Strata & Building Management
You won at the tribunal and they still won't comply — what happens next
Ignoring a Strata Management Tribunal award is a criminal offence under s.123: a fine not exceeding RM250,000, imprisonment not exceeding three years, or both — plus a further fine of up to RM5,000 for every day the offence continues after conviction.
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| Best for | Owners deciding whether, where and when to bring a strata claim. |
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Cheap, fast, and limited
This post works through non-compliance with an award is a criminal offence with a stated penalty, not merely a civil debt. The tribunal is deliberately cheap and lawyer-free by default — the trade-offs come from that same design.
Non-compliance is criminal, not civil
Section 123 of Act 757 is short and blunt: failing to comply with an award made by the Strata Management Tribunal is an offence. That framing matters because it changes who acts next. A civil judgment leaves enforcement to the winning party, with all the cost and delay that implies. A criminal offence brings prosecution into the picture, and the person who has to worry is the one who ignored the award.
The penalty, and the daily addition
On conviction the general penalty is a fine not exceeding two hundred and fifty thousand ringgit, imprisonment for a term not exceeding three years, or both. Then comes the provision that does the real work: where the offence continues after conviction, a further fine not exceeding five thousand ringgit applies for every day or part of a day during which it continues. A management body that has been ordered to repair common property and simply does not, is exposed to an accumulating penalty for as long as the position holds.
How to use this in practice
When an award is made in your favour and nothing happens, do not start by threatening civil enforcement. Write once, attach the award, state the date compliance was due, and cite s.123 — including the daily continuing penalty. Copy the Commissioner of Buildings. In most cases that letter is the whole enforcement step, because the recipient is usually a committee of volunteers who had not appreciated that the exposure is personal and criminal rather than institutional and civil.
Verify this against your own building
Check the current jurisdiction limit and filing procedure on KPKT's tribunal page before you file, and diarise the limitation date the day the dispute starts. Filing late is the most common way a good claim dies.
Buyer checklist
An award is not a suggestion and not merely a civil debt. Section 123 makes non-compliance a criminal offence carrying, on conviction, a fine not exceeding RM250,000, imprisonment for a term not exceeding three years, or both. Where the non-compliance continues after conviction, a further fine of not more than RM5,000 applies for every day or part of a day it continues.
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| 1 | Note the date by which the award required compliance. |
|---|---|
| 2 | If nothing happens, write once attaching the award and citing s.123. |
| 3 | State the daily continuing penalty of up to RM5,000 expressly in that letter. |
| 4 | Copy the Commissioner of Buildings on the correspondence. |
| 5 | Keep the award, the letter and any reply together — that is the file if prosecution follows. |
Common questions
What happens if the management ignores a tribunal award?
Non-compliance is an offence under s.123 of Act 757, carrying on conviction a fine not exceeding RM250,000, imprisonment not exceeding three years, or both.
Is there an extra penalty if they keep ignoring it?
Yes. Where the offence continues after conviction, a further fine not exceeding RM5,000 applies for every day or part of a day during which it continues.
Do I have to enforce the award myself like a civil judgment?
Section 123 makes non-compliance a criminal offence rather than leaving it purely to civil enforcement, which is why writing to the party in default and copying the Commissioner of Buildings is usually the first step.
Does an award bind the management corporation as a body?
The obligation to comply attaches to the party against whom the award was made, and s.123 attaches the offence to failing to comply with it.
Lewis Chong
REN 69566 · IQI GlobalProperty advisor helping KL, JB, and Penang buyers make data-backed property decisions.
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The Strata Management Tribunal
The Strata Management Tribunal hears claims where the award sought does not exceed RM250,000 (s.105(1)), across fourteen categories in Part 1 of the Fourth Schedule. What it cannot touch is any claim in which title to land, or an estate or interest in land, is in question — s.105(3).
Lewis Conclusion
Match your complaint to a specific item in Part 1 of the Fourth Schedule before you file. Claims fail at this tribunal far more often for being the wrong kind of claim than for being weak on the facts.
How to file at the Strata Management Tribunal
The Limitation Act 1953 does not apply to tribunal proceedings (s.105(2)), lawyers are barred unless two conditions are both satisfied (s.110(2)), and the tribunal must make its award without delay and where practicable within 60 days of the hearing starting (s.117(1)).
Lewis Conclusion
Prepare as if you will present the case yourself, because in almost every strata dispute you will. Bring the documents in date order, keep the claim inside one head of the Fourth Schedule, and let the sixty-day rule work for you rather than treating the tribunal like a court.
Strata Management Tribunal vs Homebuyer Claims Tribunal
Two tribunals, two Acts, two limits. The Strata Management Tribunal takes disputes with your management body up to RM250,000 under s.105(1) of Act 757. The Homebuyer Claims Tribunal takes claims against a licensed developer arising from the SPA up to RM50,000 under s.16M(1) of the Housing Development (Control and Licensing) Act 1966, with a 12-month time bar in s.16N(2).
Lewis Conclusion
The 12-month window at the homebuyer tribunal is the one that ends claims. It runs from the CCC, the expiry of the defect liability period, or termination of the SPA — so a defect you have been politely chasing the developer about for eighteen months may already be out of time there, even though the strata tribunal has no equivalent bar.
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Note the date by which the award required compliance.
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If nothing happens, write once attaching the award and citing s.123.
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State the daily continuing penalty of up to RM5,000 expressly in that letter.
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Copy the Commissioner of Buildings on the correspondence.