hooray! recycle bin almost full :)

glad to inform our beloved Vista Residents that the 2 recycle bin we have placed at blk J & K ground floor are almost full, in fact the one at blk j has reached the top but we plan to shake it a bit & sure it can keep some more recyclable items before we call the recycle vendor to collect them, and count money :):):)

we want to thank the kind cooperation of Vista Residents on this recycle project, for it has two fold purposes, one is to generate more revenue for Vista building maintenance fund, for this we hope can gather perhaps RM100 to RM200 per month for the beginning, and eventually hit RM300 per month once the momentum is built, another purpose is to do our part for the environment, especially now it has become a common awareness on how hard the plastic material can harm the environment if it's not disposed properly, for our beloved residents' information, even a small plastic bag will take forever to be dissolved, leave alone those plastic container.

so can you pls help to pass the words around to other residents to encourage them to bring to the recycle bin their old newspapers, plastic bags/containers, aluminium can, bottles, papers, cards, etc to help to make this Vista Recycle Project a success, thanks :)

AGM on 14/6 & building repainting matter

last night some of us went to attend a ceramah in Han Chiang school, a resident who tumpang our car told us during the sembang sembang that some residents have started lobbying should (or should not) support the proposal of absorbing 20% of repainting cost in AGM, he said some even went as far as the kopitiam nearby to try to convince another resident to agree their point, wah....!!! we really feel the heat now :)

but we wish to make it clear that this is a proposal (or option) which now open to residents to consider, and MC is not doing the hard selling on the idea, we thought as the state gov't is now willing to consider (and even approve if criteria is right) to channel fund for repainting for private project like us, then we should get our residents informed & let them decide on the proposal, so pls don't talk as we are pushing our residents to contribute the additional few hundred Ringgit for the project & start to have hostile feeling toward us :(

of course at MC level we thought this is good deal from state gov't, from financial point of view, by giving RM200 or RM300 each unit and to see all the unit property value go up by 50K is almost too good to be true.

but anyway, as mentioned earlier, residents should decided on this, and we believe our residents make a right decision on this.

so far we have received few quotations, all still sealed in the envelopes & none of us know how much the vendors quoted, but we check around with those friends who have experience on building repainting, the estimation from them is it should cost somewhere around 350K, and if their estimation is right then 20% should be 70K, or each unit will be abt RM250, or even lower if by then the management fund saving in bank is enough to absorb some of the cost.

but one thing we are a bit concern is can we form enough quorum on 14/6 to effect the AGM, because we need at least half of the total unit to turn up in order to start the meeting, for this case need 138 unit owner to come by 8.30pm, but if not then got to adjourn it to the following Saturday 8pm, and on 21/6 night whoever come for the meeting will automatically form the quorum and start the AGM.

but for those who make an effort to come on 14/6, shall AGM can't be held, we still want you enjoy some nice food & have some discussion with us in the foyer, of course our wish is the AGM can be held successfully on 14/6, but just in case....

thanks.

AGM will be held on 14/6 (saturday)

after long delay due to the lift upgrade project, we decided not wait for the full completion of the project but to go ahead with the AGM which will be held on 14/6 (Saturday), 8pm at our swimming pool foyer.

few important decision will be passed on that night, new management committee will be elected (max number is 14), house rules concerning foreigner hostel may be changed, but what interest us most is the approval from residents concerning the building repainting.

as we have shared earlier, now state gov't is open for the private project to apply fund for building repainting, but the condition is these private project must be low cost or low medium cost apartment, and for Vista Condo, we managed to find some very early document (with the help of MC member who stays at blk k first floor) to prove that we are the low medium cost apartment, so this qualify us to apply the said financial aid, shall it approved then our residents will need to bear 20% of the cost.

(we must stress here that we are qualify to apply, but still the gov't decision for the approval)

so far we have received few proposal/quotation for the building, but haven't open yet, right now still waiting for few more then will open all of them few days before the AGM together with some senior & experience residents from Vista Condo, then will shortlist it to three & present them to residents during AGM for approval & agree to absorb the 20% of total cost shall the application approved by state gov't.

so how much is the 20% in Ringgit form? assume that the cost is RM400k then it amounting to RM80K, or if total is RM500 then 20% will be RM100k, so take these 2 figures for calculation, then we will have (RM80K shared by 275 units) RM290.00 or (RM100 divided 275) RM360.00 per unit.

we can foresee that not everyone will agree with this proposal, but also many residents are keen for it, so the best option here is to table it during the AGM for residents to decide...

just a note of caution, if on 14/6 night not enough residents turn up for meeting, or can't form the quorum (one half of total unit), then the meeting will be postponed to the 21/6 night, and on 21/6 night whatever number attended will automatic form the quorum, so for this we are planning some light refreshment on 14/6 night, for in case not enough peoples to form quorum, then those residents who present at the foyer still can enjoy some good food together & have good time of discussion...

thanks.

swimming pool magnetic lock?

