Strata Maintenance Fee Malaysia 2026: JMB, MC, Tribunal

The notice goes up on the lift lobby wall sometime in the middle of the year. New rate, effective next month, thank you for your cooperation. Under it, a second sheet: unit numbers with amounts beside them, and somebody has drawn an arrow to one of the lines. Alamak. Nobody in the void deck that evening can say who decided the number, who is allowed to decide it, or what happens next to the units on the second sheet.

All three answers are written down, and not by the management. They are in the Strata Management Act 2013, in two sets of regulations gazetted in 2015, and in a handbook the housing ministry publishes for exactly this situation.

Quick Answer: the maintenance charge is imposed in proportion to the allocated share units of each parcel, and the sinking fund contribution is an amount equivalent to 10 per cent of the Charges that can never be set lower. Late payment interest is capped at 10 per cent per annum. Fourteen days after receiving a written notice, an unpaid parcel makes its owner a defaulter, and the by-laws then allow the access card to be switched off without further warning. To challenge any of it, the Strata Management Tribunal hears claims up to RM250,000, and the Commissioner of Buildings can investigate and appoint a managing agent over the existing management.

• Start here: within 28 days of any meeting where the Charges are confirmed or varied, the body must issue Form 5A, or Form 15 for a management corporation, and put a copy on the notice board. It states the rate per share unit and the interest rate.
• Two clocks: 14 days from receiving the notice to pay, and the seventh day before a general meeting, which is when your right to vote at it is decided.
• Two limits: interest may not exceed 10 per cent per annum, and the sinking fund may not be set below 10 per cent of the Charges. Both are in the Act, not in your building’s house rules.
• Catch: disputing a charge does not suspend it. You keep paying at the rate set while the dispute runs, or you become a defaulter anyway.

Who runs itShare unitsThe card stops

Who Runs Your Building, and When That Changes

First, the developer’s management period, which section 9(2) runs from the date vacant possession of a parcel is delivered to a purchaser until one month after the joint management body is established, or any later date the Commissioner extends it to.

Second, the JMB, which is not registered into existence. Section 17(1) says it is established when its first annual general meeting is held, and that meeting must happen not later than 12 months from the date vacant possession was delivered. Convening it is the developer’s duty under section 18(1), and subsection (2) prices failure at a fine not exceeding RM250,000 or up to 3 years or both; if the developer still does nothing, subsection (5) lets the Commissioner appoint someone else to convene it at the developer’s expense. Notice goes to all purchasers not less than 14 days beforehand, with a copy displayed at a conspicuous part of the development area. Note who the JMB is: section 17(4) says it consists of the developer and the purchasers together.

Third, the management corporation, which comes into existence when the strata titles are opened. Between that and the moment owners take over sits the preliminary management period, which the Act defines as ending the day proprietors other than the original proprietor or the developer hold at least one quarter of the aggregate share units. Section 57(1) requires the developer to convene the management corporation’s first annual general meeting within one month after that, on the same penalty and notice. The JMB then stops existing: section 27 dissolves it three months from that meeting and requires it, within one month, to transfer the account balances and hand over the by-laws, accounts, assets, liabilities and records.

Editor’s Note: the copy of Act 757 used here is the one the National Housing Department publishes on its own strata page, read on 19 September 2026. It is the Malay gazette text; no English gazette text of the Act was found on any government host, so the English wordings here are a translation of the Malay text, except where the bilingual 2015 Regulations quote the Act in English. The Act was gazetted on 8 February 2013 and came into force on 1 June 2015. Section 1(2) also says it applies only to Peninsular Malaysia and the Federal Territory of Labuan; owners in Sabah and Sarawak are under their own state legislation, which this guide has not read and does not cover.

Where the Number Comes From: Share Units, Not Square Feet

The rate is not a committee opinion and it is not per square foot. Form 5A, the notice a JMB must send after the meeting, recites the basis on its face: under paragraph 21(1)(b) the joint management body shall determine and impose the Charges, and under subsection 25(3) the amount shall be determined in proportion to the allocated share units of each parcel. The form then has a blank line that reads, in the gazette’s own bracket, state the rate per share unit.

