KUALA LUMPUR, March 4 — The housing and local government ministry is taking a guarded stance on the ‘guarded community’ housing estate concept.
As guarded community housing estates have been mushrooming, of late, the ministry intends to come out with guidelines on the concept.
Minister, Datuk Seri Kong Cho Ha said currently, guarded community housing estates did not have proper guidelines, resulting in state governments and local councils coming up with their very own by-laws which differed from one locality to another.
He said, most of the “guarded community thing” was spearheaded by a group of house-owners on their own accord.
“Of course, we have to come up with some guidelines due to some legal issues which have cropped up,” he told Bernama here today.
The ‘guarded community’ concept is not something new altogether, in the country.
It is where a group of residents of a housing estate take it upon themselves to employ security guards and fence their housing area in the name of crime prevention.
However, some residents associations have taken the law into their own hands by fencing-off certain areas and closing roads, according to their whims and fancies, and in some cases, without even consulting other residents in the housing estate.
While such action is deemed as a measure to stub out any illegal activities in the housing estate, it has run into some legal entanglement as the move went against the Road, Drainage and Building Act 1974.
The Act states that there should be no obstruction to any public road. The same ruling applies under Section 62 and 136 of the National Land Code 1965 and Section 80 of the Road Transportation Act 1987.
The law also states that it is unlawful to privately attempt to restrict or regulate public spaces without the approval of the relevant authority, and attempt to close, barricade or restrict the access of a public road, drain or space.
The act of fencing a housing estate according to one’s whims and fancies would also contravene sections 46 (1) of Street Drainage and Building Act 1974, section 80 of the Road Transport Act 1987 and section(s) 62 and 136 of the National Land Code 1965.
In addition to this, provisions of the Town and Country Planning Act 1976 may also be violated where guard houses are built on public land or road shoulders.
Section 46 (1) of the Street Drainage and Building Act also prohibits a person to build, erect, maintain or issue permit to maintain any wall or fencing in an public place. It is also an offence for a person to cover over or obstruct any open drain or aqueduct along sides of the streets without consent of the local council.
However, Kong said, based on some safety issues highlighted by residents, state governments such as Selangor, through the state housing and property board, had drawn up a set of guidelines dubbed the Fenced and Guarded Community Scheme.
“There is no problem with private security patrolling public roads in a housing scheme under the employment of the residents associations or RAs but the local authority and the police should be consulted first,” said the minister.
Kong said, some guidelines issued by local governments for guarded communities included the setting up of a guardhouse and employment of private security based on the consent of residents in the area.
For example, some local authorities allow guardhouses to be built as long as the application is made through the RAs, with the consent of at least 85 per cent of the residents.
Apart from that, the RAs must also agree that the guardhouse does not have a barrier and the location does not obstruct traffic, meaning it must only be located at the road shoulder.
However, Kong said some local authorities allowed for some form of limited barriers, so long as it was backed by an overwhelming support of the local residents and it did not deny access nor obstruct traffic.
“For gated communities, it is not much of an issue as they already have a legal management body being set up under the strata title as most of the apartments and condominiums fall under this community.
“However, for the guarded community, it is different as you cannot term them as gated community,” he said. — Bernama
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