Democracy comes to SOHO?

Jianwai SOHO, the second residential and commercial apartment complex built in Beijing by the real estate company SOHO China, is a massive compound of formerly white glass-and-concrete towers now looking rather worse for the wear. The last year or so has also seen increasingly bitter disagreements between the residents and tenants of the complex, the property management company and even the local electricity bureau.

In November 2009, The China Daily reported that “Power could be cut to more than 1,400 units in the Jian Wai SOHO complex following an unpaid electricity bill totalling 7.6 million yuan ($1.1 million)”.

The money was owed to Beijing’s power supplier by Pinnacle Realty Management International, who said that “many owners and tenants had not paid their management fees for three months”

The China Daily reported that about 70 percent of proprietors were unwilling to pay management fees “because of a conflict with Pinnacle and Scitech International Property Management Co Ltd, the former property manager”. The story is even more tangled:

The Jian Wai SOHO property committee hired a firm to audit the management accounts last year. The auditor allegedly found that Scitech had appropriated 17 million yuan in property fees in the five years since 2003.

“So we decided to dismiss Scitech, sue them and entrust the management job to Pinnacle temporarily,” said Han Bing, the former president of property owners committee.

Today’s China Daily has an update:

The disarray for residents of the Jian Wai SOHO complex is likely to abate by the end of the week, when a new residents’ committee is set to take over.

The 11 members of the new committee were finalized on April 21 and the result is pending a seven-day public check…

… Relations have become so fractious that about 20 helmet-wearing guards were called on to patrol as votes were taken. Some candidates reported being threatened.

If no one raises questions before Wednesday, the committee will become the official representative of 1,090 households in Jian Wai SOHO for the next three years.

The panel will represent all residential property owners and make decisions on how to run the community, including the awarding of an annual property management contract valued at 57 million yuan.

Zhang Hongjing, head of the new committee, said she was not surprised that it had received 654 votes, or about 60 percent of all the households, in 10 days.

“People rushed to vote when our election kicked off,” Zhang told [The China Daily] METRO on Sunday.

“We got about 200 votes on the first day. It is so obvious that every one here wants to find a new and functional residents’ committee and end the chaos we have endured the past two years.”

…

Chaos has reigned in the interim as some residents refused to pay electricity bills and other fees to the property management company selected by the previous committee, leading to an 11-hour blackout in March.

“We will owe a 5 million yuan electricity bill to the Chaoyang power supply company by May. And with the coming of summer, the air-conditioning equipment also needs to be examined and fixed,” Zhang Mingwei, vice-director of the committee, said.

A foreign businessman whose offices are in Jianwai SOHO contacted by Danwei said that the details of the many disputes going on were “very complicated” and complained that the management company was poorly run.

It remains to be seen whether the newly elected residents committee can make any progress.