Articles

Common Property in Strata Development

A father brought home a chocolate cake that had six strawberry toppings. 💖

With six boys at home, aged between two and 10 years old, the father handed one strawberry to each boy and had intended to cut the cake into six equal slices. But  before he had the opportunity to cut the cake and distribute it among the children, his boss rang him on the phone. With some urgent matters to attend to at once, the father left in a haste and left it to the children to share the cake.

The six children could not wait to sink their teeth into a slice of the chocolate cake. But before anyone could put in a word on how the cake should be shared, the eldest child took half the cake and announced matter-of-factly, “I am the eldest and the tallest, so I am entitled to a big slice of the cake!”

Seeing that his brother had taken away half the cake, the second brother wasted no time in taking half of the remaining cake as he reasoned, “I am the eldest among the rest of you, so I deserve to have half of the remaining cake.”

With a quarter of the cake left, the third brother followed suit and took half of the remaining cake.

Thereafter, the fourth brother took half of the remaining cake while the fifth brother took what was leftover.

Being the youngest and most helpless among the six brothers, the sixth brother could not fight for his right in claiming a share of the cake. And so he did not have a chance to taste the chocolate cake.😨

Now, let us draw a parallel scenario where each strawberry represents a strata lot in a strata development where the six brothers are subsidiary proprietors in this community, while the chocolate cake represents the common property in this strata development.

❓️What  would happen if one or more subsidiary proprietors start to throw their weight around, much as the elder brothers did, and start using the common property without due consideration for other subsidiary proprietors?

❓️Do you think the other subsidiary proprietors would not voice their unhappiness?

❓️And do you not think that matters would go out of hand if there are not just six subsidiary proprietors, but hundreds or even thousands of them within the strata community?

Our Founder Teo Poh Siang has  in his book,  A Practical Guide to Strata Management in Singapore, listed  3 methods to guide strata managers determine common property in any strata development.💯  Among others, the determination of common property may require information from:

✅️Building Maintenance & Strata Management Act

✅️Architectural Plans

✅️Plumbing/Sanitary/Electrical Plans

✅️Strata Title Plans

✅️Case Law

A Registered Surveyor may be employed to assist interpreting the boundaries of strata lots from common property.

A Practical Guide to Strata Management in Singapore (2nd Edition) listed further 75 case studies to guide strata managers understand strata management better. 💯

You may obtain a copy at www.wisely98.com/publications.