While progress has been made on the issue of abandoned vehicles, this has generally been the case in public areas. The same isn’t always the case in privately owned areas, as local authorities lack the legal provisions to carry out enforcement against vehicles which have been abandoned in privately owned strata areas, reported New Straits Times.
That being said, the obstacle to enforcement would not apply if there is a formal application or cooperation from the joint management body (JMB) or the management corporation (MC) of the property involved, said deputy housing and local government minister Datuk Aiman Athirah Sabu.
“For stratified residential areas that have established a JMB or MC, they are fully subject to the Strata Management Act 2013 (Act 757) and the Strata Management (Maintenance and Management) Regulations 2015. Under the provisions of the Act, once a JMB or MC is legally established, the respective body holds full authority and legal responsibility to manage, regulate and administer all matters within the common property, including issues involving abandoned vehicles in parking areas and shared access routes,” she said.
This was in response to a question by Azli Yusof (PH–Shah Alam) regarding the government’s measures to introduce by-laws or regulations that would enable local authorities to act against abandoned vehicles, which frequently cause problems in stratified residential areas, according to the report.
The ministry of housing and local government (KPKT) is undertaking a comprehensive review of the abandoned vehicle management guidelines issued in 2020, and improvements to the guidelines involve several measures, said Aiman Athirah.
The first is to use Section 65 of the Road Transport Act 1987 (Act 333) as an additional instrument to enable vehicle disposal without going through lengthy court processes, and the second is through proposed amendments to expand enforcement powers to all categories of local authorities and to clarify the scope of enforceable areas.
The third is through the creation of a voluntary vehicle disposal mechanism through the e-Dereg system developed by the road transport department (JPJ), in order to provide a quicker and more user-friendly alternative method of vehicle disposal, she said.
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