Unpaid maintenance charges. Can management stop rubbish collection?

Unpaid maintenance charges place a burden on the other owners who continue contributing towards the development’s upkeep. Management has powers to recover those charges, but there are limits to the measures it may take, particularly those affecting essential services.

In Cheong Hoi Ching & Ors v Perbadanan Pengurusan Bercham Nova [2026] CLJU 1390, the Ipoh High Court drew a distinction between deactivating access cards and withdrawing essential services such as lighting and rubbish collection.

What happened?

The dispute concerned owners in the Bercham Nova development and its management corporation (MC).

An earlier court order required the MC to recalculate maintenance charges retrospectively using share units instead of its previous property-type formula. That recalculation produced additional sums payable by the owners.

The owners challenged the recalculation, the interest imposed and the enforcement measures taken against them. Those measures included deactivating access cards and withdrawing lighting and rubbish collection services.

Could the MC deactivate access cards?

The court upheld the MC’s power to deactivate access cards for outstanding arrears under the prescribed strata management by-laws.

However, deactivating an access card did not mean that the owner could be prevented from entering the property altogether. Manual pedestrian entry or access through visitor registration had to remain available.

The distinction matters. Restricting the convenience of automated entry is different from denying an owner access to the property.

Could management withdraw essential services?

The court held that the MC had exceeded its powers by withdrawing essential services.

Under section 59(1) of the Strata Management Act 2013, an MC has a duty to properly maintain and manage the development. The court regarded lighting and rubbish collection as services affecting the safety, security and public health of the community.

Using darkness or accumulating rubbish to pressure owners into payment breached that duty.

The court ordered the MC to restore and maintain street lighting, clubhouse lighting and rubbish collection services for the affected parcels. It also prohibited the MC from withdrawing essential sanitation and safety-lighting services as a debt recovery measure.

Did the owners still have to pay?

Yes. The owners’ success on essential services did not wipe out the debt.

The court upheld the additional principal sums arising from the recalculation required by the earlier court order. However, it rejected retrospective late-payment interest for the period before the recalculated amount became due following notice.

In this case, the MC had to reverse interest charged for periods before 1 September 2023.

The court also allowed the owners to pay the principal arrears over 12 months. Their access cards had to be reactivated once they signed a written undertaking to comply with the instalment plan and paid the first instalment.

That arrangement was part of the court’s order in this particular case. It does not give every defaulting owner an automatic right to a 12-month repayment plan.

Essential services and arrears: what should owners and management do?

For management, establish the debt before choosing an enforcement measure. Check the account, payment history and applicable notice requirements. An amount appearing in the ledger does not answer every question about when it became overdue or when interest could begin.

Where access cards are deactivated, guards should receive clear instructions on how affected owners can still enter. A card restriction should not become a refusal of entry at the guardhouse.

Essential lighting and rubbish collection should continue while management pursues the debt through the available legal recovery procedures. Stopping those services may expose the MC to a separate claim even where the unpaid charges themselves are valid.

For owners, a complaint about enforcement does not remove the obligation to pay lawful charges. Request an itemised statement identifying the principal sum, interest and relevant periods. If an instalment arrangement is agreed, record its terms and any agreement concerning access-card reactivation in writing.

The decision illustrates that both sides can succeed on different issues: management may be entitled to recover the money, while the measures used to pressure payment may still be unlawful.

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