(before write on the magnetic lock, we would like to inform our beloved residents that the lemongrass at the kids playground are glowing well, we notice that less mosquitoes now & hope that after all these plants have reach it's full grown then all the mosquitoes will migrate to other places :)

another thing like to update here is the recycle bin are placed at the ground floor of both blk j & k, so pls contribute your unwanted items like newspaper, metal, aluminium can, plastic, etc...thanks)


abt the swimming pool T&G system, we are now looking into the possible of installing the magnetic lock at the pool entrance, as this request from our residents has been heard more frequently recently, but as we are not able to install there a touch & go system as canggih as one at the guard house due to it's high cost, so we may want take the middle path ie to fix something which will prevent outsider & hardcore defaulter from entering the pool area, but block of the access will not be as easy as the one at the main entrance.

the best option now is to install a magnetic lock which will lock the grill door of the pool, the magnetic lock only can be open by scan the card at the scanner besides the door, but we will not be able to link this system to the T&G system at the guard house entrance due to it's cost involved & the complexity, which means if we go ahead with it then residents will have separate card for entering the pool area.

we have checked around for this kind of system (some of MC members are using it in their own office), the complete set should be in the range of RM1000 to RM2000, include the magnetic lock, door closer, cards, scanner, other accessories & wiring, the barring & unbarring of the cards will be done manually through the scanner but not the computer.

we are now checking with few vendors on the systems, comparing their prices, quality of the devices & after sales service, hopefully can get the system installed by end of month.

Thanks.

kids playground upgrade soon

we are looking forward to the better children playground soon, perhaps in 2 weeks' time.

2 days ago one of our regular contractor contacted us, saying a few set of very good condition children play set are available, free of charge, and asked us if interested to have a look, we told him since is free & good condition then we should not miss it.

then he sent them in Wednesday night, a set of see saw (metal one) & one animal shape swinging set, both are in quite good condition, we decided to accept these 2 & he was happily sponsored us by paying the previous owner a token of gift.

and now, few more sets still in the previous owner's place but as the size is bigger (include a kid's slide) then we are arranging a trip to view them ourselves & if decide to get it for our place, then we will need to pay a small sum of money to the owner & get a truck to bring them in, and for this we also check around for right person to fix all these at our kid's playground, we got to make sure these will be "planted" properly into the ground so that they are secured enough to be used.

we view this as good opportunity to upgrade the kids' playground as all this while we have been checking around for gov't fund for this project but couldn't see good progress, so now as the opportunity knock then we should just grab it, just spend a few hundred to get a complete kids' playground is just a very good deal!

another thing we will be soon doing is to get rid of those mosquitoes at the kids' playground, we have asked the same contractor (who is also our resident) to get many many lemongrass plants from his friend in Balik Pulau & then get his worker to plant them in the kids' playground, so that when Vista kids enjoying the play set, they won't be disturbed by these uninvited guests :)

will update further on this once things are ready.

thanks.

general updates as as 26/4/14

few matters to update our beloved Vista residents...

1) walkway shade - the 6 walkway shades have get completed on Thursday, so far our residents response is quite encouraging, especially those with little kids & elderly ppl, for these shade will be helpful during rainy days, as now we can see more rains are visiting Penang, and we mentioned in last posting, our bigger concern is the safety, for these shade also provide some covering for our residents from those falling object like gutter, bottles, pots, etc....

2) foreigners' hostel - we have contacted EXCO YB Jagdeep Singh's PA & get the confirmation that the ruling that low medium cost (LMC) & low cost (LC) apartments are not supposed to convert to be foreigners hostel & it also applies to private apartments like us, so for this we have asked the management office to get for us the list of such hostel in Vista, and it have been forwarded to EXCO's office for them to send notice the house owners & take further action if they fail to comply with the ruling.

3) lift upgrade - we have warned the vendor to complete the process of lift upgrade in blk k, for which the electrical & mechanical have been upgraded but the new door, wall & floor still remain outstanding, we told them if they don't get it done in May then we may not be able to advice the state gov't to release full payment to them, and we also will think twice for the future upgrade in blk j lift, perhaps should give other vendor a chance...