Share units are not floor area either, though area drives them: the First Schedule multiplies the parcel area by a weighting factor for the parcel type and one for a whole floor parcel, weights any accessory parcel separately, and rounds to a whole number. A management corporation has a little more room: section 60(3) lets it set different rates for parcels used for significantly different purposes, which is why a ground floor shop lot can lawfully sit on a different rate from the apartments above it.

The sinking fund has a floor rather than a ceiling. Section 25(4) makes the contribution an amount equivalent to 10 per cent of the Charges unless a general meeting determines otherwise, and whatever it determines may not be less than 10 per cent. Section 61(3) says the same for a management corporation, and section 52(3) fixes it flat at 10 per cent during the preliminary period. A meeting can vote the sinking fund up; it cannot vote it below a tenth. Late payment interest is the mirror image, a ceiling with no floor: section 25(6)(b) says a JMB’s rate may not exceed 10 per cent per annum, section 60(3)(c) caps a management corporation at the same figure, and section 52(5) imposes 10 per cent per year on a daily basis during the preliminary period.

Three ministry positions answer common questions. Insurance may not be billed as a separate line, because insuring the building is a duty of the management body and is paid from the maintenance account. What that policy must cover — and what it leaves to each owner — is set out in this site’s guide to what a strata building’s policy must cover. Not using the facilities buys nothing, because the charge is for maintaining common property and is not based on individual use. And no discount may be given on the Charges set at the AGM, though a time limited discount on the late payment penalty may be, if a general meeting approves it for everyone.

Section 53(1) says nobody may collect Charges or sinking fund contributions at all unless both accounts have been opened in the name of the management corporation and vacant possession has been delivered. One route the Act sets out for challenging the figure itself, during the preliminary period, is this: section 52(6) lets a dissatisfied proprietor apply to the Commissioner for a review, and he may fix the amount himself or direct the developer to appoint, at its own cost, a registered property manager to recommend it. After the first annual general meeting the forum changes. If you are still buying the place, the rate per share unit and your parcel’s share units are worth asking about before you sign.

What the Money Is Allowed to Pay For

The two accounts are not interchangeable. Section 23(3) confines the maintenance account to routine expenditure on a closed list: day to day upkeep of common property, cleaning, security and amenities, insurance premiums, local authority inspection notices, minor painting, inspection and repair of the common electrical wiring and the main water tank, rent and rates, audit fees, the managing agent’s fee, committee allowances at rates the Commissioner approves, and consultancy and legal costs properly incurred. Section 24(2) confines the sinking fund to capital expenditure: painting or repainting the common property, acquiring movable property for use with it, renewing or replacing fixtures and fittings, upgrading and improving it, and any other capital expenditure the body thinks necessary.

Painting appears in both, which is the distinction people miss: minor painting is routine and comes from the maintenance account, while repainting the block is capital and comes from the sinking fund.

You are entitled to see the numbers. Section 26(1) requires an approved company auditor to audit the accounts every year and a certified true copy, with the auditor’s report, to be filed with the Commissioner within 14 days of the audit. Section 21(1)(g) puts it plainly: ensure the accounts are audited and prepare audited financial statements for the information of members. Failing is an offence under section 26(5) for which every committee member is liable, with a fine not exceeding RM250,000 or up to 3 years or both, subject to a defence for a member who proves it happened without his knowledge and that he took all reasonable steps to prevent it. Subsection (2) adds a power worth knowing: the Commissioner may at any time appoint an auditor to investigate the accounts, and the building pays for it. Separately, section 36 requires money above RM5,000 not needed for immediate use to sit in an interest bearing deposit account, so a sinking fund idling in a current account is contrary to the section.

None of this is the tax you pay the council or the state. Assessment and parcel rent are separate bills from separate offices on separate calendars.

Fourteen Days, Then the Card Stops Working

Section 25(5) gives a parcel owner 14 days from receiving a notice to pay, and section 52(4) says the same during the preliminary period. Everything else turns on that number.

