If your condominium block has gained a few short-stay units, the useful question is not who is behind every visitor at the poolside gate. It is narrower and much more answerable: what is the management corporation already obliged to do for the pool, corridors, lifts and other common property, and how do you get that obligation onto a dated schedule with records you can see? Common-area upkeep in a strata estate sits with the management corporation under the Building (Strata Management) Act, worked through the managing agent day to day. Your move as an owner is to convert that duty list into specific requests and evidence. [1] [2]
The situation is not hypothetical. CNA TODAY reported that owners at Parc Palais in Hillview attended a management corporation meeting on 31 July 2026, with about 30 owners attending, where questions raised included how facilities would be managed as they grew more crowded, and the increased use of shared amenities. That is one reported estate rather than a national pattern, and the same report found the tension not widespread among the other condominiums it checked. The rest of this guide turns the maintenance side of that question into a checklist you can take to your next council or general meeting. [3]
The duties that are not optional
BCA's Strata Management Guide 2 sets out the management corporation's responsibilities for the whole estate: managing the management and sinking funds, obtaining insurance, making by-laws and issuing reminders to comply, keeping of records, carrying out repairs and maintenance of common property, appointing a managing agent, keeping up to date with relevant laws, appointing an auditor, and managing contracts with service providers. Keeping records and contracting for service providers sit on the same list as repairs. That matters when you ask why nobody has produced a cleaning schedule or a lift contractor's paperwork. [2]
The money follows the duties. BCA's guide on strata living explains that every subsidiary proprietor pays levies and contributions in proportion to their lot's share value, and that the management fund covers day-to-day items such as water and electricity for common areas, insurance, and repairs and maintenance of common areas. The sinking fund is for longer-term work — repainting, upgrading or replacing major equipment, and cyclical maintenance. BCA's separate guide on being a condo owner puts it plainly: every owner must contribute to shared-property upkeep, and maintenance of common features such as lifts is necessary for safety and reliability. [4] [5]
BCA also publishes a guide devoted to the management and maintenance of common property, covering how shared areas are maintained, the factors to consider in maintenance, usage of common property and insurance. It is a useful reference when you want to argue about what 'maintenance' of a shared facility should include. BCA's guides explain the Act's requirements rather than interpret them, and BCA says they are not a substitute for independent legal advice. [1]
Turn duties into dated requests
Here is where the practical work sits. BCA's guide says the management corporation should ensure the scope of responsibilities and service performance levels are clearly spelt out in the service agreement with the managing agent, and should have some form of guideline or internal procedure so it stays aware of the agent's performance. The agent may be engaged for daily operational and administrative works for a term of up to three years, and residents needing help on estate matters can approach it. So the scope should already be written down somewhere. Ask to see it. [2]
A suggested request set — optional preparation, not an official sequence — might look like this: for the pool and poolside changing areas, a dated schedule of water-testing and cleaning visits and who signs them off; for the gym, lifts and lobbies, the current service agreement and the service levels it commits the agent to; and for anything flagged, a defect log showing what was reported, when, by whom and what has been done. A specific, dated question gets a better answer than a general complaint, because BCA's own good practice note recommends precisely identifying the issues before raising them. [2]
A written schedule is easier to picture than to invent. BUTLER, which publishes this magazine and runs a private-residence property management service, describes its property care discipline as condition inspections, preventive schedules, repair oversight and project coordination, with residence administration covering service records, expense visibility and approval controls. Its specialist network for private homes covers everyday care such as swimming pool and pest control, plus building systems including lift servicing, electrical and plumbing. That is documented practice for landed and secondary residences; BUTLER's group site lists its integrated property management solution for condos and buildings as coming soon, so it is not a managing-agent capability to assume today. [6] [7] [8]
If performance falls short, the same guide's good practice section says any non-conformance or shortfall in the managing agent's performance should be addressed under the specific terms and conditions of the service agreement. Owners can give input and feedback to the agent's supervisor, raise concerns to the council, and requisition a motion on the agent's performance when the appointment is reviewed at the AGM. On money for bigger jobs, BCA advises management corporations to plan ahead and build sinking funds for anticipated major expenditure, review that budget regularly, and refer to service plans, previous quotations and receipts as a guide to approximate costs of future repairs. [2] [4]