4) building repainting - thank God there's some new development concerning this matter, our blk k resident Mr Selva has found out from EXCO that now the state gov't also willing to consider the application for the financial aid for building repainting for private project (in the past they only opened for gov't built & low cost flat), now we are contacting contractors to provide quotations & will present to residents during AGM (end of May or early June) for approval, under this scheme state gov't will contribute 80% of the cost, and 20% by our residents, pls wait for the notice for the AGM.

thanks.

the 6 walkway shades

we are installing 6 walkway shades in vista condo, 3 sets each for blk j & k, for both convenient & safety purposes.

it should be completed by next week, at the moment our residents may notice some metal have been fixed at the both walkway walls behind the lifts & another one lead to the motorbike parking area, some earlier response from residents are encouraging one, most of them said it will provide some coverage during the rain, useful especially for little kids & elderly persons :)

yes it's true that Vista residents will enjoys it's benefits when it's rains, and more importantly, it's abt safety.

we are concern more abt the falling object from high, especially the old drain pipe gutters which are already passed 20 years. Last few years we have seen few gutters fell to the floor, most of them just a short sections, but one time abt 1/3 of the whole gutter fell, another one time abt quarter of it.

we thank God that these incidents didn't cause injury (only once it damaged a MC member's car door with it's window) but we should not take thing for granted, so as now the finance is more ready then we decided to install the walkway shade in those areas which most of our residents need to pass by regularly.

the material the vendor use for the shade is abt double thickness of the usual car park shade, which should be able to withstand the pressure of falling object like bottle or stone, or short section of gutter. It may not be strong enough to block the long section (like half of the gutter) from falling to the ground but it definitely can reduce much of the impact which will cut the risk of the possible injury to the minima.

some may ask why not get the permanent solution for the gutter problem, we did try in the past to ask residents' cooperation to let our gutter vendor to enter their balcony & rooms so that they can to the gutters to tighten the clip which hold the gutters firmly to the walls, but unfortunately not many of them willing to open their doors for the gutter vendor to carry out the jobs, so lastly we thought instead of waiting for them to be ready, perhaps to install the shade is the best option at the moment :P

thanks.

further cost saving & increase revenue actions

after seeing 2 successful project on the cost saving & increase the revenue, namely rental parking area which bring in extra money for abt RM1800 per month & T5/LED lights project which save our management fund for abt RM1200 to RM1400 monthly, this give us more motivation to look into more of this kind of plan so to continue to generate more income for Vista Condo, the extra income will be used for betterment of facilities here & also serve the purpose of keeping the monthly service charge to RM100, trust that by this our residents already know that some of our neighbors have increased their monthly service charge, but thank God for we still manage to keep it at RM100 :)

2 plans we have at the moment....

1) we are now buying 2 recycle bin (660 litre each) to be placed at the ground floor of blk j & k respectively, the bins should be sent in to our place by end of April, for this we would like to invite our Vista residents to donate their recyclable items, such as papers, metal, cans, aluminium, etc, we hope our residents don't mind to go extra miles by placing the mentioned items into the recycle bins which should be not more than 20 meter from the lift lobby :)

we believe with the support of our residents & helps from the office staffs, we should be able to collect another few hundred Ringgit extra income through this project, imagine that if it's 400 per month, then by a year's time we should have 4800, quite a sizable money...

2) another plan we have is to expand the rental parking area, we are now studying the possibility of shifting the swimming pool fencing inward, to build another perhaps 8 to 10 lot, which will bring 400 to 500 extra income per month, if this project goes well, plus the 400 from the recycle project, our finance will in the much better position to bring more improvement to Vista Condo :)

let's pray for the sinking fund too, as now we are now still "doing" something on it.

thanks.

Report on T5 tube cost saving

some pleasant news for our beloved residents....

we have just got the 2nd TNB bills after 100% blk j common light & 80% blk k common light changed to T5, together with 80% of car park & entrance light change to LED light, the whole project cost us abt RM8000, but as we check on the TNB bills, we know that we are on the right track, indeed it's all by God's grace :)

the calculation shows the blk j TNB bill has dropped 20% from the total usage, from average monthly usage of 10500KW drop to 8200KW in these 2 months, or RM1000 as goes by RM0.51 according to new tariff. For blk k TNB bill, it drop from average monthly usage of 4500KW to 4000KW, or RM250, so the total saving is abt RM1250 per month as per Feb & Mar TNB bills, and we are happy to find out that the return of investment (ROI) will take only 7 months to fulfill, so much shorter than the earlier estimation of one & the half year.

the reason why the blk j usage is so much higher than blk k is it also supports all the car park compound lighting, T&G barrier, office & guard house power, entrance spot light, firefighting facility, but honestly we are still trying to find the convincing justification for this huge gap, earlier on we even suspected some irresponsible party may curi current, but as we & the electrician went floor by floor to check, and even checked outside Vista Condo fencing, but found no illegal connection, well, will continue to check until we are satisfied on the situation.

now we still waiting for another 30 set of T5 to be delivered to fix for blk K common lighting, and also the remaining car park light changed into LED type, and trust that it will save even more after all these is done :)

thanks.

general updates as at 29/3/14

few updates for our beloved residents....

