Some Observations / Reflections by a SP who attended the EOGM on July 23, 2017

Some independent Observations / Reflections by a SP who attended the EOGM

 on July 23, 2017

I.           Agenda:    Meeting Agenda was poorly drafted which caused undue delays and consumed whole of          Sunday afternoon. Due to the late hour, EOGM was hurriedly closed which did not give opportunity        to many SPs to seek clarifications or share their concerns.

It was clear that not enough attention was given nor experts’ advice was sought in drafting the Agenda. This gave an impression that the intent of EOGM was to somehow rush through the process. This created considerable unease and feeling of mistrust among many SPs. Argument from a small group of SPs, who seemed to be representing the EOGM requesters, that the agenda was requested by >20% SPs was very weak and misleading, as it was very likely that most SPs who signed consent to hold the EOGM did not study /understand the technicalities of the wordings and sequencing of proposed resolutions. Thanks to a number of responsible SPs who challenged the wording / intent of resolutions and through convincing reasoning made the managing agent make certain amendments.

II.       Nomination process for Sales Committee: Soon after the call for nomination of sales committee    members by managing agent, one of the SPs gave a pre-prepared list of 7 candidates to the managing  agent, which was promptly typed and displayed. It was also unusual to note that all of them were  proposed by one particular SP. This gave an impression that a group of pre aligned 7 SPs had planned  to force through their way to secure positions in sales committee and dominate it through majority  vote (nomination of 7 names was clearly not a coincidence but a pre-planned number to guarantee  majority, as maximum number of sales committee members was 14. It was also noted that, same SP  who proposed all 7 names, also proposed the number of sales committee members as 13. Hmmm…)

It was also noted that even before the managing agent opened the floor for nominations, some of the SPs whose names were already flashed on the screen, started nominating new members which quickly increased the list. Some SPs found this rushed up nominations by a small group as pre-planned and questionable. It gave an uncomfortable feeling that a small group of SPs might be colluding to take control of the sales committee.  Objections were raised by many SPs but the pre-decided nominations (Group of 7 .. say G7) and nominations by already nominated members were not taken down.

There was a good likeliness that many SPs hesitated to nominate names of well deserving candidates after looking at the long list of already prefilled nominations. Although the process of selecting 13 of 16 names went through in proper manner, most names in the sales committee were from the prefilled nominations and names proposed by nominated members. This gave an impression that the sales committee, though selected by the voting, would be dominated by a small group of pre-aligned SPs ( G7) who already might have an agreed objective and might not represent aspiration of wider community of SPs. It is also likely that a few independently elected members might find themselves cornered in such situation.

III.     Resolution 3: Powers of Sales Committee: Although the Strata Titles Act of Singapore clearly stipulates that Sales Committee must hold an EOGM for appointment of lawyers and property consultants as well as for approving apportionment method and Terms & Conditions of the Collective Sales Agreement; original wordings of annexure to resolution 3 were clearly intended to seek absolute empowerment by sales committee (in fact by G7, whose securing majority vote in sales committee was possibly pre-planned as mentioned in point ii above).  Thanks again to a number of responsible SPs, who persuaded the managing agent to reword some part of annexure  to resolution 3.

Since above observations may raise questions in the way a group of pre-aligned SPs (G7) secured dominating position in the sales committee, it is therefore extremely important for responsible SPs of Teresa Ville to scrutinize and understand every action/decision taken by the Sales Committee. For most SPs it is of utmost importance that En-Bloc process of their homes be conducted in a fair, transparent, inclusive and proper manner and steered by a sales committee consists of qualified members with high level of integrity, commitment and spirit of ‘Society above Self’.