The fixed cycles you can ask to see evidence of
Three regimes run on clocks you can check without anyone's permission. Periodic structural inspections are carried out once every 10 years for residential buildings and once every five years for non-residential ones, with those frequencies excluding detached, semi-detached, terraced and linked houses used exclusively for residence, and temporary buildings. For strata-titled developments, BCA states the management corporation assumes the building-owner role: appoint a structural engineer on receipt of a PSI notice, provide site access, ensure the report reaches BCA on time, and implement recommended rectifications within the given timeframe. A block's actual schedule can differ from the general interval, so ask for dates rather than assumptions. [9]
Facades have their own clock. Under BCA's Periodic Facade Inspection regime, effective since January 2022, buildings over 20 years old must be inspected every seven years, subject to specific exceptions, with the building owner responsible for appointing a Competent Person and ensuring that defects detected are promptly repaired. Lifts have a third: the lift and building maintenance regulations require the owner of a lift to keep it in a clean and proper working condition at all times and to have it periodically maintained and examined, and require lift contractors to keep all maintenance records, including testing certificates and other documents, for at least five years. [10] [11]
Each turns into a short question: when was the last structural inspection and what did it recommend; has a facade notice been served and who was appointed; and what do the lift maintenance records show. None of it needs private data or another resident's information — it is material a management corporation is already keeping or commissioning. [9] [10] [11]
What you can check, and where the remit ends
Occupiers have duties too. BCA's guide lists among them observing the management corporation's by-laws and using or enjoying the lot or common property in a manner that does not cause a nuisance or hazard to occupiers of other lots. Lawyers told CNA TODAY that management corporations can use by-laws to regulate matters such as common property, security, noise, nuisance and facility use. If shared facilities are being over-used, that is the register a council acts on — not a confrontation at the poolside. [2] [3]
The lawyers CNA TODAY quoted — among them Ms Elaine Low of Peter Low Chambers — said maintenance and sinking fund contributions are generally determined according to a unit's share value rather than the number of people living in it, with narrow exceptions unlikely to apply in this situation. An argument about charges per head is therefore unlikely to be your lever. The escalation ladder, by contrast, is set out in BCA's guide: write to the secretary of the management corporation or the managing agent for help, ask that the matter be tabled at a general meeting for residents to discuss and decide, or use mediation channels such as the Community Mediation Centre or the Community Disputes Resolution Tribunal. [3] [2]
One boundary worth stating plainly. This article covers common-property upkeep, records and service standards. Occupancy caps, minimum-stay requirements and registration rules sit with the Urban Redevelopment Authority rather than the management corporation, so confirm the current position with URA directly. In the Hillview case CNA TODAY reported, the MCST was described as having no general statutory power to enter a private unit to investigate. [3]
Speaking about co-living generally rather than any one estate, Savills Singapore's senior managing director for property management said such arrangements can create additional management challenges, including heavier use of facilities, wear and tear, security and overcrowding. Those are reasons to ask for schedules and records in writing; they are not reasons to expect the manager to police who stays in each unit. [3]
Disclosure: BUTLER Magazine is part of the BUTLER group. This article covers a BUTLER business or service.
Read next
- Between-cycle building checks: a condo defect record that works
- Condo defect claims years after handover: the clocks that decide who pays
Sources
- Strata Management Guides | Building and Construction Authority
- STRATA MANAGEMENT GUIDE : 2
- 'Feels more of a hotel, less like a home': Why residents at this Hillview condo are unhappy with co-living setups – CNA
- STRATA MANAGEMENT GUIDE : 1
- What to know as a condo owner | Building and Construction Authority
- Private Residence Management Services Singapore | BUTLER® Property Management
- BUTLER Property Management – Singapore's Finest Property Management and Real Estate Services Company
- BUTLER – Singapore's Finest Asset, Property, And Lifestyle Management Group
- Periodic Structural Inspection (PSI) | Building and Construction Authority
- Periodic Facade Inspection (PFI) | Building and Construction Authority
- Singapore Statutes Online – 194 – Building Maintenance and Strata Management (Lift and Building Maintenance) Regulations 2005
BUTLER Magazine Editorial · AI-assisted research and writing, reviewed by our automated editorial team. Sources checked 2026-10-10. Featured image: AI-generated editorial illustration.