Owner of service road at Parklane mall ‘unreasonable’ for charging garbage trucks access fees: Judge

The daily task of rubbish collection at Parklane Shopping Mall became difficult after the owner of the service road that leads to the bin centre began charging garbage trucks parking fees to access the road.

Kosma Holdings, which owns the road and the carpark of the strata-titled mall, also installed structures to prevent rubbish bins from being manually wheeled out past the carpark barrier to waiting garbage trucks.

It imposed a $1,000 “penalty” for each incident of unauthorised entry.

Kosma later also began charging fees ranging from $20 to $100 – on top of parking charges – for access to the loading bay, which includes the bin centre.

On Sept 17, High Court Judge Philip Jeyaretnam said Kosma’s conduct has been unreasonable and has impaired the effective use of the mall.

The management corporation of the Selegie Road mall had taken Kosma to court to seek a right of way, also known as an easement, over the service road.

Represented by lawyer Subir Singh Grewal, the management corporation relied on a legislative provision introduced in 2019 that empowers the court to create a right of way if the easement was reasonably necessary for the effective use of the land.

The management corporation also sought an injunction to restrain Kosma from impeding the entry of vehicles into the loading bay; an order to remove the structures it had installed; and a declaration that the total penalty of $6,000 imposed on it for six occasions of alleged unauthorised entry is “irrecoverable”. 

In his written judgment, Justice Jeyaretnam ruled that a right of way over the service road was reasonably necessary for the effective use of the mall.

“In my view, use of the service road in connection with refuse collection is categorically necessary while use of the service road for loading and unloading is at the very least reasonable,” he said.

Under the law, the court can make an order to create a right of way only if three conditions are met.

Justice Jeyaretnam said two conditions were satisfied: that the use of the mall was not inconsistent with the public interest, and that Kosma could be adequately compensated for the creation of the right of way.

But the third condition, which requires the management corporation to make “all reasonable attempts” to obtain the right of way directly from the landowner, had yet to be fulfilled.

He noted that while the management corporation had sought reasonable solutions to the difficulty posed by Kosma’s actions, the correspondence presented in court did not directly address the question of creating an easement.

The judge said he would create a right of way if the final requirement is fulfilled, and granted the management corporation time to do so. This would also give Kosma the opportunity to consider the issue of adequate compensation, he said.

He granted the parties time to exchange proposals on how the easement will work and allowed them to file supplementary submissions within six weeks.

Parklane Shopping Mall was built in the 1970s.

The mall and the service road used to be part of a single parcel of land before they were subdivided in 1982.

After the subdivision, the service road was sold to a series of owners before it was acquired by Kosma in February 2021.

Kosma’s wholly owned subsidiary, K Parking, operates the mall’s multi-storey carpark.

The previous owner installed an electronic parking system gantry at the entrance of the service road.

It was the practice of the previous owner to raise the barrier for garbage trucks, allowing them to use the service road without any parking charges.

Other vehicles using the loading bay were charged parking rates of $5.56 per half-hour.

According to the judgment, K Parking “continued this practice out of goodwill” until December 2024, when it began charging garbage trucks the same parking rates.

Kosma also implemented other measures to “protect its property”.

It installed a fence and a bollard on the service road and grilles below the gantry, and extended the barrier arm to stop people from pushing rubbish bins past it.

On Feb 28, Kosma sent the management corporation a notice, which stated that “permission to access the service road is at the discretion of the carpark’s management”.

The notice added that unit owners and tenants must register their suppliers or contractors to enter the loading bay, and must provide an insurance policy of $1 million covering public liabilities including “damages to properties, accidents, deaths, injuries, nuisance” in favour of Kosma.

Source: The Straits Times © SPH Media Limited. Permission required for reproduction.

Management Corporation Strata Title Plan No 561 v Kosma Holdings Pte Ltd [2025] SGHC 185

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