2024 has been the year with the most renovations at Bagamoya, and a lot of lessons were learned in the process. These are costly, noisy, and stress-inducing times for most people (those doing the renovations and the neighbours too) and there are a few things that can and should be done to reduce the friction.

Procedure

When an owner wants to make any changes to their unit, garage, common property, or exclusive use areas, they will first need to propose these changes to the trustees, via the managing agents.

The managing agents will provide them with the Renovation Application document (last renewed July 2024). Trustees should familiarise themselves with the document:

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Renovation Application-1.pdf

95.3 kB

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After receiving the application, the trustees must review the application.

It is important to note that owners may propose changes that will alter the exterior look-and-feel of the building, which should carefully be decided on. Also note that a section was added when an independent, third-party structural engineer will be required to sign off on plans such as the removal of walls. For the most part renovations (such as retiling and painting) doesn’t matter all that much, but alterations (such as replacing external doors, removing walls) should be thoroughly reviewed.

Tips

It’s good to have meetings in person or Whatsapp (for the owners to show what they’re planning to do, for instance), but we require that all communication happen via email. This avoids situations where someone assume that the other person agreed to something in conversation.

We have found it useful to proactively reach out to the owners and tenants (via WhatsApp) in advance to explain what renovations are coming, what it will entail, how long it will go on, and importantly: when the noisier jobs will happen. Many residents work from home, others have young babies or toddlers. Weekly or other frequent updates are also very useful — even if they are bad news like delays. Studies have shown anxiety and anger to be lowered when people have more information about a negative situation (than withholding the information).

For some external changes, such as changing of doors, window frames, sliding doors, or garage doors, it is important to maintain the look and feel of what is currently in place. It is important to notify those doing the renovations, that if they plan to change these, that it will be their responsibility to make sure that it conforms with the building’s style before these are added. We had an unfortunate incident in 2024 where a garage door was changed (from meranti to metal). There were complaints

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