In his new monthly series for Bahrain This Month, Bill Grieve casts his civic lens on areas of concern, offering an enlightening and engaging perspective on various issues affecting life in the Kingdom.

Many people reside in or own a property in a residential apartment building. Invariably they will participate in a RERA-approved Homeowners Association (HOA), typically appointing and paying a building management company (BMC) to manage the property and maintenance on their behalf.

But woe betide owners trusting the BMC blindly, without diligently monitoring and questioning the ongoing duties, responsibilities and obligations of an appointed BMC, and not constantly observing the company’s performance against its contractual obligations. Worryingly, many BMCs purporting to be ‘professional property managers’ are unscrupulous, incompetent and in some cases even corrupt. 

Owners need to be especially alert when the developer is also the head of the homeowner’s association – and the principal to whom the management company reports, to mitigate and prevent repair cost collusion or construction fault cover-ups.



RED FLAGS - OF A POOR HOMEOWNERS ASSOCIATION
They:

• Have little or no direct and regular communication with owners.
• Divert all enquiries from owners to the building management – ‘passing the monkey.’ Don’t respond appropriately to communications/requests.
• Don’t attend AGM’s/local real estate events/meetings.
• Do nothing to improve the building quality or owners ROI.
• Don’t pay maintenance charges themselves, claiming this as a ‘management perk.’

RED FLAGS - OF A POOR BUILDING MANAGEMENT COMPANY
They:

•  Constantly over-promise and under-deliver.
•  Fail to communicate with owners/occupants.
•  Don’t address nuisance neighbour complaints
•  (noise, mess, smell, attitude) effectively or at all.
•  Do everything on the ‘ultra-cheap’ and constantly state ‘no budget available’ for improvements.
•  Cannot produce audited annual accounts to owners.
•  Cannot produce proper written/compiled AGM Minutes, reports and data.
•  Consistently show ignorance towards smoking, data privacy laws and Civil Defence Regulations.
•  Fail to maintain/uphold RERA-approved Building Bylaws.
•  Appoint people without the requisite skills and unable to communicate effectively to ‘supervise’ the building.
•  Don’t have an accurate up-to-date clearly written and maintained Complaints Register.
•  Put profit before principle.
•  Fail to collect maintenance charges effectively.
•  Are not transparent to owners regarding costs, charges, expenditure, maintenance and failures.
•  Favour certain tenants (single ladies, same nationality,  friends/family members etc.).
•  Constantly defer, digress, deflect, obfuscate and procrastinate.

What owners can do to help remedy these problems:

• Verify the buildings managed by the building manager – this will indicate how thinly the ‘BMC management butter is spread’.
• Fully understand what the BMC is contracted to do – ask for a copy of the contract with the HOA – it’s your right as an owner.
• Copy ALL correspondence to both the HOA and the BMC and follow up regularly.
• Keep a detailed diary of interactions with the HOA and BMC.
• Take photographs and videos regularly, filing them clearly by subject, date and time.
• Report areas of specific concern regarding safety, security and mismanagement to RERA

www.rera.gov.bh

Tags #bahrain property #rera bahrain property regulations #Property management in Bahrain #Building management #lifestyle #btm march 2025