1) yr2014/15 fire insurance - this time due to the huge surge of the property value in Vista Condo, the fire insurance premium need to be increased in order to provide sufficient coverage for our residents' properties & the common properties, so after some discussion with the insurance agent & also consider the current economy & financial challenges faced by residents, we have decided to get the policy which is RM150.40 per unit compare to RM125.00 previously, and a friendly reminder to some residents who still paying bank for the fire insurance, you actually have an option of not doing so, and this will help you to save few hundred :)

2) IWK pipe replacement - after months of arguing, finger pointing & negotiation with our neighbors (Villa Condo), we decided to go ahead with the replacement of the collapsed IWK pipe near the main entrance of Vista Condo. Actually we prefer they will create the new outlet for their human waste (instead of sharing with us as now) but in view of new outlet will cost them more than RM100k, which is almost impossible for them to do now, so as to exercise good neighborhood spirit, we are now replacing the main pipe as our residents can notice that. It's a big project, cost RM14k (both side pay RM7k each), will take abt 10 days to be completed. So we really appreciate our residents to show good patience to bear with the inconveniences.

3) Lift at blk K - now we are chasing the vendor to replace the floor, walls & doors for the upgraded lift which is currently undergoing the test run, the newly upgraded one seems running more smoothly compare to the first one, so in view of this we also urge him to try to make the first upgraded lift to perform as good as the second one. We still for the full completion of the job & also decided to go ahead with the plan of residents gathering which also a night of thanksgiving to the few YB for their help on the lift upgrade project.

4) Swimming pool - not sure what happen to the pool vendor as we are still waiting for the new grating (drain cover), keep chasing since he came back from India 2 weeks ago but he always replied us OK OK..., will wait few more days & if he still can't give us the firm answer when to deliver the new grating then we may need to look at other source :(

Thanks.

foreigner hostel, cleaners issue & a chairman killed in BKT Jambul :(

few issues were raised by our residents in last post, so we thought perhaps we should address them in more detail, also another matter like to bring to our residents' attention is, if anyone got problem with the decision made by MC, pls talk to to us, a bit scared because last week another committee chairman was killed in the conflict with his resident :(

the case is the 2nd committee chairman got killed in Penang, the first one was in Farlim, abt 1 to 2 years ago, also due to some conflict with his resident, stabbed to death in the common area, he was in his mid 30's then....this time the chairman is a 60's yrs old uncle, also happened in common area, sad...., of course we always thank God because most of our residents are peace lover, even though few times in the past we were confronted face to face, by angry residents due to T&G card, car parking & outstanding SC matters, but fortunately these were settled without involved violent acts, hopefully for the future we still can continue to have patience & tolerance by our residents...


someone mentioned abt foreigner hostel in vista condo in last article, we also meet some other residents who also show concerns on the increasing number of hostel in vista & ask committee to stop the landlord to stop renting to them....but legally speaking, MC (or JMB, or residents' association) have no right to stop any house owner from renting their unit to foreigner or factory workers, which means the owner can take legal action against the committee or management if we force them stop renting to foreigner or factory workers.

but after consulted with lawyer, few option we can consider, one is to ask many residents to sign petition & give pressure to the owner to stop rent to them, another one is pass the resolution in AGM (or EGM) to impose stricter condition (like extra service charge) on the owner if they rent to foreigner, for these 2 options will be presented in next AGM which will be soon to be held as the blk k lifts almost completed in the upgrade.

abt the new cleaners, we do get mixed feedback from residents concerning their performance, the lady actually sweep the corridor everyday & the man clean the car park & drain every morning...which we thought is very good, but another hand we also heard complaints that they didn't mop the corridor & the rubbish rooms were not washed... :(

so for this we have spoken to their boss & to them as well, we told the lady instead of sweeping the corridor everyday, she can stop sweeping once a month but use the time to mop, the same for the guy as well, perhaps he should spend more time to clean the rubbish room in the more thorough way...

but basically we are ok with their performance so far, it just need to fine tune a bit so that they will give more attention to the area which we are more particular with :)

thanks.

