Record-breaking: Rumah Pangsa Orkid is the first low-cost property to achieve the top standard for quality management.

STOLEN cars and motorcycles, break-ins, rubbish strewn about, open slaughtering of chickens, and uncooperative residents.... Needless to say, these problems made Rumah Pangsa Orkid, a low cost flat property in Ulu Tiram, Johor, far from an ideal place to live in back in 2004.

But today, the 312-unit development has transformed itself into a clean, organised and safe community, reducing crime in the area by 95% and installing 65 CCTV cameras.

It was awarded the top standard for quality management, or ISO9001:2008, denoting that it has proper standard operating procedures in place to deal with issues, and efficient building management.

With this feat, the flats made it into the Malaysia Book Of Records in January 2014 for being the first low-cost property to be awarded the ranking, and it remains the only one to achieve this to date.

The flat’s management body adviser Lim Kok Thye says the Rumah Pangsa Orkid plans to continue maintaining such a standard, which is valid for three years.

The current ISO certification will expire in December this year.

While it started with 17 families, the flat is now populated by 2,000 residents of various races.

Lim says the secret of the property’s success in transforming itself was the will to take action and setting strict rules for residents.

“You can’t be sceptical and say that it can’t be done or you can’t succeed.

“If we do not take care of our homes, who will?” says the 46-year-old, who was one of the first residents, moving into his flat in 2002.

When he became the chairman of the management corporation (MC) in 2004, Lim was faced with multiple problems and decided to do something about it.

“Initially, our funds were zero because nobody wanted to pay their fees. I had to borrow some money from the developer to start the ball rolling,” he says.

Lim then started organising

gotong-royong, or clean-up campaigns, and personally fixed pipes for free.

“When people saw what I was doing, they too started to feel for my cause,” he says, adding that he also introduced strict rules for residents including imposing fines of up to RM300 for littering and vandalising facilities.

Signboards listing penalties were put up to remind residents not to throw rubbish around indiscriminately.

Using their own budget, the flat also installed CCTV cameras to catch litterbugs and thieves red-handed.

On maintenance fees, Lim says the residents needed to understand what they were paying for.

“We must explain to the residents or else they won’t pay up. Stubborn residents who refuse to pay their fees will be charged interest and have their names listed in CTOS, the credit reporting agency,” he says.

Lim says while cleanliness used to be a persistent problem, the property is now sometimes used as a backdrop by couples for their wedding pictures.

Urban Wellbeing, Housing and Local Government Ministry urban service division under-secretary Mohammad Ridzwan Abidin praises the residents for their effort, saying that even some high-end condominiums find it challenging to achieve such a feat.

“The place is very well-kept. Even my officers found it difficult to spot a discarded cigarette butt in the compound,” he quips.