Condo-stayers vs HDB dwellers . . .
I have not stayed in a condo before. But our experience with the HDB dwellers had convinced my husband that condo may be what we really want. But after reading through the experiences of Ms Jennifer Chua in her article 'One help, the other dodges' (Today, Nov 4), I probably should advice my husband to reconsider.
My 20+ years stay in the HDB were 'coloured' with a handful of irritable neighbours. And I should think that all HDB dwellers had at least experienced one of these issues. Will condo-living solve these?
1) Some 'sand-blind' dwellers blatantly ignore the effort made by the town council to strategically place dustbins right next to the letterbox. The area is still constantly littered with adverts by unconsiderate, lazy bums. And it never seemed to get cleared away especially in my block (maybe because the whole block's worth of conservancy fees is not enough to pay for the salary of a cleaner to help with the mess).
It's hard to educate the inconsiderate not to litter. If a dustbin can be provided right beside the letterbox area, and there are still so many people who chose to throw their waste on the floor instead of the bin, it's gonna be the same wherever you stay (unless you mean the landed property). The difference is, in a condo, you have a cleaner hard at work every day. You have a management to complain to, who will take it seriously and work on it. They pay maintenance fee, equivalent to our conservancy fees, but maybe they get quick, daily service cos it cost more.
2) Then it's the common rubbish chute beside the lift. The foot pedal is spoilt, making the chute virtually unusable unless you open the chute with your hands (which is not advisable, just a quick touch of the handle will make you smell even at the distance of 5m away). We got the habit of going one floor up or one floor down to use the chute, while others just put their rubbish beside the chute (which luckily is cleared every day except Sunday. At least our conservancy fees are enough to pay the cleaner to clear the chute area. But alas, it is still not enough for the town council to repair the spoilt foot pedal).
I'm not too sure if condos have common chutes or individual chutes. But I should think that with the high maintenance fee, condo owners do have a louder say for a responsive service for it to be repaired if it's found faulty.
3) And you have the lifts which work independent of each other. Pressing on one, doesn't mean it will activate the electronics managing the two lifts. You'll have to press on the other lift as well, to activate that. It makes me wonder if I live in the 21st century.
Again, with higher maintenance fee, of course you can also complain about the lifts and get an immediate response.
4) The inconsiderate neighbours add to the fire by littering sticky foodstuff along the common corridor and it happens to be in front of your unit. And it may take up to a month before the washing attendant comes to your rescue.
Less units per floor may mean less irritants, maybe. And more frequent washing schedule too I reckon, which comes with the higher maintenance fee.
5) Furthermore, you have part-timers who took the effort to walk to every unit of every floor of every block in your estate to bring to your doorstep, the most recent promotional efforts of Pizza Hut, buffet caterers, locksmith services, property agents' sales, etc. . . And intentionally, they will lure the eyes of burglars to those units with the most piled up leaflets in front of the door, which means nobody's home!!!
You'll never again get these useless pieces of paper lying around your door. The sight of a gantry to the condo should be able to ward off these part-timers even before they reach your lift lobby.
6) We have weird aunties/uncles too. Who seemed to believe that if they help with the lift buttons, they will be termed 'lift operators'. So they'll stand beside the lift buttons, staring into mid-air, blocking others from reaching for the buttons as well, and wait patiently for the door to close automatically.
I should think there will also be weird people in condos who just refuse to press the lift buttons other than the floor that they want to go to. Many 'ang mohs' fall prey to this kind of behaviour. I've seen it time and again in my office. Not all 'ang mohs' are like that, but it was enough to make an impression.
And I do think that maybe what Jennifer had experienced about the 'weird' ang moh who was uncomfortable to even take the same lift with her mother-in-law who had a stroke was not that uncommon afterall. Thus, making the stay in a condo seemingly more unfriendly then ever (assuming there are more 'ang mohs' renting/buying condos rather than HDBs).
The 'signs' placed on her husband's car also proved a point, that condo-stayers may be less tolerant and sometimes over confident about their own rights (maybe because they think that their maintenance fee is so much higher than a HDB dweller that they have the right to demand things to revolve around them).