blk k 2nd lift is at test run now :)

while we are writing this article, the blk k 2nd lift has been in the test run mode for abt 42 hours already, thank God so far it's ok.

which means the lift vendor does live up his pledge, to shut down the lift for abt 2 weeks & complete the upgrade in abt one month's time. now the remaining part is to fix the new door, floor & the wall panel, which may take up to 2 days' time.

we will let the lift run for few more days then will off it again (the 2nd lift only) to fix the door, floor & wall, we also now talking to our cement works contractor to put the cement block in front of the lift door at every floor lift lobby during the shut down like what we did for the 1st lift, the purpose is to prevent water from corridor to flow into the lift to cause short circuit.

so we are looking forward to the day when new wall, floor & doors being installed, for that we will consider this assignment is completed, for those who follow this blog, still remember abt 3 years ago we mentioned we have 3 big projects, ie entrance shade, blk k lift upgrade & sinking fund, so not long from now we can conclude that 2 out of 3 are done, only sinking fund a big struggle then :(

how abt organize a thanksgiving party (residents' gathering) to thank those YB & EXCO who had helped us in this lift project? now in MC we are discussing abt it, and the same time residents will enjoy their time with each other, especially kids always enjoy the most in Vista residents gathering :)

perhaps we can plan something big this time, better lucky draw items, more delicious food especially prepare more satay, clown to entertain Vista kids, more booth like digi (or KFC?), considering to invite YB Yeoh Soon Hin, YB Wong Hon Wei, EXCO YB Jagdeep Singh, maybe can try invite CM Lim Guan Eng as well???

The MC haven't got any final decision yet, once confirm on this then will put up the notice to inform our beloved Vista Residents.

thanks.

general update as at 9/3/14

it's time to update our beloved residents over some development in Vista Condo...


1) few days ago we checked with the vendor on the progress of the 2nd lift upgrade, the reply was "hampir siap..." but again we dare not to commit here when will be the actual date of completion, but as they gave the brief time timeline of doing the test run in the following week, then take some time to do the new lift wall panel & inner door, after that should another round of test run, then can release to residents for use....:)

(personal opinion, may happen in 2 weeks' time)


2) after upgrade all the camera in blk j & k (with their DVR as well) to the high resolution standard, we have extended the upgrading to the main entrance as well, now not just the 2 existing camera upgraded to high reso, we even added 2 more cameras at the entrance, hopefully this additional facility will further boost the security here.

but we still need residents to be our eyes & ears that if you notice guards not doing their jobs right, or notice any suspicious figures around, pls quickly contact guards or MC members, let's not take chance when come to security concerns.

3) last week we received the TNB bills for both blk J & K, we are happy to see that the blk j power consumption has dropped abt 20% in February, but we guessed abt 8% is due the number of days in February is 2 days less than usual month, so can safely say that 12% drop from the total usage is from the upgrading to T5 light which started from 2nd week of February, in short the T5 light has helped to save abt 25% on the current used by the common lighting, in another words, should be abt RM400 based on our calculation, but we can't have a sure conclusion just based on one month's bill, so we will continue to monitor this.

we are also happy to inform our residents that last week we have upgraded 85% of blk K light to T5, another 15% of the corridor light will be replaced once the stock arrives, hopefully it will help to save more bucks in the TNB bills :)

thanks.

lift shut down for upgrading....

so, after 2 weeks from the day the vendors started the ground work for the lift upgrade, especially laying of the cables & the wires, they finally have shut down the 2nd lift to continue the upgrading process...

which means, our blk K residents will only have one lift to serve them at the moment, but how long will this last? honestly we don't have the exact answer, but the vendor told us they will try to keep it below 2 weeks from now, again, notice the word "try"......?

the only thing we have confident is it will take much shorter time than the first lift upgrade, which according to our record it took abt 4 months, which was abt 2 months longer than what we have expected, and received a lot of complaints & scolding from residents :(

but as during the first lift upgrade, they also have done some of the works which cover for both lifts, so as this time for the 2nd lift upgrade, we were that it will involve lesser works & duration needed for the works can be reduced as much as half, so 1 to 2 months should be a reasonable time frame.

we do think of some back up plan during this period of upgarding, especially only 1 lift is running in blk K, we are asking staffs, guards, vendors & even MC members to keep their eyes on the only lift which is running, if detect any abnormality then must inform the lift contractor immediately, as we can't afford to see it break down or else our blk k residents would not have any lift to carry them, we pray hard & hope that this won't happen.

when writing this, can sense that the stress of the MC members are going up, haha, we still worry so much abt the lift, especilly how long it will take for upgrade & will the lift which is running be able to shoulder the responsibility well :)

God, pls help us....

what happen to the sinking fund?

