EN BLOC RULES

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EN BLOC RULES

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(Review): **

27.

Ms Irene Ng Phek Hoong asked the Minister for Law whether the en bloc rules will be reviewed further, in particular, (i) to clarify and demarcate the roles of the management committee versus the sales committee; and (ii) to limit the use of proxy votes at annual and emergency meetings.

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Mr Shanmugam: MinLaw has been monitoring how the rules in the Land Titles (Strata) Act amended last October had been working in practice. As of now, we think that it is too early to decide whether there is a need for some of the rules to be further fine-tuned.

I will now deal with the two questions that Ms Ng has highlighted. As regards to her first question, the role of the council of a management corporation and that of a collective sale committee is described in the legislation. The Building Maintenance and Strata Management Act provides that the role of a management corporation is, amongst other things, to control, manage, maintain and administer the common property of the development to ensure that they are in good and proper condition. Members of the management corporation council are responsible and accountable for carrying out the duties of the corporation for the benefit of all the owners. The role of the management corporation council does not extend to exploring and facilitating a collective sale of the development, which is under the purview of a collective sale committee duly elected at a general meeting. The role of a collective sale committee, as described in the Land Titles (Strata) Act, is principally to act on behalf of the owners on matters relating to a collective sale of that development.

As regards to Ms Ng’s second question on the use of proxy votes, just as a shareholder who cannot attend a company’s general meeting can cast his vote on the resolutions through a proxy, it is necessary to allow an owner to vote through a proxy at a general meeting of the corporation. Disallowing or limiting the use of proxy votes will mean that owners who are unable to attend a meeting will not be able to exercise their right to vote. We see no compelling reasons to deprive owners of this right.