also have noticed some good changes on some of residents here...., we expect more will follow their footsteps.

other obstacles will not as critical as these 2, well, let's focus on tackling them first.

thanks.

yr2012...budget...vision..challenges..

entering yr2012 soon, first like to wish all Vista Condo residents happy new year, & we also hope to see further improvement in our beloved condo.

like to present to our residents some of these plans, let's look at our finance first...

at the moment our (monthly) regular/contracted expenses are (TNB) 7000, PBA (500), guard (4800), management (3000), cleaning (2000), pool (800), electrical (500), lift (1400), general repair (2000), total is abt RM22,000.

based on our current collection rate of 85% on service service, (275 unit times 85%) is RM23375, plus the rental of the parking lot RM1500, monthly income is abt RM24,875.

so goes by this calculation, yr2012 total expenses is abt RM(22,000 * 12) = RM264,000

also total income RM(24,875 * 12) = RM298,500

barring any major breakdown, we should have abt (298,500 - 264,000) = RM34,500 for upgrading project in yr2012.

still remember we mentioned before to make vista a real condo by yr2013? so perhaps some of these things we can do in yr2012 with RM34500. (not necessary all, but depends on the financial situation then)

1) swimming pool grating - the material cover the drain surrounding the pool, it cost in between RM3,500 to RM4,000.

2) upgrading the fire fighting facility - abt RM8,000 to service (or replace) the pumps, valve, hose, etc....

3) convert a toilet to be gym - RM10,000 to RM15,000

4) T&G system for 4 lifts to further improve vista security & collection rate, abt RM15,000 to RM20,000.

5) other things like water tank lining & painting of building will depend on how soon we can get back the sinking fund....

in fact we have confident that the income will be higher than what hv jz mentioned, coz as we install the motorcycle/lift T&G and also get land office to act on defaulters, we can even expect it to go as high as 90% on the collection rate & recover another abt 20K from debts in between yr2009 to yr2011, but we reserve this portion as the sinking fund, which means we should be able to open our own sinking fund bank account by next year, but as i said earlier, barring major breakdown.

so the challenge still so much on how to increase the collection rate, but as we look back, it become better each year, so, we pray that God will continue to help us in this area.

not to forget to mention here, any project cost more than RM10k, we will still call AGM or EGM to let residents to decide, pls also write to us if some of the urgent upgrade which we hv overlooked in this article.

thanks.

report on the fire incident on 24/12/2011

fire broke out this morning abt 8.30am, at blk k, k-5-1, foreigners hostel.

some report for our residents...

1) Deva the committee member got the phone call from resident, rush to the scene, few residents already there, then at the same time bomba firemen also arrived.

2) tenants are not at home, so firemen broke the padlock, open the grill door & wooden door, found fire at 2nd room, then used water from the toilet to put it off. more residents ,committee members & reporter gathered there during this time.

3) Firemen tested the bomba riser room hose reel, found no water. some residents grumbling why no water supply....

4) Jeffery the MC member explained to residents & reporter that our pump is working but set to MANUAL mode, which means need to be ON manually at blk j pump room, but as the committee members arrived the fire oredi gone, so no one ON it.

5) he further explained that we can't set it to AUTO mode cause in the past the hose reel head always missing, if we set it to AUTO then the water will burst from riser room with the absence of hose reel, & will cause major jam to both lift. (remember the incident before last chinese new year?)

6) Deva locked the hostel door coz the foreigners are not yet back, then after TNB technician came investigate, found out it started from the cheap extension wire.

as we look at this case, few thoughts come to our mind,

- must form our ERT (emergency rescue team) as soon as possible to attend to cases like this.

- residents must have common sense not to steal things from TNB & Bomba riser room, we always got reports from residents that TNB meter fuse gone missing, for the thefts break the padlock & steal it.

- for the case of bomba hose reel, we did replace the missing unit few times & locked the door, but itchy hand fella still break the lock & steal it, happen few times since last year, it explains why we CAN'T set the pump to AUTO mode.

- will put the petition at the guard house or office to ask residents to sign, purpose is to ask those landlord stop renting out the unit as foreigners hostel.

- will need to make sure all the guards know what to do (especially ON the pump) when fire happen, we hv taught some of old staffs, but overlook the new guys, our fault, sorry for that.

- may need to hire 2 well-trained guards each shift if can afford, so that we will have enough ppl to handle emergency cases, like this case, only one guard was around, & the management office not yet open, too risky.

- will get the fire contractor to check again our system, to upgrade it if needed.

- will arrange fire drill, if possible next month.

write to us if u got any suggestion.

some general updates...

like to share with our residents on these news...

