BY: BRENDA CH'NG

You got served: MBPJ officers visiting units at the low-cost flats in PJS 5, Taman Desa Ria. Some residents there have accumulated assessment arrears for over 10 years.

LOUD arguments were heard at the Taman Desa Ria low-cost flats in PJS 5 Petaling Jaya as the city council officers went around collecting arrears.

Some of the residents have unpaid assessment arrears of over 10 years.

After issuing at least 20 notices asking residents to pay up every year, the Petaling Jaya City Council (MBPJ) finally came down hard on the offenders when all warnings were ignored.

“We sent them two notices every year asking them to pay up. We do not usually do this kind of operations at low-cost flats but they have not been paying for at least 10 years,” said MBPJ Treasury Department officer Zey Iskandar Mohd Jalil.

Zey Iskandar, who headed the operation, said MBPJ was usually more lenient towards residents in low-cost flats as they might not have money to pay.

However, he argued that total arrears in the area alone amounted to almost RM300,000 and it could not be overlooked anymore.

During the operation, council enforcement officers and officers from the Treasury visited 185 units.

Over two days, the officers seized the residents’ moveable properties after efforts to convince them to pay up failed.

Among them were electrical items and at times it was more, depending on the amount owed and how the residents negotiated with the officers.

Zey Iskandar said most residents usually paid up after talking it through, but some would put up a fight after which their items were seized.

“For our safety, we have the police on call.

“If residents try to cause any trouble we will call the police and they will come immediately,” he said.

Items seized are kept for seven days and if unclaimed they will be auctioned off.

To get their items back, residents have to pay up their arrears in full to MBPJ within seven days.

If residents only paid a portion of the amount, their items would still be auctioned off and the money collected would be used to pay off the outstanding arrears.

“This is our way of educating residents to pay their assessment fees so that they will bear in mind the consequences,” he said.

MBPJ officers also discovered that some residents had refused to pay the annual assessment fee because they were not happy with the services.

“They said we did not collect their rubbish or clean their area so they do not want to pay us the fee,” he said.

However, rubbish collection and cleaning maintenance at the flats is under the purview of the joint management body or joint management company.

This year, MBPJ set aside a budget to help them with rubbish collection and cleaning, but residents had still refused to pay.

The PSJ 5 is only one of the 16 areas where MBPJ is carrying out the operation at low-cost flats.

The operation will see 1,822 units visited and almost RM3mil to be collected as assessment arrears.