Our Partner Kok Yee Keong and Senior Associate Faith Quek represented the MCST to successfully resist a strata titles board application brought by subsidiary proprietors of a unit. This matter was reported by the Lianhe Zaobao’s article dated 12 April 2026 titled “A family of four which accused a Management Corporation Strata Title of lacking transparency in handling matters and demanded an apology were refused and ordered to pay S$20,000”.
In summary, the subsidiary proprietors raised a multitude of allegations against the MCST concerning its decisions on the classification of sinking and maintenance fund, acquisition of a new access control system, bin centre closing timings, landscaping expenses and chlorinated water leakage matters. However, the Stata Titles Board held that it should not interfere with Council’s decisions unless they are “clearly improper and/or unreasonable”. Following this, there was no basis for the subsidiary proprietors to allege a lack of transparency or that decisions were improperly made nor were they entitled to their request for further information from the MCST. In any event, the Board agreed with the MCST that the Building Maintenance and Strata Management Act was intended to resolve disputes and not to degrade a party, and that it had no power to order the MCST to apologise, promise not to repeat the offence or provide an undertaking.
The Board dismissed all claims made by the subsidiary proprietors and awarded costs to the MCST in the sum of S$20,000, which is on the higher end of the spectrum of costs typically awarded by the Board for a 2-day arbitration hearing.
The Lianhe Zaobao article: https://www.zaobao.com/news/singapore/story20260412-8881587
English version (unofficial translation - for reference only): https://www.harryelias.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/La-Fiesta-Article-English-version.pdf
Full grounds of decision: https://www.stratatb.gov.sg/files/Judgments/2026/STB_109_of_2025_La_Fiesta_dated_02_04_2026.pdf
