Condo vs Landed: Who Maintains What
in Malaysia (2026)

Why “whose problem is this?” starts so many fights

Almost every property-maintenance dispute in Malaysia comes down to one unanswered question: whose responsibility is this? A ceiling stains, a pipe leaks, a wall cracks — and before anyone talks about fixing it, there is an argument about who should pay. In a landed home the answer is usually simple, because there is only one owner and it is you. In a strata building it is genuinely harder, because the property is legally divided into what you own privately (your “parcel”) and what everyone owns collectively (the “common property”), and the line between them is not always where instinct puts it. This guide draws that line as clearly as the framework allows, for both property types. One honest caveat up front: the strata rules below are the general structure under the Strata Management Act 2013 (the SMA), not a substitute for your building’s own by-laws or professional advice — when a real dispute or a large sum is involved, confirm the specifics with your JMB or management corporation and, where needed, a lawyer.

Strata: where your responsibility begins

The whole strata system turns on one idea: your property is divided into your parcel and the common property. As a general rule under the SMA 2013, your responsibility as a parcel owner is commonly understood to begin at the inner surface of the walls, floor and ceiling that bound your unit — in plain terms, the paint inwards is yours, and the structure of the wall itself and everything beyond it is common property maintained by the management body (a JMB in the earlier phase of a development, or an MC once the management corporation is formed). That is why a crack in your interior plaster is yours to skim, but the structural wall behind it, the external facade, and the concrete slab above your ceiling are not. It sounds tidy, and for most day-to-day repairs it is — the complications come from the things that live in the boundary or cross it, which is what the rest of this guide is about. For the wider framework of how strata management works, see our Strata Management Act guide and the JMB guide.

What the management body maintains

The management body — the JMB or MC — is responsible for the common property, and it funds that work from the maintenance fees and the sinking fund every owner pays. Broadly, and subject to your building’s own by-laws, common property is understood to include everything shared or structural:

A useful mental test: if a thing serves more than one parcel, or holds the building up, it is almost certainly common property. If it serves only your unit and sits within your boundary, it is almost certainly yours. Genuinely shared reserves for big-ticket common works are what the maintenance fee and sinking fund exist to cover — not the inside of your parcel.

What you maintain inside your parcel

Your side of the line is everything that makes the unit yours to live in. That means all your interior finishes — paint, tiles, plaster, ceilings on the inside face — and every fixture and service that exists only for your parcel: your aircon units and their piping, your water heater, taps, toilets and the branch plumbing within the unit, your own electrical points and the wiring downstream of your unit’s distribution board, your doors, windows (subject to by-laws on the external face), built-in carpentry and flooring. Practically, your personal maintenance calendar inside a condo looks a lot like a small landed home’s: service the aircon, watch the interior plumbing, keep the finishes up. This is precisely the upkeep the strata-fee myth leads owners to neglect — the fee does not touch it. For the full seasonal rhythm of these parcel-level jobs, our home maintenance checklist is the companion to this page.

The inter-floor leak presumption

The single most contested strata dispute is water coming through a ceiling from the unit above — the classic inter-floor leak, and the reason it deserves its own section is that Malaysian strata law addresses it specifically. As a general rule commonly understood under the SMA framework, where water is leaking between floors the burden of proof is placed on the upper (upstairs) parcel — that is, the owner of the unit above is generally presumed responsible for the leak unless it can be shown that the source is not their parcel, for example a defect in a common pipe or a lateral source. In other words the law starts from “the unit above should investigate and remedy,” rather than leaving the soaked owner below to prove a case they cannot see. That is a general framework, not an automatic verdict, and the practical process — who inspects, how the source is established, when the management body steps in — matters enormously; confirm the current procedure with your JMB or MC. Because these leaks are so common and so bitter, we cover the whole process, from diagnosis to resolution, in a dedicated inter-floor leakage guide, and where the source is a failed common-area membrane, the JMB common-area waterproofing guide covers the management side.

Landed: you own one hundred per cent

Landed property is refreshingly simple on the question of responsibility, and simply more work. There is no management body, no common property and no maintenance fee — which means there is also no one else to share the cost with. You own and maintain the whole thing: the roof and its waterproofing, the gutters and downpipes, the external and internal walls, the fencing and gate, the drainage within your boundary, the water tank, the wiring and every pipe. When the roof leaks, it is your roof; when the boundary drain silts up, it is your drain. The upside is total control and no committee to negotiate with; the downside is that the entire seasonal calendar — every row of it — lands on you. This is why landed owners in particular benefit from a preventive rhythm rather than a reactive one: nobody else is watching the roof for you. Our home maintenance checklist is written to carry exactly that full load, and for the seasonal roof jobs specifically there is the scheduled roof maintenance guide.