2 more months to go, will mark our 2nd year anniversary of obtaining the court order for the developer to release the sinking fund back to our residents.

sadly, still don't see the sign of the money, so far what we have see is the paper judgement, but until the developer transfer the money (quite near to 400K by now) to us, it just remains as paper judgement.

looking back to those days when we went around checking with some experience peoples, include few lawyers of how to go abt getting back the sinking fund, most of them actually don't really encourage us to pursue this, suggesting we will just waste our effort for trying to get back the money, so now after 2 years still no sight of money, it make us think that they may be right :(:(:(

are we lost heart & lost hope now? to be honest some times we really think that. but nevertheless when we still think that God is watching & the justice will prevail at last, we would try whatever option available & push until very very very end to try to get the money back, this is our commitment, even though we can't say sure it will bear fruit finally.

past few weeks, again made ourselves busy with chasing & discussing our lawyer, talking to some other law expert, seeing gov't ppl, for the purpose of getting help & finding the right way to fight for the case, but we must say not much progress at the moment, hi, who knows if we keep trying, the success may just around the corner...

we always encourage ourselves with how God help us to get the gov't fund for the lift upgrade, for which also no hope at first, but with much prayer & trying, then all the sudden the light just appeared & still remember the whole approving process took just less than a week :)

who know, the success may just around the corner....

let's keep praying & keep trying, thanks.

fighting dengue at all cost!!!

it seems that the dengue cases don't show any sign of slowing down in Penang, but keep increasing every week!

Again the matter make it to the headline of local news & publication, and relevant authorities & departments have been appealing to the public to do their part to make sure the space under their care would not become the breeding place for aedes mosquito.

here again we would like to assure our beloved residents that we are doing our best to fight dengue in Vista Condo, and giving this assignment the highest priority, and prepare to spend more money & manpower for it if it's needed.

here there are some latest decisions & actions made (or taken) in regards of fighting dengue in Vista Condo,

...we have hired a contractor to clean thoroughly the big drain at the edge of Vista parking area, the two big section of this drain (one in between Vista & Villa, another one in between swimming pool fence & Hindu temple) took the contractor & his workers 2 full days work to clear all the leaves, tree branches, rubbish, sands, mud, other things (u name it:)

...we have instructed the cleaners few weeks ago to check & clean regular those places which got the high risk of breeding mosquito such as common drains, semi circles..., but unfortunately we found out later on this had not been carried out according to the instruction so after we have talked to the cleaners, we have decided to replace them with another group of cleaners which their employer have committed to get these jobs for us, new cleaners will report to work on 16/2/14, and we will monitor them especially to make sure no stagnant water in the semi circle & all the drains.

thanks.

general updates as at 8/2/14

hi, few matters to update our beloved residents,

1) the blk k second lift upgrade has already started, few days ago the vendor Samsudin with his workers went in there to start some ground works, right now they are laying those cables & wires right from the motor room, as such no need to shut down the lift at the moment, but we expect next week they will need to shut down the second lift for upgrading, which means only 1 lift (the upgraded 1) will be running, we are praying that it's reliable enough to shoulder the responsibility. How long will it take then? We are also praying hard that it's all completed within a month....

2) we have already replaced 150 sets of T8 tubes to T5, just completed this morning, so we hope that at the end of this month we can see some different in our TNB bill, hopefully can see as much as 540kw saved, which is abt RM250 according to the new tariff, so if everything go smoothly then should recover the investment in abt a year's time, our plan is if can see consistently 540kw saved in the follow few months, then we shall replace the rest of the T8 light to T5 as soon as possible, for info we have abt 400 light tubes in total.

3) we also planning to engage some help from professional engineer to thoroughly check our switch box, panel, boards & perform necessary calibration, because past few months as we did some some detail calculation on our electricity consumption, it seems our usage should not be that high as reflected in the TNB bills, and hopefully the professional can help us to find out where's the "leakage" so we can save even more money in the future, so right now still in the talking stage with them.

4) CCTV vendor has done what he promised, upgraded all the cameras & DVR to the high resolution model in blk j without charge single cent, thank God for him :)
at the same time as he also so kind for giving abt 50% discount on blk k high reso cameras, so we went ahead to ask him to replace all the cameras in blk k, less than 3K for the cameras, and we also spent another 1k to replace the blk k DVR for which also consider good buy.

5) Swimming pool vendor has place order for the new grating, once arrive then will fix it immediately, again want to thank our resident KK for pledging 1K as donation for this project.