1) Sunday nite one bicycle stolen from blk k, then Deva the MC member checked CCTV & managed to found out who's the culprit, then thru the help of a tenant from blk j who hv good contact with police dept, catch the fella & called in police, now the bicycle is back & we let the policeman to deal with the thieve.

2) hv arranged with vendor to install the T&G system for motorcycle, should be able to launch before month end, or by latest 1st half of January 2012, motorcyclist will scan their card with different scanner near the car scanner, but will share the same barrier with cars, we foresee this may slow down the traffic during peak hour, so we will like to appeal to our residents for more patient, as this arrangement hopefully will force defaulters to pay & tighten up the security.

3) after all the negotiation, meeting, phone calls, visiting gov't offices, lawyer...etc, lastly developer give us some positive commitment, they promised to give us the first payment cheque of sinking fund by next week, RM50K, the balance will pay after that, we hope they will honour their promise, also at the same time we continue to negotiate with them to pay as much (& also as soon) as possible the balance.

4) Tanni the supervisor has resigned, now the new supervisor just a temporary replacement, we would like to get help from our residents to recommend candidate from our own Vista Condo ppl to do this job, should be guy, ok with retiree but age should below 60, if anyone interested pls send application to our email which can be found at the right corner of this page.

5) Thank God as our financial has improved, so now we have hired the 2nd guard for the night shift, which mean from 8pm to 8am we should hv 2 guards serving us, we hv told them 1 should guard the main entrance, another 1 should do the patrolling periodically at the ground floor, hope this will further tighten up the system here.

6) We hv arranged with contractor to paint the faded parking lot line, as he has started but this may take awhile to complete all due to the weather condition, as as per today he has done abt 30% of the job.

another thing which encouraged us so much is we have seen some residents took the initiative to beautify the common area, like painting the lift lobby at their floor, one blk j resident (from 1st floor) even painted the ground floor lift lobby & the grill at the air well, also another residents contributed 2 fire extinguisher few months ago, which now hanging at the ground floor lift lobby at blk j & k, want to take this opportunity to thank them again.

thanks.

appreciation party photos (1)

appreciation party photos (2)

appreciation party photos (3)

appreciation party photos (4)

appreciation party photos (5)

appreciation party photos (6)

1 down, 2 to go....

after saturday's appreciation party for YB Yeoh for his help over the entrance shade, this project consider completed. it was good party indeed, over hundred residents + vendors + friends attended, highlight of the party is cutting of ribbon by YB under the shade, trust it's the first time such thing happen in Vista, for those Chinese educated Vista residents, can check chinese newspaper Kwangwah & Kuangming on 5/12/2011, some color photos can be found there too.

so now, we are aiming to finish off the other 2 projects, defaulters' debt & sinking fund...

few months ago, legal notices had been sent to abt 50 hardcore defaulters, glad to say that, more than half of them responded to the notices, many of them paid in full, also some of them did part payment or instalment due to financial problem, which also under close monitoring, well, still another 20 defaulters remain unmoved by the legal notices, for this we expected MPPP to act some where in Sept, but as we ready in MC status, we were told that land office should be in-charge of this case, so after all the necessary procedure be observed, this time 6 letters of land office are on the way to blk J defaulters, most likely another 14 letters will be sent next week, then see how lah....;)

sinking fund also moving to the positive direction, basically developer agreed that they should transfer us the money, but until now still dragging their feet..., we have contacted lawyer & will meet them soon for legal action, also 3 weeks ago thing hv been brought to CM's attention, he has assigned EXCO member to handle this case, we hv met with his assistant 2 week ago, but now will meet this EXCO member in person this week, pray & hope that developer will be willingly let us hv that money soon...

thanks.

see u at appreciation party on dec 3rd...

like to promote the appreciation party which will be held on 03/12/2011, indeed there are many reasons why as residents, we should make an effort to attend this event.

1) to show our gratitude to YB Yeoh Soon Hin for his help to get the fund to build the entrance shade, this huge shade (30ft by 40ft) is actually cost a lot of money, in fact according to some unofficial record, this may be one of the highest fund allocation for a single project for apartment use in the recent history, since YB Yeoh has done it for us, we must thank him, if possible personally.

2) also for his past help, YB as we know him, man of few words, but always try his best to help for those requests which we have forwarded to him earlier, i remember first time we meet him was in Amaraas restaurant in one evening in year 2009, a whole group of JMB sit down w him to get his help so that our JMB can be formed officially. later on we also approached him & he helped to get ppl for trimming tree at rental parking area, twice he help us to chop/removed fallen tree, he also arranged & chaired the meeting for us to discuss with developer & MPPP/COB officers, & of course not to forget he sponsored 10 hampers & be our guest of honour for our earth hour party in March 2011.