I'll still have to do my maths while considering if condo is really the answer to our HDB woes!
My 20+ years stay in the HDB were 'coloured' with a handful of irritable neighbours. And I should think that all HDB dwellers had at least experienced one of these issues. Will condo-living solve these?
1) Some 'sand-blind' dwellers blatantly ignore the effort made by the town council to strategically place dustbins right next to the letterbox. The area is still constantly littered with adverts by unconsiderate, lazy bums. And it never seemed to get cleared away especially in my block (maybe because the whole block's worth of conservancy fees is not enough to pay for the salary of a cleaner to help with the mess).
It's hard to educate the inconsiderate not to litter. If a dustbin can be provided right beside the letterbox area, and there are still so many people who chose to throw their waste on the floor instead of the bin, it's gonna be the same wherever you stay (unless you mean the landed property). The difference is, in a condo, you have a cleaner hard at work every day. You have a management to complain to, who will take it seriously and work on it. They pay maintenance fee, equivalent to our conservancy fees, but maybe they get quick, daily service cos it cost more.
2) Then it's the common rubbish chute beside the lift. The foot pedal is spoilt, making the chute virtually unusable unless you open the chute with your hands (which is not advisable, just a quick touch of the handle will make you smell even at the distance of 5m away). We got the habit of going one floor up or one floor down to use the chute, while others just put their rubbish beside the chute (which luckily is cleared every day except Sunday. At least our conservancy fees are enough to pay the cleaner to clear the chute area. But alas, it is still not enough for the town council to repair the spoilt foot pedal).
I'm not too sure if condos have common chutes or individual chutes. But I should think that with the high maintenance fee, condo owners do have a louder say for a responsive service for it to be repaired if it's found faulty.
3) And you have the lifts which work independent of each other. Pressing on one, doesn't mean it will activate the electronics managing the two lifts. You'll have to press on the other lift as well, to activate that. It makes me wonder if I live in the 21st century.
Again, with higher maintenance fee, of course you can also complain about the lifts and get an immediate response.
4) The inconsiderate neighbours add to the fire by littering sticky foodstuff along the common corridor and it happens to be in front of your unit. And it may take up to a month before the washing attendant comes to your rescue.
Less units per floor may mean less irritants, maybe. And more frequent washing schedule too I reckon, which comes with the higher maintenance fee.
5) Furthermore, you have part-timers who took the effort to walk to every unit of every floor of every block in your estate to bring to your doorstep, the most recent promotional efforts of Pizza Hut, buffet caterers, locksmith services, property agents' sales, etc. . . And intentionally, they will lure the eyes of burglars to those units with the most piled up leaflets in front of the door, which means nobody's home!!!
You'll never again get these useless pieces of paper lying around your door. The sight of a gantry to the condo should be able to ward off these part-timers even before they reach your lift lobby.
6) We have weird aunties/uncles too. Who seemed to believe that if they help with the lift buttons, they will be termed 'lift operators'. So they'll stand beside the lift buttons, staring into mid-air, blocking others from reaching for the buttons as well, and wait patiently for the door to close automatically.
I should think there will also be weird people in condos who just refuse to press the lift buttons other than the floor that they want to go to. Many 'ang mohs' fall prey to this kind of behaviour. I've seen it time and again in my office. Not all 'ang mohs' are like that, but it was enough to make an impression.
And I do think that maybe what Jennifer had experienced about the 'weird' ang moh who was uncomfortable to even take the same lift with her mother-in-law who had a stroke was not that uncommon afterall. Thus, making the stay in a condo seemingly more unfriendly then ever (assuming there are more 'ang mohs' renting/buying condos rather than HDBs).
The 'signs' placed on her husband's car also proved a point, that condo-stayers may be less tolerant and sometimes over confident about their own rights (maybe because they think that their maintenance fee is so much higher than a HDB dweller that they have the right to demand things to revolve around them).
I'll still have to do my maths while considering if condo is really the answer to our HDB woes!
posted by Caller From The Falls at 1:32 AM
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