Thanks.

dengue fever on the rise!!!

in January 2014 alone, reported dengue cases in Penang is 166 cases, which is almost 3 times of the cases reported last year same period of the time, out of these 166 cases, 2 persons have passed away due to this sickness, too bad one of them is in Relau (not vista), a foreigner worker...

Penang has classified as high risk area since last year, especially surrounding Taman Sri Nibong, the area opposite Pesta site, last year also some death cases reported over there.

It seems this year the situation has got worse, and we should not take it lightly, especially last month there's one case reported in Vista, few cases in the neighborhood as well....

we have to make sure the common area have no chance for mosquito to breed, so these are the steps to be implemented with immediate effect,

1) Cleaners need to make sure all the common drains would not clog, they need to clear all the rubbish found inside the drain, and each day before they go back to their hostel, they will need to make one more round to the drain, for this, the building supervisor will do his round too, before sign off from work at 5pm.

2) Cleaners will make sure nothing left in the rubbish room of every floor every time they clear the rubbish, supervisor will check their work on this matter every day, we also need residents to feedback to us if they have found over night rubbish have not been cleared by the worker & we will take against them!

3) We have fixed the day of every week for cleaners to check & clear if rubbish found in the semicircle structure (also called pottery area) next to the staircase of every floor, in fact this is a most likely place where mosquito lives! Due to the bad workmanship when they built these apartments, the rain water can't flow out completely & most of the floor will have stagnant water inside these structure every time it rains, some irresponsible residents have bad habit of throwing rubbish inside have made this problem more complicated. In the past we have paid contractors to clear sand, mud, papers, plants, pots, clothes, etc from these structure, but before long new rubbish found there again! So beside asking cleaners to check the structure, we also hope the said residents will come to their right senses & stop throwing things there.

4) Supervisor will check & clear empty pots/container from common areas regularly, especially corridors, we hope that our residents will do their part not to keep any empty pots or containers because these have high chance for mosquito to build their nest.

do share with us if you have good idea on this.

thanks.

more money in, less money out.

2 years ago, when JMB started to implement the T&G barrier system, few residents angrily said we are all "money face"!!! now i must say, maybe they are right :)

why? because all these while we have been thinking abt MONEY, how to get more money to maintain & improve the facilities in vista condo, and at the same time to cut down unnecessary expenses so to make the finance look better....

in fact, after Najib gave a bombshell of GST announcement & TNB increase the tariff, day & night we are thinking, checking around with residents & vendor, of how to do the "more money in, less money out" stuff, so that our residents do not need to pay more in the Service Charge (SC), but remain as RM100 in this year & hopefully years to come too.

(yesterday read from news portal that, the MP of Komtar YB Ng Wei Aik even predicts that this year most of the apartments will increase their SC in order to cope with the hikes in their expenses, especially TNB bills).

so for the "more money in, less money out", we are planning few projects, and rest assured that we would not compromise the safety even if need to cut cost in certain area...

we have mentioned much on T5 which is in the progress, so not need to repeat again here, but also exploring LED bulb for the car park compound lighting (abt 50 in total), wattage drop from abt 29w to 9w but equal brightness (LUX) according to vendor, the best is the cost of LED bulb is not much different from the conventional one, most likely will go ahead after first phase of T5 project completed.

thanks to the resident who suggested the recycle project, if we do it well, then should have few hundred ringgit extra income per month, now we are talking to few recycling vendors for the price (metal, aluminium, paper, etc), once the term is right & get the suitable location for the recycle the we will announce it to our beloved residents, hope can get all our residents' support to work together to generate more income thru this project so no need to increase SC in the coming years.

we are also checking all the corridors/staircase light timing, even the pumps as well, so that by setting the optima timing for ON/OFF the lighting, pump, etc, will save another few hundred, but we must stress here, we would not compromise the safety of residents just for the sake of money.

in fact another good way of save money is equipments upgrade, for info, after one of blk k lift upgraded, we see the TNB bill for blk k drop few hundred ringgit, so we expect another few hundred ringgit drop after 2nd lift be upgraded, we hope can do the same thing for blk j lift, get gov't fund to upgrade the lifts & harvest the benefits on the TNB bill, but we also plan to talk to the supplier for the lift control system to have minima upgrade (less cost) but big drop in TNB bill in blk j, if the cost is not high, then may want to give it a shot.

other equipment which also in consideration like monitor screen mentioned by KK in last post, pumps, T&G barrier, etc, we are checking with all these vendors to see worth keeping the existing system, or upgrade them to get long term benefits, especially in term of finance....

welcome you guys' suggestion...

thanks.

facilities upgrading projects started....

committee have a regular meeting last Wednesday, after much discussion & consideration, we decide to go ahead with 3 upgrading project which will be mentioned below, but anyway the other 2 projects which have been discussed much in the past got to put on hold at the moment as the cost involved are too high, the 2 projects to be put on hold are gym (need abt 20K to convert the toilet to be gym room, haven't include the equipment yet) & multipurpose half basketball court (also need more than 20k).

the 3 upgrading projects are given a go ahead mainly because of the safety concern, property value & also it's long lasting effect such as cost saving...

