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<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\nSection 21 of the Strata Management Act 2013 gives the JMB \u2014 and Section 59 the MC \u2014 the duty to properly maintain and manage the common property, security included. That is a duty to manage access. It is not a general power to decide who may enter a private home.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The distinction matters because an invited guest does not arrive as a member of the public asking a favour. They arrive as the resident’s licensee, and a parcel owner’s enjoyment of their parcel includes receiving people in it. When management bodies began barring entry outright during the pandemic, the Malaysian Bar’s position was that the SMA contains no provision permitting it, citing Article 13(1) of the Federal Constitution \u2014 no person shall be deprived of property save in accordance with law.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Management therefore regulates the manner<\/strong> of entry \u2014 registration, identification, a pass, host confirmation \u2014 rather than the fact<\/strong> of the guest. And a rule only binds if it was made properly. The Third Schedule by-laws apply automatically; anything beyond them is an additional by-law needing a special resolution of 75% of those voting at a general meeting and filing with the COB. A committee instruction relayed to the guardhouse by WhatsApp is not a by-law.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Read down the second column and the pattern is hard to miss. The same sentence \u2014 this person caused a problem before<\/em> \u2014 is a lawful refusal when the community recorded the incident and made a decision about it, and an unlawful one when it lives in a guard’s memory. The behaviour is identical. The paperwork is what differs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The arrears case deserves its own line, because it is the one committees are most tempted by and least able to defend. We have set out the competing rights in the evolution of access control in Malaysian property management<\/a>, and turning a guest away to collect an owner’s debt is the weakest form of that argument.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Everything in the right-hand column above requires information the guard does not have at 8pm. Was there an incident report, or just an argument someone remembers? Was this individual formally blocked, and by whom? Is the renovation permit valid this week? Security postings turn over constantly, and the community’s memory sits in the management office during office hours \u2014 which is never when the difficult arrival happens.<\/p>\n\n\n\n So the guard guesses. He refuses someone he should have admitted and the committee gets a complaint letter, or he admits someone who should have been stopped and the community finds out after the fact. Both come from the same cause: a decision that was never the guard’s to make.<\/p>\n\n\n\nThe reasons given at the barrier, and whether they hold<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
What the guard says<\/th> Does it hold?<\/th><\/tr><\/thead> “He vandalised the lift the last time he came.”<\/td> Yes \u2014 if there is a recorded incident and a documented decision to block that individual. No, if it is one guard’s recollection.<\/td><\/tr> “He was rude and refused to register last time.”<\/td> Past behaviour alone is weak. Refusing to register at this entry<\/em>, where a filed by-law requires registration, is defensible on its own.<\/td><\/tr> “Your unit is in arrears.”<\/td> Weakest of all. The guest owes the community nothing, and refusing them is pressure applied to a third party.<\/td><\/tr> “No visitors after 10pm.”<\/td> Only if passed as an additional by-law and filed. Otherwise it is a preference, not a rule.<\/td><\/tr> “He is not on any list.”<\/td> The resident pre-registered him. The list was the process, and it was followed.<\/td><\/tr> “He is a contractor with no approved permit.”<\/td> Yes \u2014 scope, dates, and approval status are documented facts the office can produce.<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n Why the guardhouse cannot carry this decision<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Making a refusal something the committee can defend<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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