We have received Sea Residence Condominium Circular No. 2017-023, dated January 9, 2017, through some concerned unit owners participating in social media. This circular was not disseminated properly most specially that there was never a meeting held with any unit owners regarding this policy. It was only the Sea Residence Condo Corp. Board of Trustees (BOT) and Greenmist Property Management Corp. who made this decision. No general meeting, no notice about the Board Resolution. We also asked for a copy of the board resolution, but to no avail. There was supposed to be a Special Election of BOT’s this coming Saturday, but the Condo Corp announced today that there is NO QOURUM and the next BOT Election will be held in October.
We all care about Sea Residences and not just our own units, as we co-share the entirety of the complex. However, many of us unit owners believe that a part of the said circular will excessively burden us, and limit us in practising our rights to utilize OUR OWN (fully paid) condo units, extremely affecting our capability to gain our return of investments.
Major Sales pitch of SMDC is the quick ROI due to demands in rentals and resale value. Many of unit owners now feel deceived with false marketing, abused by power and angry.
Concerns about the said Circular:
- Leasing of Units
All lease contract shall be for a minimum of seven (7) days
This violates the SEA RESIDENCE'S “Master Deed and Declaration of Restrictions” (Declaration), Section 13: Sale, Mortgage and/or Lease
“Any unit owner may mortgage or lease his unit to any person, provided such mortgage or lease shall not free the owner from compliance with his obligation as such under the Condominium Act, this Master Deed, the Articles of Incorporation and By-Laws of the Corporation and the Documents under which he acquired the unit (the “Constitutive Documents”). The unit owner is obliged to impose upon the mortgagee or lessee the obligation to be contractually bound by the terms, conditions, and provisions of the Constitutive Documents.”
While it is the Condo Corp.’s scope of responsibility to look after the common and limited areas, and the Board of Trustees to oversee the operation of the project; there is no section on the declaration that awards any rights to the Condo Corp or its Board of Trustees to decide for and on behalf of the unit owners in the manner of use, lease or sale, of their units.
Even if the Declaration states we may lease our unit to any person, through Airbnb, we do implement a very strict and rigorous verification of our guests’ identification. We also promote Sea Residence’s House Rules and ensure that guests understand and accept these prior our acceptance of their booking requests. Guests who do not comply with our Airbnb House Rules are penalized or are cancelled through Airbnb’s Host Guarantee.
Our AIRBNB listings will not be visible to, or be booked by people who search for rooms for less than 7 days’ stay. This will clearly affect the number of inquiries and bookings that we receive.
Section 8 of the Declaration is also being violated.
“The DECLARANT (which is SDMC) shall form and organize the Condominium Corporation … for the purpose of holding the title to all Common and Limited Areas, managing the project and for such other purposes as may be necessary, incidental or convenient to the accomplishment of said purposes.”
“…Board of Trustees shall manage, control, supervise and oversee the operation of the Project.”
“…Corollary to such power and authority is the power to enforce said applicable provisions, conditions, rules and regulations, and, if necessary, to compel compliance therewith for the common benefit.”
“….the above cited authorities shall not be understood, implied, or construed to grant the Corporation the power and authority to conduct a business or make profit, or gain and advantage to any or all of the members of the Corporation.”
“All unit owners in the Project shall automatically be members of the Corporation and such membership being a mere appurtenance of the unit cannot be transferred, conveyed, alienated or disposed of independently or separately from the unit itself.”
This circular does not reflect any common benefit to the unit owners.
It clearly had alienated the membership of the unit owners with the Condo Corp by not being taken into a meeting prior to the proposition of the Administration Office to the Board.
Through this circular, both Greenmist and the Board are compelling the unit owners’ compliance to a 7-day minimum rental policy which is to no advantage to the unit owners, our household workers and our guests.
We feel as if the Admin is just avoiding the paperwork such move-in’s and move-out’s entail. We understand that the office workers are burdened by so many paperwork they need to process for our guests and we are willing to cooperate in any way we can to ease their work load.
On average, our guests only stay for 1-2 nights since most of them come from abroad, mostly Overseas Filipino Workers, and just need a temporary and affordable place to stay upon their arrival in Manila and before their flight back to another country. They choose to stay in our condos because of the affordability compared to hotels.
Lastly, we pay our own cleaning staff on a per booking basis. Limiting the number of stays to 7 days would reduce their income. Our staff are highly depending on our bookings for a full-time job to feed their families.
- Submission of requirements
All requirements for lease shall be processed and submitted to the Property Management Office (PMO) one (1) day prior to the actual move-in/out of your tenant. (Comment: We agree on this. We had also already agreed to and complied with “no submissions during Sundays and holidays”.)
Requirements are as follows:
For Move-in
- Duly signed and notarized lease contract (Shall be signed by registered owner and/or authorized representative): (Comment: How does notarizing the lease agreement without the tenant’s signature can be beneficial to all or is it even enforceable by law. Also, consider the costs and time these would incur.)
- Duly accomplished Move-in form (Agreed.)
For Move-out
- Duly accomplished Move-out form (Agreed)
- Payment of P100.00 per transaction: (Comment: No objection and we would agree to pay more if required, since we know that the processing of our paperwork will require manpower and materials to do so.)
- Corresponding penalties shall be applied for non-compliance
A Penalty of P1,500.00 shall be given to the unit owner if:
- Completely filled-up form was not submitted at least three (3) days before arrival. (Comment: This conflicts with rule #1)
- No signature from registered unit owner/authorized representative or guest/s when submitted to the Property Management Office.
- Contract of lease is less than seven (7) days.
- Posting/advertising on travel sites that a unit in Sea Residences is being offered for lease shorter than seven (7) days.
- A Notice shall be sent to the Unit Owner, reminding them of the House Rules and stating the sanctions that the Condo Corp. may impose to any Unit owner who is violating this rule. The Unit Owner will be asked to sign an “Undertaking” stating that the unit is not used for transient operations.
How will the Condo Corp conduct a search of all units' Travel Site listings? Will they hire new staff to find these listings rather than adding more staff make their workload more manageable? How will the Notices be sent to owners, when even these important circulars do not even get to our mailboxes?
- After 1 month and post has not been revised, a second notice shall be sent to the Unit Owner. The unit owner shall be given forty-eight (48) hours to explain why they should not be penalized for violating the rule. If after 48 hours, the Unit Owner still failed to send a formal reply/explanation to the Notice, a penalty of P15,000.00 shall be charged.
- After another month and post has not been revised, a Notice of Disconnection of Water Supplyshall be served upon the unit owner. Water supply shall be cut-off within three (3) days from receipt of Notice and will only be re-connected upon full payment of the penalty.
Why would the Condo Corp disconnect our Water Supply if we are paying our monthly dues and taxes on time?
- iii of the Circular violates Section 9: Property Rights of Unit Owners, Paragraph 2(c).
Each owner shall have the right to use the common areas and facilities constructed thereon. Such right shall be appurtenant to, and shall pass with, the title to every unit, subject to the right of the Corporation: The right of the Corporation to suspend or restrict the right to use the common areas by an owner, for any period during which any assessment against his unit remains unpaid or delinquent.
We need to be united and demand that a meeting between the unit owners, Board of Trustees and the Condo Corp Admin Office and only until a consensus is reached that such policies be made effective. We also need to demand that when this meeting is scheduled that ALL unit owners be properly informed through our mailbox and emails, not only by posting in the elevators and in a hidden bulletin board. This is to ensure that all parties are well informed and that the meeting is well attended.
