| 2.1 |
Q |
Are “Consultancy fees” “Design fees”, “GBI application fees”, and “GBI Facilitator fees” for Green Buildings” classified as ‘Green Cost’ and hence be eligible for tax exemption under GBI certification? |
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A |
No. The current Budget 2010 tax incentives only allow for capital expenditure and this does not cover such fees. We will be applying for their inclusion under Budget 2011 and will update if this is accepted. |
| 2.2 |
Q |
Would any fee charged by professionals to advise tax payers in upgrading an existing building or new building to be a green building be deemed as part of the building cost to qualify for tax exemption? |
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A |
No. The current Budget 2010 tax incentives only allow for capital expenditure and this does not cover such fees. We will be applying for their inclusion under Budget 2011 and will update if this is accepted. |
| 2.3 |
Q |
Energy & Water Consumption of Lease Units
When the GBI rating is assessed, do we need to consider the energy and water consumptions of these Leased Units in the calculations i.e. BEI?
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| |
A |
Yes. Note that GBI rating system is for the whole building and not for Core & Shell application only.
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| 2.4 |
Q |
A building project has two components, e.g. condominium block with some townhouses in the same strata scheme. Which OTTV value do we use? Do we average the OTTV value based on the area of each type? |
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A |
OTTV calculation is for each individual building and should not be averaged. |
| 2.5 |
Q |
How do we approach OTTV calculation for mass housing scheme (landed property)? Each house would obviously have different orientation due to roads and site. |
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A |
OTTV calculation is for each individual building. |
| 2.6 |
Q |
WE1 - Rainwater harvesting
What should the potable water consumption be based on?
Can we assume just the water requirements for irrigation for this?
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| |
A |
Potable water consumption refers to the metered treated water supplied by the water authority.
No. The percentage of potable water savings is to be based on the total metered treated water usage.
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| 2.7 |
Q |
EQ3 - Sound insulation
What is the criterion for the acoustic test results during CVA? |
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A |
Please consult your GBI Facilitator or Acoustics consultant on the expected standard for your particular building. |
| 2.8 |
Q |
Are CA (capital allowances), ITA (investment tax allowance) and GBI incentive (on additional capex portion) mutually exclusive? Where can I obtain more info pertaining to tax incentives related to GBI? |
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A |
Please attend the regular information session on these topics held by GSB and MGBC at PAM centre. |
| 2.9 |
Q |
Standard Form of Agreement given by GBI is for Developer. Is there any form for purchaser? |
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A |
No. There are no agreements between GSB and the Purchasers. To accommodate the Stamp Duty Incentives for Purchasers, it is the obligation of the Developer (GBI applicant) upon completion to provide the names and unit addresses for GBI Certificates to be made out to each purchaser. |
| 2.10 |
Q |
How about sub-sale to subsequent owner within the 3 years before re-assessment? |
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A |
The project certification is valid for three (3) years but the Stamp Duty Exemption only applies to the first purchaser and not to subsequent buyers. As such individual GBI certificates will not be issued to sub-sale parties. |
| 2.11 |
Q |
Should the certificate and the obligations to be carried on until the re-assessment? |
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A |
The GBI certificate will remain valid for the assessed building for 3 years. |
| 2.12 |
Q |
The tax benefits are claimable by the owner (and user) and not the developer. Therefore is the certificate attached to the building or the owner? Example CF is attached to building not owner. |
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A |
The Certificate is given to the owner (GBI Applicant) and is for a particular building that will be identified on the Certificate. |
| 2.13 |
Q |
How can the developer exit from the agreement with GBI once they sell off the building, halfway through the construction? Does GBI have a standard form or format to submit? |
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A |
The new owner will have to provide all the necessary details as the new registered applicant for the GBI Certification and the original applicant should transfer the GBI agreement to the new owner/developer. The GBI certificate will be issued to whoever is stated on record as the registered GBI applicant. There is no standard form for this change but it is allowed.
