AS the owner of a parcel in a mixed development, I salute the courageous parcel owner of Rajawali Development who took a joint management body and relevant parties to task and won the Court of Appeal case for proper enforcement of the equitable basis of share unit allocation to set a single charge as entrenched in the Strata Management Act 2013, ACT 757.
Contrary to the position presented in the article “Owners of high-rise mixed-use property likely to pay higher maintenance fees” (The Star, Oct 16; online at bit.ly/star_strata), it needs to be pointed out that this Court of Appeal ruling will result in a fairer distribution of maintenance fees and the majority of individual residential and SoHo (small office/home office) owners will benefit from lower maintenance costs in a mixed development property.
The article on Oct 16 did not explain the fundamental basis of share units allocation under the Strata Management Act. The First Schedule of the Act provides for the equitable allocation of weightage factors for different sectors of a mixed development property so that, basically, all sectors pay different but equitable rates to use amenities. The share units computation formula is very straightforward, it’s not rocket science and can be easily understood by the general public.
