Property Management Fee Adjusted

Recently the Construction Committee of Beijing Municipality has publicized 11 basic standards for services provided by property management companies. This can help better solve the conflicts between property owners and management companies in some communities.

Reporter: Insufficient security guards, no janitor to clean out the garbage and employees shirking responsibility. What should the property owners do when they encounter such problems?

The newly publicized "Basic Standards" for property management service may help fill in these blanks. The regulation gives altogether 11 standards, covering elevator service, garbage collection, visiting car registration, renovation inspection, fire safety, public property maintenance and etc.

Zhao Cheng with the Construction Committee of Beijing Municipality says the new regulation is compulsory.

"These are the basic requirements. If the property management company charges for their services, they should fulfill their commitment they made in the contract."

The regulation is very detailed. For example, maintenance personnel must be in position within 20 minutes when property owners have water, electricity and gas emergencies. The main elevator must operate between 6 am to 12 pm [6am to noon, or 6am to midnight, which would be 12 am the following day].

Some property owners think more needs to be done to push forward the regulation.

"The two parties should both know what are within the requirements and what are not."

"This is just a standard, like a frame."

"I want to know if there will be any punishment for companies that do not meet the standard?"

Wang Yu is with Sheng Shi Property Corporation.

"The services of some companies are not good enough. But some problems should not be property management companies' responsibility, like controlling pets in the community."

In the new regulation, management companies are exempted from dealing with problems such as property owners doing improper renovation and having pets. But they are obliged to report the problems to superior departments.

Zhao Cheng says the regulation is just the beginning of more detailed work.

"Actually, one of the cores in the property management service contract is the evaluation standard. With the making of the standards, rights and obligations can be negotiated."

These regulations are compulsory basic requirements for property management companies. More detailed regulations will be made and this can help push forward discussion of the next phase of the property management service contract.