By-law 6(1)(a) of the 2015 Regulations defines a defaulter as a proprietor who has not fully paid at the expiry of those 14 days, and paragraph (b) extends any restriction to his family and to any chargee, assignee, successor in title, lessee, tenant or occupier of the parcel — which is why a tenancy agreement does not shield a tenant from a landlord’s unpaid bill. What follows, in order of increasing discomfort: interest at 10 per cent per annum on a daily basis (or whatever rate the body’s general meeting has set instead) until actual payment; a defaulters’ list of names, parcels and amounts on the notice boards, updated at the end of every following calendar month; deactivation of the access card without prior notice, with a reactivation charge not exceeding RM50; and suspension of the common facilities, including a designated car park bay. The handbook meets the obvious objection about that list head on, saying it does not breach the Personal Data Protection Act 2010 because that Act permits disclosure authorised under any law. Two doors stay open on the other side: by-law 6(6) allows a written instalment scheme with those measures held back while it runs, and by-law 6(7) allows a tenant, chargee or successor in title to pay on the owner’s behalf.

Past the by-laws the Act takes over. The written demand under section 34(1) must be in Form 11 for a developer or JMB; a management corporation’s equivalent is Form 20, and the form’s own footnote says the period given must be not less than 14 days from service. The form warns what comes next: a summons or claim in a court of competent jurisdiction or in the Strata Management Tribunal, or as an alternative recovery under section 35 by attachment of movable property. It also prints the offence — an owner who without reasonable excuse fails to comply is liable under subsection 34(3) to a fine not exceeding RM5,000 or up to 3 years or both, and for a continuing offence up to RM50 a day after conviction.

Attachment is the step that startles people. The developer or a committee member submits a sworn application in Form 21 to the Commissioner with a fee of RM20.00; if he issues the warrant in Form A, section 35(4) allows the named person to enter by force in the daytime and requires an inventory and a notice in Form B immediately after. Two 14 day clocks then run at once: anyone disputing the validity may apply within 14 days to the Magistrates Court for an order releasing the property, and if the sum is unpaid 14 days after the attachment the property is sold by auction under the Commissioner’s supervision, on not less than 7 days public notice with a reserve price. What that release application actually does to the auction clock is not stated on the pages read for this guide — if you have filed one, confirm its effect with the Commissioner or the Magistrates Court rather than assuming it pauses the sale.

Section 35(5) is aimed squarely at tenants: one who pays to avoid the attachment or sale may, absent a written agreement to the contrary, deduct it from the rent and hold possession of the property until repaid. If a notice has appeared on your door as a tenant, read it alongside what a landlord may and may not do. And arrears do not die with a change of owner: subsection 60(4) makes Charges recoverable from the proprietor or his successor in title.

The Seventh Day Before the Meeting

The most consequential sentence in the Act for an ordinary owner sits in the Second Schedule. Paragraph 21(2): an owner is not entitled to vote if, on the seventh day before the date of the meeting, all or any part of the Charges, the sinking fund contribution, or any other money owing and payable in respect of his parcel is in arrears.

Read it with subparagraph (1), which gives one vote per parcel on a show of hands and, on a poll, votes equal to the parcel’s share units.

The rest is worth knowing before you walk in. Paragraph 10(2) requires an annual general meeting once a year with not more than 15 months between one and the next, and regulation 34(2) makes failing to hold one an offence carrying a fine not exceeding RM50,000 or up to 3 years or both. Paragraph 12 requires at least 14 days notice stating the place, date and time, every resolution proposed, and each owner’s voting right. Paragraph 15 sets the quorum at half the owners entitled to vote, then defuses it: if a quorum is not present within half an hour of the appointed time, those present form the quorum. Proxies have two traps — a person may act as proxy for only one owner at any one general meeting, which quietly kills the folder of signed forms, and the instrument must be deposited at the registered address not less than 48 hours before. Section 22(2) adds a JMB balance: the developer counts as one person for the quorum however many unsold parcels it holds, while those parcels carry the same voting rights as a purchaser’s.

