Manohar K D Nanwani v The Management Corporation Strata Title Plan No 1884

• Jurisdiction: Singapore
• Judge: Jonathan Ng Pang Ern
• Judgment Date: 01 March 2023
• Neutral Citation: [2023] SGDC 40
• Court: District Court (Singapore)
• Docket Number: District Court Originating Application No 116 of 2022
• Hearing Date: 03 February 2023
• Citation: [2023] SGDC 40
• Year: 2023
• Plaintiff Counsel: Teh Ee-Von and Leo Cheng Suan (Infinitus Law Corporation)
• Defendant Counsel: Chen Chongguang Daniel and Tan Hong Xun Enzel (Lee & Lee)
• Subject Matter: Land,Strata titles,By-laws
• Published date: 11 March 2023

District Judge Jonathan Ng Pang Ern:

This is an originating application about a car park label. At the centre of this dispute is one of the Respondent’s by-laws. This by-law provides, essentially, that before a resident can be issued a car park label, he must produce a vehicle log card bearing an address within the Respondent’s estate.

The Applicant has not produced a vehicle log card bearing such an address and, for this reason, has not been issued a car park label. Instead, he has commenced this action, seeking a declaration that the by-law is invalid and other reliefs consequent on a finding of the by-law’s invalidity. Is the by-law invalid? And is the Applicant entitled to the reliefs that he seeks? This is my decision.

Background

The Applicant is the subsidiary proprietor of a unit at Fort Gardens,¹ which is a condominium development located along Fort Road.² The Respondent is the management corporation of Fort Gardens. The Applicant moved into Fort Gardens recently in September 2022, but he has since updated his national registration identity card (“NRIC”) to reflect his Fort Gardens address.³

The present dispute finds its genesis in the Applicant’s application for a car park label which was submitted to the Respondent on 30 September 2022.⁴ It appears that the Applicant also submitted a document, which he says is his vehicle log card, along with this application.⁵ I note that this document seems to be a new vehicle registration submission rather than a vehicle log card.⁶ But in any event, this document only bears the Applicant’s previous address, which is not at Fort Gardens.⁷ The Applicant was never issued a car park label pursuant to this application.⁸ Instead, the Applicant was first informed, by a security guard in late-October 2022, that he would have to produce an updated vehicle log card bearing his Fort Gardens address.⁹

What followed was a series of confrontations between the parties. This first started with a “final warning” notice placed on the Applicant’s vehicle on or before 30 November 2022, which stated that unauthorised parking would result in the Applicant’s vehicle being wheel clamped.¹⁰ The subsequent events include the following: A letter from the Applicant’s solicitors to the Respondent’s solicitors dated 9 December 2022, asking for the Respondent to issue a car park label “immediately”.¹¹ A WhatsApp message from the Applicant to the Respondent’s estate manager, Mr James Ng (“Mr Ng”), on 9 December 2022, forwarding the letter in (a).¹² An episode on 11 December 2022 where the Applicant’s car was wheel clamped, and then subsequently unclamped.¹³ A letter from the Applicant’s solicitors to the Respondent (as the Respondent’s solicitors had replied to the letter in (a) to state that they did not (then) act for the Respondent in relation to this matter¹⁴) dated 14 December 2022, asking, once again, for a car park label to be issued, and reserving the Applicant’s right to claim “aggravated damages”. Pertinently, this letter also asked the Respondent to provide its additional by-laws (I understand this to be a reference to the by-laws made by the Respondent, which are “additional” to the by-laws prescribed by statute) (the “Additional By-Laws”).¹⁵ An email from Mr Ng to the Applicant’s solicitors dated 14 December 2022, setting out the Respondent’s version of events, threatening to wheel clamp the Applicant’s vehicle again if the Applicant did not produce a vehicle log card bearing his Fort Gardens address by 17 December 2022, and offering the Applicant the opportunity to view the Additional By-Laws.¹⁶ A letter from the Applicant’s solicitors to the Respondent dated 16 December 2022, threatening to apply for “immediate injunctive relief” and to claim “aggravated damages” should the Respondent proceed to wheel clamp the Applicant’s vehicle.¹⁷ A letter from the Respondent to the Applicant’s solicitors dated 16 December 2022, setting out the relevant extracts of the Additional By-Laws, threatening to wheel clamp the Applicant’s vehicle again if the Applicant did not produce a vehicle log card bearing his Fort Gardens address by 21 December 2022, and offering the Applicant, once again, the opportunity to view the Additional By-Laws.¹⁸ An email from the Applicant’s solicitors to Mr Ng dated 17 December 2022, asking, once again, for the Additional By-Laws, and indicating that the Applicant would be applying to court for a “restraining order”.¹⁹

