Law amendment focuses on building maintenance fund

The acting president of the Housing Bureau (IH), Ieong Kam Wa, claimed yesterday that the amendment of the Regulation of Condominium Common Areas Management would focus on improving management of the common parts maintenance fund.
Currently, article 1333 of the Civil Code stipulates that each condominium must establish a maintenance fund and apartment owners of the building should contribute to it. Nevertheless, some proprietors have chosen not to pay their share to the fund.
Ieong Kam Wa said that, after the amendment, proprietors’ committees would be able to launch legal action on behalf of their buildings against those property owners who refused to contribute to the maintenance fund.
“As far as I know, [the amendment] will state clearly when a proprietor should start contributing to the fund, the proportion of the contribution and the managing regime of the fund. Since it is a civil matter, [the] properties’ owners will be the party [responsible for] recovering the unpaid contribution,” Mr Ieong said.
Moreover, the acting president has addressed the “one building, multiple proprietors’ committees” problem that was an issue in some Macau buildings, and said that the amendment will ensure that this situation will not occur in future.
He said that the amended regulation would require proprietors’ committees to obtain a permit from IH before calling the election for the committee members.
IH will also keep a record of all documents of proprietors’ committee meetings.
After the law is amended, it will be considered illegal for proprietors to attempt to bypass the original committee and establish a new one. JPL