This is a follow-up posting from the last one on "Problems With Living In Singapore Condominiums- Not As Glamorous As One Think It Is". When communication breaks down between residents and the Management Committee of the MCST, all hell breaks loose, in particularly, with many egos being at stake, some estate issues will definitely escalate out of control. This is where a group of very pissed off resident group will get together to campaign to overthrow the incumbent Management Council team by mudslinging on social media and tit for tat went on between the 2 parties This is also whereby some residents will file a case with the Strata Title Board ("STB") to take on their own MCST.
1. Procedure of Filing to STB and whereby all residents gets punished from depletion of management funds in the legal dispute.
From my last posting, one typical problem will be whether 2nd and 3rd car can park for free issue in most condominiums or whether the MCST can enforce stringent wheel clamping rules against fellow residents.
The proceedings at Strata Titles Boards consist of 4 main stages:
(1.1) Application: The Applicant will file an application against the Respondent.
(1.2) Mediation: All parties (Applicant and Respondent) are required to attend mediation session(s) fixed by the Board. The matter may stop at mediation if parties resolve the dispute at that stage.
(1.3) Hearing: If the matter cannot be resolved at the mediation stage, the Board will give directions to the parties to prepare for a hearing and fix the hearing date.
(1.4) Post-hearing: The Board’s orders is binding on parties and may be enforced at the Singapore State Courts.
1.1 Cost of Application Stage- Money commences burning
An application fee of S$500 is required to submit the application along with the "prayers" being sought. Prayers here is not referring to the religious prayers but rather a specific request for judgment, relief and/or damages at the conclusion of a complaint or petition. The applicant/applicants will typically hire a lawyer at this stage to help prepare the filing and incur additional cost of between S$3K to S$5K.
At this point, the MCST is known as the respondent. The Management Council Members may also be named by the applicant/applicants individually as additional respondents along with the MCST. To get ready a respond, the MCST will typically incurr legal fees for crafting the respond. This can cost anywhere from S$3K to S$5K depending on the number of issues, its complexity and hours spent by the legal counsel.
1.2 Mediation- Extra money burnt for legal counsel to attend Mediation session on behalf of Applicants/Respondent
The lawyers representing the applicants and the MCST at this stage will be very happy as they can bill around S$3K to attend the mediation session.
So applicant wasted S$3K out of their own pocket if they hired legal counsel at this stage and the respondent will also waste S$3K.
Normally, there will be at least 2 mediation sessions before all stakeholders either resolve the issues or decided that mediation is useless and to move on to full hearing. If there is another mediation session, another S$3K will be wasted at each side.
Therefore, at least S$6K will thus be burnt by applicants and respondent respectively at the mediation sessions.
1.3 to 1.4 Hearing and Post Hearing
There will be an STB hearing cost here as well as individual legal counsel cost. This stage typically cost around S$10K to S$20k for each respective party depending on the number of hours spent by the legal counsel on hearing preparation and submission.
One import thing to note here is that many people have the wrong notion that if they win the STB case, they can get back all legal consultation and mediation costs from the losing party. This is totally wrong concept. Only party to party cost and panel hearing cost can be recovered. To give an example, I have known of MCST who spent S$50K in legal fees overall to defend against the prayers sought by the applicants and won the case but in the end only got back S$10K in cost recovery.
Summary
A typical STB case may thus cost up to S$20K to S$30K for applicants and respondent respectively depending on the number of prayers and the complexity of the issues. This is a lose lose situation as this means that S$40K to S$60K would have been wasted by both parties. The only winners out of this will be the legal counsels. Unfortunately, such incidents are not isolated. There are many people with different personalities and principles living in any estate. Residents should thus participate actively in the Annual General Meeting and ensure that they elect their council members wisely.
Most importantly, more residents should step forward to take up the thankless job of being a management council member lest the council is left in the control of an extremist group of residents who can then make numerous house rules to turn the entire estate into an army camp or prison which will have negative repercussions such as the estate getting into multiple lawsuits with vendors at Small Claims Tribunal/State Courts or cases lodged by fellow residents at STB.
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