JMB MASKIARA RESIDENCES v INTAN PERMATA PROPERTIES SDN BHD

Case Significance

Illustrates enforcement of a developer’s liability for statutory maintenance charges under the strata-management regime, and confirms the ten per cent per annum ceiling on late-payment interest.

This High Court decision concerns a claim by the management corporation of a stratified development, JMB Maskiara Residences, against the project’s developer, Intan Permata Properties Sdn Bhd, for outstanding statutory maintenance charges. The management body, incorporated to manage the common property under the Building and Common Property (Maintenance and Management) Act 2007 and the Strata Management Act 2013, sued for unpaid maintenance fees, sinking-fund contributions and late-payment interest attributable to parcels connected with the developer, the sum claimed exceeding one million ringgit as at the cut-off date. The developer applied under Order 33 rule 2 of the Rules of Court 2012 for the determination of preliminary questions of fact and law before trial, that rule permitting the Court to order any question arising in a cause to be tried before, at or after trial. The Court addressed several threshold points: whether the claim was barred by limitation, whether the basis of computation was sound, the developer’s liability for the parcels it had sold, and the propriety of the late-payment interest. On limitation, the Court held that the claim was not time-barred. It accepted the management body’s computation and found the developer liable to pay the outstanding charges in respect of the sold units. On interest, the Court noted that late-payment interest is capped at ten per cent per annum by the statutory scheme, and that the management body’s automated accounting system applied that rate on a daily basis; it held that the ten per cent per annum late-payment interest was proper and allowed. Having resolved those questions, the Court, per Eddie Yeo Soon Chye JC, allowed the claim with costs of RM20,000 subject to allocatur. The judgment is a useful illustration of how the statutory strata-management regime is enforced against a developer for unpaid maintenance charges and of the ten per cent ceiling on late-payment interest.