Landed: when a change needs a PBT permit

Owning your home outright does not mean you can rebuild it however you like. As a general rule, structural changes and works that alter the building — extensions, adding a floor, altering the facade or structure, and many external additions — require approval from your local authority, the Pihak Berkuasa Tempatan (PBT): DBKL in Kuala Lumpur, MBPJ in Petaling Jaya, MBSA in Shah Alam, and the equivalent council wherever you are. Cosmetic and internal maintenance generally does not, but the line between “renovation” and “works needing a permit” is one people cross unknowingly — and building without the required approval can mean enforcement action or trouble when you later sell. This guidance is general; the exact threshold for what needs submission (and whether a professional such as an architect or engineer must sign off) varies by council and by the work, so the honest move is always to confirm with your specific PBT before structural or external works begin rather than assume. When in doubt, ask the council or a qualified contractor first — a permit sorted in advance is far cheaper than an order to undo finished work.

Responsibility at a glance

This is the table to keep. It maps the common repairs to who carries them in each property type — strata versus landed. Treat it as a general guide subject to your building’s by-laws and your local council, not a legal ruling on a specific dispute.

The grey areas that cause disputes

Most of the arguments cluster around a handful of ambiguous spots, and knowing them in advance defuses them. Windows and doors on the external face often straddle the line — the glass and inner workings are yours, but altering the external appearance can be restricted by by-laws. Balconies are a frequent flashpoint: you use it privately, but its waterproofing membrane can be treated as part of the building envelope, so a balcony leak may be argued either way depending on the by-laws and the source. Pipes that run through your unit but serve others are common property even though they are physically inside your walls — the “serves more than one parcel” test decides it, not location. And air-conditioner condenser ledges and external casings often have specific placement and appearance rules. The wise approach with any of these is to check your building’s by-laws and raise it with the management body before spending, rather than fixing first and fighting about the bill afterwards. Where a leak or defect could plausibly be common property, insist the management body inspect and record its view early — and if you need an independent contractor’s read on the source, a reputable waterproofing contractor can help establish where the water is actually coming from.

Where the tenant fits in

Everything above concerns owners; a tenancy adds a second line to draw. As a general principle, the landlord (the owner) remains responsible for structural upkeep and fair-wear-and-tear repairs, while the tenant covers minor upkeep and any damage they cause — but the enforceable detail lives in the tenancy agreement, which is exactly why it should spell out who fixes what. A tenant in a condo does not deal with the management body over a common-property leak; that remains the owner’s relationship, and the tenant simply reports the problem to the landlord. Conflating the two lines — owner-vs-management and landlord-vs-tenant — is a common source of confusion, because a single leak can involve both at once. Our landlord vs tenant repair responsibility guide sets out where that line sits and why it belongs in writing, and landlords managing the property calendar should pair it with the rental property maintenance checklist.

A practical checklist for each

Turn all of this into action with a short mental checklist. If you are a strata owner: maintain everything inside your parcel on the seasonal calendar (aircon, interior plumbing, finishes); report anything structural, external or shared to the management body rather than fixing it yourself; read your by-laws once so you know your building’s specific lines; and keep records and photos the moment a leak or defect appears, in case responsibility is contested. If you are a landed owner: accept that the entire calendar is yours and run it preventively, because no one else is watching; and confirm with your PBT before any structural or external works. Either way: do not assume — a five-minute check of who owns the problem, backed by a photo and a by-law, saves both a wasted repair bill and a neighbourly feud. Whichever side of the line you land on, our home maintenance checklist gives you the schedule, and our free cost tools let you budget the jobs that turn out to be yours.

Why ClickBina

ClickBina is a Klang Valley property-maintenance and renovation contractor that helps owners on both sides of this line — strata parcels and landed homes alike — and part of our job is telling you honestly when a repair is not yours to pay for. We would rather you take a common-property leak to your management body than quietly foot a bill that was never yours, because that honesty is what earns the work that genuinely is. From aircon and interior plumbing to roof, waterproofing and full renovation, it is one team and one WhatsApp thread, and you can scope the budget first with our free cost tools. Tell us your property type and the problem — we will help you work out whose it is, then fix your side of it properly, and we reply within the hour.