And so it was that on 20 December 2022, the Applicant filed this originating application with a supporting affidavit setting out the above matters. The originating application seeks following orders: 1. A declaration that the By-Laws of the Management Corporation Strata Title Plan No. 1884 of Fort Gardens (the “MCST”) permitting only residents with vehicle log cards showing the registered owner’s address in Fort Gardens to be issued with a car park label is unlawful or invalid. 2. That the MCST does immediately issue a car park label to the applicant for his vehicle, registration number [vehicle number redacted], so as to enable him to park his vehicle at the resident’s car park. 3. Alternatively, that the MCST, whether through its council members, agents or representatives, be [restrained from] applying wheel clamps to his vehicle, registration number [vehicle number redacted], when it is parked at the resident’s parking lot for as long as the applicant remains a sole proprietor and resident at Fort Gardens. 4. That the MCST pays the costs of this application.

The Respondent does not seriously dispute the sequence of events set out above. Instead, the Respondent’s objections centre around the lack of a basis for the originating application. The Respondent first points to the Additional By-Laws, which are exhibited in its reply affidavit. In particular, reliance is placed on cl 1 of Part Two of the Additional By-Laws (the “Parking By-Law”), which provides as follows:²⁰

Vehicles belonging to unit owners or tenants must be registered with the Management Corporation. Registered vehicles will be issued car park labels, subject to verification of the vehicle log book. Tenants must obtain written approval from the landlords when applying for car park labels. Only vehicles whose vehicle registration documents bear the address of Fort Garden [sic] shall be eligible for registration and the decision of the Management Corporation to accept or reject such registration shall be treated as final and conclusive.

[emphasis added]

According to the Respondent, before the Parking By-Law was made, residents would abuse the system by sharing their car park labels with friends and family or non-resident subsidiary proprietors.²¹ To address this abuse, the Respondent needed to ensure that car park labels were issued to residents and also tied to specific vehicles. This required the Respondent to verify that an applicant was a resident and also the owner of the vehicle in question. The vehicle log card, which bears both the name of the owner as well as his registered address, was therefore required as part of the application process.²²

The Respondent also highlights that changing the address on one’s NRIC would automatically result in the change also being reflected on his vehicle log card.²³ Moreover, a vehicle log card can be easily retrieved online: the Land Transport Authority (“LTA”) has set out, on its website, the three steps for printing out one’s vehicle log card (although, and this assumes significance later (see [34] below), the LTA officially refers to the vehicle log card as “registration details”):²⁴

Question:

How do I print out the registration details (commonly known as the Log Card) of my vehicle from Digital Services at the ONE.MOTORING portal?

Answer:

You can print out your vehicle’s registration details (commonly known as the Log Card) with the following steps: 1. Log in with your Singpass to our LTA's OneMotoring website (https://onemotoring.lta.gov.sg/content/onemotoring/home.html) > Digital Services > Enquire My Vehicle Details (https://onemotoring.lta.gov.sg/content/onemotoring/home/digitalservices.html?t=login&param=F1801091ET) (Requires login) 2. Select vehicle and click “Next” 3. Click “Print” to print a copy of your vehicle registration details

Vehicle owners without Singpass account may submit your request for vehicle registration details via www.lta.gov.sg/feedback (http://www.lta.gov.sg/feedback). Please note that you will need to pay an administrative fee of $32.10 (inclusive of GST), if we help to print the registration details for you.

Issues

As I understand it, the Applicant’s case, in outline, is that the Parking By-Law is invalid because: (a) it contravenes s 32(2) of the Building Maintenance and Strata Management Act 2004 (“BMSMA”); and/or (b) it unfairly, illogically and unreasonably discriminates against residents whose vehicles are registered to non-Fort Gardens addresses.

This provides a convenient framework for identifying the issues that arise in this originating application. Accordingly, the first two issues that I have to determine are: (a) whether the Parking By-Law is invalid because it contravenes s 32(2) of the BMSMA (“Issue 1”); and (b) whether the Parking By-Law is invalid because it is discriminatory (“Issue 2”). If the answer to either Issue 1 or Issue 2 is “yes”, the next issue is whether the Applicant is entitled to the reliefs sought (“Issue 3”).

Whether the Parking By-Law is invalid because it contravenes s 32(2) of the BMSMA

The starting point for Issue 1 is s 32(2) of the BMSMA, which states as follows: (2) Subject to the Fourth Schedule, the by-laws prescribed by regulations are the by-laws for every parcel comprised in a strata title plan in respect of which a management corporation is constituted on or after 1 April 2005, and any by-law made under this section or section 33 must not be inconsistent with any...