3) we also feel that it's very important to build deeper relationship with him, as we need his help for many other projects in Vista Condo, namely sinking fund, water tank lining, lift upgrade, & also to apply the empty land behind the rental parking area. So if we have many residents turn up during the party, this will give good impression to him that Vista residents are very thankful people, this definitely will help a lot for us to approach him again in the future. (at the end if we manage to get his help for any project as mentioned, the benefit is actually goes to Vista residents.)

4) to hv many residents to say thanks to him will be a good encouragement for him, this will make him feel that his effort & service to the public is much appreciated by ppl, this perhaps will motivate him to continue to serve wholeheartedly, so as we also member of public in his constituency, we will reap the benefits if our state assemblyman is an excellent servant of public.

5) we will also arrange for residents to sign the petition for the sinking fund when you arrive, then during the party we will pass this petition to YB Yeoh to get his help to fight for our sinking, i believe if we have many residents to sign the petition, it will show the unity of residents, & also show that we are serious on this matter, this perhaps will hasten the time we get the money back!

6) another good reason for residents to attend the party, it's a get together time for everybody, where our residents will spend time eat together, talk to each other, know new friend & strengthen existing relationship, this will help to build a caring community among Vista residents, we notice after the few gathering in the past, it seems the relationship among our relationship are getting better....

so, pls come to the appreciation party, also pls kindly talk to ur neighbor or ur friends in Vista to get them to attend, this will bring much benefits to vista condo....

(pls sms or call office at 012-5557658 for registration, so that we can estimate how many residents are coming & prepare right amount of food, for info, it's free of charge for food & drink)

thanks.

Now the shade is up, hooray!!!

now, the entrance shade is up, after 8 months of waiting...

residents' general response for the shade is good & appreciative, for those who follow the vista blog, they know well this was by the allocation of fund helped by YB Yeoh Soon Hin, Paya Terubong state assemblyman, but also many residents thought it was from our management fund, & even so, they r also very happy & think that the money is well spent for everybody's benefit, after we explain to them, they are all the more amazed & thankful for YB's help, of course few residents also wondering if the money had been wasted for this project before we told them we didn't touch residents' money for the shade.

we are most likely organise a residents' "makan gathering" on 03/12/2011 (saturday) night to celebrate the installation of the shade & also use the occasion to express our utmost thanks to YB Yeoh, by having him as guest of honour & may hv some ceremony to "officiate" the use of shade. now we are talking to some vendor to sponsor for the food/drink so hopefully can give free-makan for our residents, but at the end we may use little bit of management fund to rent facility like canopy, tables & chairs, of course it will be fantastic if we can get vendors to sponsor these items too :P

(committee members said i am greedy...greedy...very greedy!!! hehe!)

we shall put up the notice once we have finalise all the detail concerning the makan-gathering, we hope many residents will turn up in the gathering to show our appreciation to YB Yeoh for his support for this project, we also plan to take that opportunity to get his advice over some other matters, such as sinking fund, etc, we always believe that it's important to build good relationship with him as there are still many things we will need to consult him or get his support in the future.

side tract a bit...but also related to the shade....

at the moment, MC committee is facing a "good problem", now the shade is big, actually look quite nice, especially during day time, but at night it's a bit "sayang" if we don't put some light to brighten it up, coz if we put the right type of light & the right color, it will definitely make our main entrance looks very grand, anyone can provide some idea on this?

thanks.

human, water, dogs & monkeys.

some of these challenges still confronting us, lasted awhile already but still couldn't find a permanent solution,

1) Errant residents - human problem, as we are very grateful for most of Vista residents are cooperative type, we do troubled by small number of errant residents, not say they are bad, but somehow they jz like to place their interest higher than common interest, & in the way have caused inconvenience to other ppl as well. some of example are residents refused to take motorcycle stickers but insists want to come in; residents place their personal belonging at the common area at the ground floor; also some try to drive their car (w/o card) into Vista car park but cheated security guard they are babysitter, but once they come in, they park their cars over night; some like to feed dogs & cats at ground floor, still doing so even many times being told not to do that...., honestly very hard to deal w them, we did ask security guard & supervisors to talk to them or even taking some tougher action, but at the end as they reacted with very unfriendly words & even action, this had made staff & guard to feel it's risky working here, & this has been a reason for some of guards refused to work here anymore.

