In a recent announcement made by the largest residential community in Shanghai, “Shanghai Kangcheng”, it was revealed that they plan to dismiss the property management company! The topic quickly became the number one trending topic on Weibo on September 2.
According to a statement released on the official WeChat account of the fifth session of the Kangcheng Homeowners’ Committee on August 26, it was decided through a vote by the residents to not renew the contract with the property management service company (Shanghai Branch of Shenzhen Country Garden Shengfu Property Service Co., Ltd.).
The announcement disclosed that a total of 12,152 votes were cast in the vote, with 12,133 from residents and 19 from merchants. The feedback votes numbered 8,495, with the agreement to not renew the contract accounting for nearly 76.94% of the total number of homeowners.
As reported by The Paper earlier, Shanghai Kangcheng is the largest single-unit open community in Shanghai, located in Minhang District, Xinzhuang Town West, covering an area of 1 square kilometer. It has a planned construction area of 2.0773 million square meters, consisting of 286 high-rise residential buildings with a planned total of 12,500 households and an actual population of approximately 36,000 residents.
Since 2013, Country Garden Property has been serving in the Kangcheng community for over 10 years. On August 30, the relevant department of Xinzhuang Town in Minhang District, Shanghai confirmed to The Paper that the change of property management in the community is indeed happening.
In April of this year, the fifth session of the Kangcheng Homeowners’ Committee presented improvement suggestions to Country Garden Property regarding community issues, stating that they have received many complaints from homeowners about the quality of property management services.
The content revealed on the Homeowners’ Committee WeChat account shows that Kangcheng homeowners are dissatisfied with various aspects of the property management company, including maintenance, cleaning, security, landscaping, customer service, and maintenance fees. For instance, in maintenance issues, “unimplemented repairs are marked as ‘completed’; some repair projects show signs of excessive maintenance; and the pricing of some repair projects is significantly higher than before.” Despite multiple communications between the Homeowners’ Committee and the property management, no significant improvements have been seen.
The Homeowners’ Committee at Kangcheng also stated that the selection process for the new property management is underway. Until the new company is selected, the existing property management company will continue to provide services to Shanghai Kangcheng in accordance with established standards and service prices.
The news of the “largest residential community in Shanghai announcing the dismissal of the property management” quickly became the number one trending topic on Weibo.
Many netizens have expressed their support, with comments such as: “I fully support this! I also want to dismiss the property management, they don’t do much most of the time.” “Property management is sometimes ineffective. If we ask them to repair something, they take forever to respond.” “The high property fees feel like a second exploitation.” “I want to dismiss them, but it doesn’t seem to help much. Whenever property management is mentioned, it’s always criticism.” “Some even have connections to organized crime.”
Some netizens believe: “Property management in communities has become a place for profiteers due to the explosion of the developer economy, so it has attracted all kinds of opportunists. Being able to dismiss the property management serving over 10,000 people shows that this term of the Homeowners’ Committee is not simple.” “Many property management companies now marginalize homeowners, collude with certain individuals in the Homeowners’ Committee, provide poor service, and only focus on charging fees. Some homeowners are afraid to speak out.”
One suggestion from netizens is: “Homeowners can manage it themselves and bear the profits and losses.”