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| 2.14 |
Q |
If the approval of the Design has been given to the developer, can this approval be transferred to the purchaser and what are the conditions of transfer? Example, the purchaser need to engage their own competent engineers to operate the EE feature according to the design intent in order to obtain the certificate. This shall be a pre condition to change over of ownership. |
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A |
This is a contractual arrangement between the purchaser and the developer similar to As-Built Drawings and O&M Manuals. |
| 2.15 |
Q |
The GBI agreement states that GSB have the right to withdraw or cancel the certification if there is any accident with loss of life. The developer believes that loss of life at construction site can only be avoided but not totally eliminated. Therefore, if the developer has shown that they have carried out their duty of care as far as they could and yet fatality still occurs, would GSB cancel the Certificate? This is important to developers to prevent them from getting sued by the purchaser for getting their GBI certificate cancelled during construction. |
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A |
This is a standard discretionary clause to protect GSB and will only be exercised in-line with the legal framework that governs and protects the building and construction industry. It is not intended to be applied as per the scenario quoted. |
| 2.16 |
Q |
Query in Chiller compliance to ARI Standard as stated in MS1525:2007
Based on MS1525:2007 page 36, section 8.11.1 states chiller shall comply with ARI Std 550/590-98. We were informed by XX, who is a dealer for YY make of chiller that the JIS standard is also acceptable by GSB. Kindly reconfirm to us what is the parameter in Section 8.11.1 of MS1525 that would be replaced by JIS. |
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A |
GBI does not stipulate that chillers must specifically comply with ARI Standards.
As for your reference to MS1525, the parameters listed in Section 8.11.1 refer to Standard Rating Conditions for which chillers must be tested to, and also that for applications in Malaysia, chillers must use the NPLV conditions to determine their energy efficiency COP values.
Therefore testing to ARI or JIS or any other third party standards is acceptable provided these are conducted in accordance with the stipulated Standard Rating Conditions and NPLV conditions.
Note that the energy performance of the whole building is what GBI is interested in as per criteria EE5 on BEI value, and not just the chillers.
Please also note that GSB does not endorse or approve any make of equipment.
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| 2.17 |
Q |
Development: Stratified Mixed residential and commercial development
Components:
1. 40 units of 4-5 storey shop office
2. 30 storey office tower
3. 28 storey service apartment
Entire development sits on one land title i.e. it will be sitting on one common podium block. Development will be carried out in phases.
Can we apply for GBI certification for only one parcel of the development e.g. office tower. The other two, we do not apply for GBI certification. |
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A |
GBI Certification may be applied for the single parcel or phase of a development, i.e. the office tower. This is because, in the GBI Certificate, GSB will identify the office tower as the building which has been rated under Green Building Index. |
| 2.18 |
Q |
GBI verification will be conducted after CCC of project and within 12 months or minimum 50% occupancy in the building.
If within 12 months, the occupancy is still below 50%, will certifier still conduct verification? |
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A |
Yes. |
| 2.19 |
Q |
If building achieves 50% occupancy after 3 months of CCC, when certifier will come and verify? |
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A |
Upon submission of all the verified results as required for CVA.
Note that the 50% occupancy is to enable the EMS to be fully commissioned, utility bills to reflect against verified results, post occupancy comfort survey to be done, etc.
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| 2.20 |
Q |
How many months energy or other record required for verification after 50% occupancy? |
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A |
As least 2 months of stabilised consumption record. |
| 2.21 |
Q |
How long will be for the process to issue final certificate of GBI rating? |
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A |
2 to 3 months provided the submissions are in order. |
| 2.22 |
Q |
Currently, there are only 4 CxS listed in the website. Can a project nominate their own CxS to commission their project, instead of engaging the listed 4 CxS?
If permitted, what information does the client need to submit to GSB to nominate their CxS.
|
| |
A |
Please download information from GBI website on:
“What are the Commissioning Specialist's roles, tasks and pre-requisites” to fully understand all the requirements.
In this same file, GSB states the following:
GBI APPROVAL OF THE CxS
GBI will assess and approve individual CxS (upon request on a case by case basis), engaged for each GBI registered project for the period ending 20th May 2010 based on the prerequisites of such CxS as appended in the subsequent section. Meanwhile, a list of CxS recognized by GBI will be progressively posted on the GBI website.
Since the number of listed CxS is still small, GSB will continue to assess and approve individual CxS (on a case by case basis for a specific building).
However, it must be cautioned that the case by case approved CxS must fully fulfill the all the duties of a CxS as very clearly spelt out in detail in the web posting, or else at CVA stage the applicant may lose the relevant credit points.
As for submission for approval, follow the requirements listed in the CxS Registration Form (on the website). Should there be any shortfall in compliance, submit mitigating factors for GSB's consideration.
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