If the committee will not call a meeting, paragraph 11 is the lever. It must convene an extraordinary general meeting on a written requisition by owners jointly entitled to at least one quarter of the aggregate share units, or on a written direction from the Commissioner, not later than six weeks after the requisition is deposited. If it does not, the Commissioner may authorise any person in writing to convene one.

The Tribunal: RM250,000, No Lawyer, No Deadline

The Tribunal is the forum the Act built for this. It began operating on 1 July 2015, with four courts in Putrajaya, one each at the zone offices in Kuala Terengganu, Johor Bahru and Kepala Batas, and five additional courts in Kuala Lumpur, Penang and Muar.

Section 105(1) gives it the claims in Part 1 of the Fourth Schedule where the total sought does not exceed RM250,000. Of the fourteen heads there, the ones that matter in a charges dispute are recovering the Charges or the sinking fund contribution, an order to convene a general meeting, an order to nullify a resolution where voting rights were denied or proper notice was not given, an order to vary the interest rate for late payment, an order compelling the developer or the management body to hand over information or documents, and an order to confirm, vary or set aside a decision of the Commissioner.

Two features make it unusual. Section 105(2) says the Limitation Act 1953 does not apply to its proceedings, and KPKT states the consequence in one line: there is no time limit for filing a claim. And section 110(2) bars representation by an advocate and solicitor unless the Tribunal considers the matter involves complex issues of law and one party would suffer severe financial hardship without it. There are limits on the limits: section 105(3) excludes any claim in which title to land is disputed, and section 106(1) enforces one forum at a time once a claim is filed.

Section 107 lets a developer, a purchaser, an owner, a JMB, a management corporation, a managing agent, or any other interested person with the Tribunal’s leave file a claim; tenants are in that last bucket and ask for leave by email to [email protected] first. Filing goes through e-TPS or at the counter and by post. On paper, Form 1 goes in in four copies plus one per extra respondent, with the TPS particulars form in two copies and, for an arrears claim, the statement of account, Form 11 or Form 20, and proof that form was served. The claimant serves a sealed Form 1 on each respondent within 14 days of issuance and that sealed copy stays valid for 30 days; the respondent has 14 days from receiving it to file Form 2, at the same office where Form 1 was filed. The client charter is 140 working days to resolve a claim and 10 working days to deliver the award.

If a party did not appear and an award went against them, an application to set it aside goes in Form 16, in three copies with detailed grounds, within 30 days after it was served. If the complaint is with the award itself, KPKT points to judicial review in the civil High Court, and section 121 allows a challenge there on the ground of serious irregularity.

Enforcement is the step to watch. Section 120 makes the award final and binding and deems it an order of court. If it is ignored, KPKT applies to the Tribunal to have the award recorded at the Magistrates or Sessions Court. From there it runs as civil execution, for which you may appoint a lawyer, or as a criminal matter under section 123, which makes ignoring an award an offence punishable by a fine not exceeding RM250,000 or up to 3 years or both, plus up to RM5,000 a day after conviction. But the Tribunal does not prosecute it: that investigation belongs to the Commissioner of Buildings, and enforcing a recorded award is outside the Tribunal’s jurisdiction.

Editor’s Note: one inconsistency in the gazette, in case it confuses you at the counter. The prescribed fee table in P.U. (A) 103 lists the application to set aside an award against Form 15, while regulation 48(2) of the same gazette and the form itself say Form 16. KPKT’s forms page and FAQ both use Form 16. Say what you are filing rather than quoting a number.

The Other Door: The Commissioner of Buildings

The Tribunal decides disputes; the Commissioner supervises the system. Section 4(1) has the State Authority appoint, for a local authority area, an officer known as the Commissioner of Buildings, by notification in the Gazette. He sits at your council, not at the ministry.

