Our village has a swimming pool owned by the developer and they want us to pay all cleaning, maintenance and electric bill costs. It is on land ( including the swimming pool) that we as residents do not and never will own . We will never own the swimming pool either. It belongs to the developer. It is only used by 2- 3 people as most residents have there own pool. Can they insist we pay?

All developers are required to have a juristic board and common area fees are normally imposed by that board and will be included in your sales contract/home owners handbook.

Generally, when accepting the ownership transfer of the house or condominium unit, apart from the house/condominium final payment, you would also pay the Sinking Funds and Common Property area fees. The Sinking Funds are one time payment while the common property area fees are calculated based on the number of Square Wah (for house) and Square Meters (for Condo). The project’s policy and regulation in collecting this can vary as some will collect one year in advance while others may collect 2 years in advance.

Once the 1 year or 2 years in advance payment is ended the Juristic Management may either collect on a monthly or an annual basis.

The common property area fees that are collected are for the purpose of maintaining the public or common area, garbage collection, security guards, as well as the running costs of the juristic management team.

Even though the pool is not your property it is considered part of the common area where each home owner is equally responsible for it (in the proportion of the number Square Wah/Square Meters), even if they are not using or do not intend to use that specific facility. You may refer back to the Village/Condominium Hand Book (Rules and Regulation) where there would be rules to govern the village and to which, each home owner must comply.

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