2) water - water tank & common wall/ceiling leaking problem have burned a big hole in the pocket of our management fund, but the real problem is, this hole seems can't be patched at the moment. due to the aging problem of the water tank lining, each time after the repair is done, it will only last for abt a year, then the same problem will occur again, coz the linings are beyond repair, need to change them in order to solve the problem permanently. the cost is abt RM15K or 20K depending on the size of the tank, & we have 4 big tank & 4 small tank, so total is abt RM140K, something far beyond we can reach now. for this we need the sinking fund to be transfer back urgently, another thing we can try (& we will do it soon) is to write to state gov't or federal gov't for help, and as general election is near, maybe we can get some money from them....... :)

3) dogs - like it or not, errant residents have made this problem harder to be solved. we have get MPPP dog catcher to come in at least 4 times already, but each time these dogs managed to run away, as for now MPPP worker ask us to find way to catch them by ourselves & they will jz come pick them away. The reason the dogs like to stay in Vista is they can find food here, for months the night guard have been chasing them frequently but as long as they can still get food here, they will be back soon, so we have told residents not to feed the dogs, some of them followed but still few person from blk k continue feeding the dogs quietly, at the moment we run out of idea how to tackle this, see, we can't ask police & MPPP to arrest these human dog feeder, so it's really up to residents to come together to stop these ppl, or else dogs will still barking at midnight hour to disturb residents' sleeping, & our biggest worry is if one day these become mad then they may attack ppl.

4) monkeys - before we can settle the dog problem, now the few monkeys are back! now instead of hanging around at rental parking area, they hv shifted their territory to the car parking lots near Hindu temple. wild monkeys naturally more dangerously & aggressive than dogs, perhaps now we got to get professional help to get rid of dogs & monkeys.

headache....headache....headache...., in fact problem (1) & (3) can be easily solved if those errant residents willing to give some cooperation, hopefully they will come to their right senses soon.

thanks.

changes at entrance...soon?

residents will hv good chances to see some changes at the main entrance, if not in November, then it should happen in December. the entrance shade & the motorbike T&G system.

we were informed by the source from the state government that the budget for our entrance shade (30ft by 40ft, cover the whole area from management office to guard house) has been approved, the gov't contractor has contacted us, they will come again on Tuesday to take the final measurement & have last round of discussion with us on the design, color, position, then they can start work soon after the meeting...., if this project really come into implementation, we got few persons to thank, especially YB Yeoh Soon Hin, the state assemblyman of our area (Paya Terubong), for he has helped us to fight for the fund since we made this request in the Earth Hour Party in March 2011, where he was the guess of honor, yeah, he also sponsored 10 set of hamper for the lucky draw.

we also may install the T&G system (from management fund) for the motorcycles at the main entrance, there are few option we can consider, we do welcome residents to contribute idea/opinion if u happen to read this article....

due to the limitation of the space, to install new barrier for the motorcycle will be beyond reached at the moment (unless we tear down the guard house, but really not at the moment) so we should be using the car barrier for the motorcycles also. we can foresee this may slow down the flow of outgoing traffic especially from 7.30am to 8am, rush hour, but it should not be a big problem coz as we check around, our neighbor Villa Condo do have abt 400+ cars using same T&G system, opposite neighbor (Desa Relau 2) also have many cars share the same barrier, the same applied to villa kejora & so far they r ok too, for our case at the moment abt 270 cars using the barrier, plus the motorcycles (abt 100+ active biker now) then it's abt 400+ vehicles (cars & bikes) sharing the same barriers, it may slow down the traffic during rush hour, but unlikely cause massive jam...., but we will monitor the situation after launching the project.

but we will need to use separate scanner to prevent some resident to use motorcycles cards for the cars & vice versa, so eventually 2 scanner for incoming vehicle & 2 for outgoing one, we should mark the scanners with different color so to make it easier for residents to recognize it easily which scanner is for cars & which one is for motorcycles, for this we will also ask vendor to configure the system in such a way that the barrier won't be opened if wrong type of cards are being scanned, as i said, to prevent some residents for taking advantage for their selfish benefits.

one important thing forgot to be mentioned earlier, the purpose of installing T&G system is to tighten up the security, we hv tried motorcycle stickers for 2 years, it didn't work well due to some residents refused to cooperate, as they didn't take the stickers & when guard tried to stop their bikes, they will come in thru the outgoing area. Due to these residents' bikes w/o sticker, the guard (especially the new guard) will have problem identify those incoming bikes (w/o stickers) belong to our residents or outsider? for this have made it difficult for the incoming bikes be monitored properly.

pls write to us if u hv any question, or opinion, or suggestion..., as we will have MC meeting this Wednesday night during dinner, we will brainstorm & most likely make some decision on the matter.

thanks.