JMB to MC Handover: What Happens to the Security System.

Which provision governs the JMB’s handover to the MC?

Section 27 of the Strata Management Act 2013 governs the JMB’s handover to the MC. It is a different handover from the developer’s to the JMB under section 15, and from section 55, the developer’s handover of control to the management corporation, which is the route Lewis Chong’s handover guide gives for this question.

For a security system, this is its second change of hands; the wider picture is in Takeover and Maintenance of an Existing Security System.

The clock starts at the MC’s first annual general meeting. Not more than one month from that meeting, the JMB must hand over the following:

The JMB itself dissolves three months from the date of the MC’s first AGM (section 27(1)).

Do the security system’s drawings and manuals cross again?

Yes, if they arrived the first time. Section 27(2)(b)(iv) makes the JMB pass on every document the developer delivered to it under section 15(3). Three items on that list matter most for CCTV, access control and intercom:

• Where the cable really runs: any document showing the actual location of a wire, cable, duct or other facility for systems or services, where it is not where the approved plan shows it (section 15(3)(b)).
• The developer’s maintenance contracts: every contract the developer signed for maintaining or managing the building and the common property (section 15(3)(c)).
• The manuals and warranties: all warranties, manuals, schematic drawings, operating instructions, service guides and manufacturer’s documentation for the installation, operation, maintenance, repair and servicing of common property (section 15(3)(f)).

The second handover can only pass on what arrived at the first. If the JMB never received these, the gap began at developer handover, and what to ask for at that stage is in what a JMB inherits at developer handover.

Is the MC bound by the JMB’s security maintenance contract?

The Act moves liabilities across, but does not say whether a particular service contract is one of them, and commentary is divided. Section 27(2)(b)(iii) makes the JMB hand over “all the assets and liabilities of the joint management body”. Section 28(2) then vests in the MC any right, power, remedy or liability imposed on the JMB under Part IV, as if it had always been the MC’s.

ClickBina’s handover guide lists security contracts among the agreements that transfer. An AI-written legal summary on Supreme Today argues the opposite: that the MC is not automatically bound unless it adopts or assumes the agreement. For a specific contract, ask the building’s lawyer.

In practice the question is short-lived. A JMB cannot sign a maintenance and management contract for longer than twelve months (section 21(3)), so a lawful JMB contract ends within a year of the handover. After that, the MC may engage whoever it chooses to maintain the common property (section 59(2)(f)), and the first AGM’s agenda already covers any matter connected with maintaining and managing it (section 58(h)).

Use that renewal to fix what the contract obliges, with what a security maintenance contract must cover. If the original contractor has gone, see taking over a security system another contractor installed.

Are passwords and card records part of the JMB to MC handover?

Section 27 does not name passwords or card records. It lists money, accounts, assets, liabilities, documents and records, but not the administrator passwords for the recorders and the access control system, the database of issued access cards, or software licences. Ask for them by name, as records “necessary for the maintenance and management” of the common property under section 27(2)(b)(v).

That reading is an argument, not a ruling, which is why the request should be in writing.

Once received, change every password, factory defaults first. The US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) put it plainly:

Default usernames and passwords for most devices can easily be found on the Internet, making devices with default passwords extremely vulnerable.

CISA also advises installing security patches as soon as they are available. On a building’s head end, the MC’s contract should name who does that. Before the JMB dissolves, ask the JMB, and through it the current maintenance contractor, in writing for:

1. The administrator passwords for every recorder, access controller and intercom system.
2. The card database: which cards are issued, to which units, and which are cancelled.
3. The section 15(3) drawings, manuals and warranties for each system.
4. The current maintenance contract, its end date and its service records.
5. A list of everyone who holds remote access to the system.

What if the JMB does not hand everything over?

The duty is personal. If the JMB fails to comply with section 27(2) or 27(3), every member of the joint management committee commits an offence, punishable by a fine of up to RM250,000, imprisonment of up to three years, or both (section 27(4)). A member has a defence if the offence happened without their knowledge, consent or connivance and they took all reasonable precautions and exercised due diligence (section 27(5)).

Outgoing members should keep a signed list of what they handed over.

Even a complete handover leaves the MC with a system it did not choose. Occhio Tec, established 2012, designs, installs and maintains CCTV, access control, video intercom, structured networking and perimeter intrusion systems, with its niche in mid-high to high-end condominiums in Mont Kiara, Bangsar and KLCC, where much of its work is service and maintenance. It takes over and maintains systems another contractor installed. To have the system looked at before the MC signs its own maintenance contract, request a site survey.