What a complaint can produce is in section 86(1)(b). After a due inquiry on a complaint by a purchaser, an owner or anyone else having an interest in a parcel, if the Commissioner is satisfied the maintenance and management is not being carried out satisfactorily, he may appoint one or more persons to act as managing agent for a period he specifies. That agent carries out the duties and powers of the body it displaces, and its fee is agreed with the Commissioner’s consent and charged to the maintenance account — which means the building pays for it. Section 125(1) separately lets him investigate any offence under the Act.

Finding your Commissioner is the practical problem, since the appointment is by local authority. KPKT’s Handbook Pengurusan Strata 3.0 solves it: the back of it is a state by state directory of the Commissioner of Buildings at each local authority, with address, telephone and fax. Above him sits the Strata Management Division of the National Housing Department, whose published functions include coordinating complaints about the implementation of Act 757 and following up technical complaints unresolved at Commissioner or local authority level. It is at Aras 34, No. 51, Persiaran Perdana, Presint 4, 62100 Putrajaya, on 03-8891 4301, or [email protected].

One provision to keep in your back pocket whenever a document appears that seems to override the Act. Section 149 says its provisions have effect despite anything to the contrary in any agreement made after it came into force, and that no such agreement can avoid, alter or exclude any provision of it. A house rule, a sale and purchase clause or a management agreement cannot put the sinking fund below a tenth of the Charges or the interest above 10 per cent.

The Whole Thing on One Page

Every figure below is from the Act, the 2015 Regulations or a page the ministry publishes. Where a rule leaves the number to a general meeting, that is said rather than guessed.

Walaoeh Verdict

Get Form 5A before you argue about the amount. The most useful habit in a strata building costs nothing: ask for the notice the law already requires within 28 days of the meeting that set the charge. It states the rate per share unit and the interest rate, and it is meant to be on the notice board too.

Then watch the seventh day. If you intend to vote at the meeting that sets next year’s charge, make sure nothing is outstanding on your parcel a week beforehand, because paragraph 21(2) removes the vote of an owner in arrears on that day however small the arrears. Withholding payment as a protest is the one tactic the system is built to defeat: it costs you the vote, it starts the interest, and the charge stays payable while you dispute it anyway. Take the dispute to the Commissioner or the Tribunal and keep the account clean while you do. Rules, fees and thresholds move; before acting on any of this, open the ministry’s own page and your council’s Commissioner of Buildings on the day, rather than trusting any summary, including this one.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

Sources

Every page and document below was read on 19 September 2026. Statutory and regulation texts were taken from the PDFs published by the National Housing Department on its own strata management page.

• National Housing Department — Pengurusan Strata, the page that publishes the Act, the regulations and the handbook
• Strata Management Act 2013 [Act 757], as published by the National Housing Department
• Strata Management (Maintenance and Management) Regulations 2015, P.U. (A) 107 — prescribed fees, forms and the Third Schedule by-laws
• Strata Management (Strata Management Tribunal) Regulations 2015, P.U. (A) 103 — procedure, prescribed fees and forms
• KPKT — Handbook Pengurusan Strata 3.0, with the state by state directory of Commissioners of Buildings
• KPKT — about the Housing and Strata Management Tribunal, with the client charter and office list
• KPKT — Strata Management Tribunal FAQ, part one: jurisdiction, who may file, fees, filing
• KPKT — Strata Management Tribunal FAQ, part two: hearings, representation, awards, enforcement
• KPKT — Strata Management Tribunal forms for download
• e-TPS — the Strata Management Tribunal online filing portal
• KPKT — e-TPS user manual, updated 8 July 2025
• National Housing Department — Strata Management Division, its functions and contact details

Enquiries. Housing and Strata Management Tribunal: Aras 3–4, No. 51, Persiaran Perdana, Presint 4, 62100 Putrajaya, [email protected], 03-88913284. Strata Management Division: Aras 34 at the same address, 03-8891 4301, [email protected]. The Commissioner of Buildings for your building sits at your own local authority; the handbook above lists them by state. One note on sourcing: no consolidated or reprinted version of Act 757 was obtained, so the section wordings here are from the 2013 gazette text as the National Housing Department publishes it.