1) we will change 150 sets of T5 tube soon, in fact some of the faulty light already been replaced by T5 lights, we expect longer (abt twice) life span of T5 compare to the existing T8 tube, and save 25% to 30% of energy consumption, another reason we replacing the light now is we manage to get the good offer from supplier, Malaysia made T5 with SIRIM certification only cost RM20 per set plus installation, one year warranty, so at the moment we go ahead with 150 set, and expecting ROI (return of investment) in 14 months' time.

For residents' information, the total T8 fluorescent tube we have is abt 400 set, but we would like to repalce it phase by phase so that it won't create too huge burden on the finance.

2) swimming pool grates (drain cover) - this is for the safety of pool users (especially kids) & also for beautification, which may help to boost Vista Condo's property value. Again, we would not change all the grates, but to replemish the missing one, even so, it's abt 200 ft of grates needed, which as now the best price we get from vendor is RM29 with reasonable quality, but as one Vista resident willing to sponsor part of the cost, RM1000 as he promised, so from the management account may just need to contribute less than 4K.

We understand that the pool has became one of the selling point for vista, especially both our neighbors (villa & desa relau 2) are without this pool facility at the moment, so perhaps to beautify it may add a few thousand in Vista's property value :)

3) high resolution camera, our vendor is kind enough to upgrade for Vista for free for 8 of our existing 18 cameras, as an token of appreciation for our long term support for their business for past few years on both CCTV & entrance TnG barrier. These 8 high reso cameras will be placed at main entrance (2x), all the lifts (4x), and lobby of both block (2x), we expect they will complete it this coming week, we also negotiating with them now for the remaining 10 cameras, if they willing to give very good discount (we aim at 40%) then we may want to upgrade it as well, budget should be less than 3k in total.

the main reason for this is safety, as now the crime rate still high, and with the price hike due to increase of petrol, TNB, etc, we don't see in anytime soon the crime cases will drop, and we also ask the guard to be more alert when carrying out their duties, recently we heard some complaints from residents & asked their company to change one of the guard as the person too easily to let outsiders to enter our place, hope that our residents will continue to help us to monitor the performance of vendors.

thanks.

service charge no increase at the moment

last weeks some committee members attended a residents' gathering at one of the neighboring project, their committee chairman was grateful for our help in the past, there was abt 2 years ago when their developer just sent them a short notice asking them to take over the management, as those days they were inexperience & they approached us to give them some advice, so we went to meet them, gave them some encouragements & recommended few trusted contractors to them, time gone by so fast, and they do so much better than us now, so perhaps we got to learn a few tricks from them :)

in the gathering we also meet friends & contractors from some other nearby apartment projects, so exchanged ideas, experiences & info with them, and to our surprise, some apartments have already increased their service charge (SC), as we know, one from 110 to 130, another one from 100 to 120 (but residents reacted because swimming pool & other facilities have been shut down by developer).

check with them the reasons why increased the SC, the former one said operation cost had gone up so have no choice but to increase it, and as most of their residents are from high income group, so they OK with 130. But for the latter case which increased from 100 to 120, the reason is due to both higher operation cost & poor collection as well, at the moment they still need to deal with their residents over this matter....

so now the question throw to us is, are we going to keep it at 100, or increase it? well, if we can maintain the good collection rate with the cooperative attitude by our beloved residents like what's happening now, and also if our vendors don't increase their service fee, then we should be able to maintain at 100 in year 2014, for this we would like say "thank you" to the Vista Condo residents for have been very cooperative in many areas.

we also feel very fortunate for the rental parking lots built by first batch of JMB, for that facility have been consistently bringing in abt RM1500 to RM2000 income every month, and at the moment we have few plans in mind to cut cost further which can amounting to another abt RM500 per month, hopefully we can think abt some idea to generate extra regular income so that Vista Condo can still keep the SC at 100 even beyond yr2014 :P

hopefully our vendors will be kind enough to maintain the same rate in ry2014 :):):)

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.