Strata Management Tribunal in Peninsular Malaysia: Comparison to Strata Titles Board, Singapore and Consumer Trade Tenancy Tribunal, New South Wales, Australia

Abstract

Part IXA of the Strata Titles Act 1965 ("STA") provides for the establishment of the Strata Titles Board ("STB"). STB is given the mandate to exercise quasi-judicial functions with regards to matters relating to multi storey buildings. The rationale for establishing the STB is to protect the interest of the parcel owners. However, the STB shall be abolished with the proposed enactment of the Strata Management Act 2013 ("SMA"). In line with Section 102 of the new Strata Management Act, the STB will be replaced with the Strata Management Tribunal ("SMT") in accordance with Part XI of the SMA. In theory, it is anticipated that the establishment of the SMT will address the strata titles management disputes particularly with regards to the failure on the part of the parcel owners to pay maintenance fees and issues on the election of their committee members. The aimed of this paper is to discuss the SMT in accordance with Part XI of the SMA with comparison to the STB, Singapore and the three (3) tiered dispute resolution processes in New South Wales, Australia. The objective of this paper is to see whether the provisions in SMA with regards to the establishment of the SMT is comparatively sufficient as provisions in the legislations of Singapore and New South Wales, Australia to address the strata titles management disputes. The research method used in writing up this paper is the qualitative research in which it will rely on the analysis of the relevant statutes, rules, regulations, books, journals, articles, thesis, seminar papers, electronic materials and various newspaper reports. The finding of this paper is that the provisions of the SMA regarding the establishment of the SMT together with the regulations to regulate the SMT may be sufficient to resolve the strata titles management disputes in a more expedient manner. It is hoped that any disputes shall be resolved more timely and efficiently with minimal costs since the parties in dispute can submit a case or claim before the SMT since not all matters may necessarily be taken to court in order for it to get resolved.

Impact of Having an Early Briefing among Residents/Owners in Reducing Strata Disputes in Malaysia

“…75.5% of respondents are aware of the Act and this is important to reduce the strata disputes in the country. Anyway, the depth of awareness among the respondents might differ from each other (Mohamad et al, 2015). The finding indicates that respondents felt the Act is best to resolve disputes between owners and the management, which they had earlier said was the hardest to resolve (Mohamad & Sufian, 2013).…”

“…For example, face-to-face talk and mediation are the best ways of resolving disputes among the residents of strata neighbourhoods. Nonetheless, there are still dissatisfactions on the management and maintenance of common property performed by the property managers (Mohamad et al, 2015). There are five components in the proposed dispute resolution model for strata schemes, which comprises internal dispute resolution processes, conciliation by the COB, negotiation or adjudication by the Tribunal, court litigation or appeal, and post-dispute resolution.…”

“…There have been numerous studies on types of disputes and causes of disputes (de Cruz, 2013;Mohamad et al, 2015). Past research has pointed out and categorised strata disputes in their studies, however, there was no in-depth study on what type of disputes can be tackled at the very beginning before the strata living begins.…”