News Bar News/Berita Badan Peguam More protection for home buyers 
| More protection for home buyers |
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| Friday, 15 December 2006 09:01am | |
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THE year is ending on a good note for housebuyers. The newly passed Housing Development (Control and Licensing) (Amendment) Bill is aimed at plugging loopholes in existing laws to further strengthen the position of homebuyers. (Please click here to download the Housing Development (Control & Licensing) (Amendment) Bill 2006; Building and Common Property (Maintenance and Management) Bill 2006; Strata Titles (Amendment) Bill 2006 and Street Drainage and Building (Amendment) Bill 2006.) Among the major amendments include the definition of housing accommodation that may now encompass projects like serviced apartments and gated communities. Previously, these projects did not fall under the act and buyers had no recourse when the development ran into problems. The Amendment Act empowers the Minister for Housing and Local Government to prescribe, from time to time, any type of accommodation to be a housing accommodation. This will come in handy when new hybrid developments are introduced. Two other important amendments include the right of purchasers to terminate the sale and purchase agreements (SPA) within six months after signing (provided 75% of the purchasers and the developer are agreeable) and the right of the purchaser to sue the developer where there is no title issued yet. Previously, only developers had the right to terminate the SPA while purchasers who had assigned their rights to their financier could only sue with the financier’s or bank’s permission. Under the Amendment Act, purchasers can now sue the developer directly and only need to notify the bank in writing within 14 days after an action has been filed. Where the sale of strata title properties is concerned, the law previously required the purchaser to obtain written consent from the developer for the transfer of property when no strata title had been issued. With the amendments, purchasers need only serve the developer a notice in writing. It is the responsibility of the housing developer to keep and maintain an up-todate register of all purchasers of the development until separate strata titles have been issued. This is the second time the Act, which was enforced in 1966 has been amended. “We welcome the amendments and laud the minister for his proactive steps in bringing about many changes to protect house buyers,” said Roger Tan (pix), a member of the steering committee of legislative drafting of the Ministry of Housing and Local Government. Other amendments that will be enforced refer to the Housing Development Account and the Housing Tribunal. The Amendment Act requires the housing developer to set up a Housing Development Account at the time of applying for licence. The developer must provide an irrevocable instruction in writing to allow the Controller full access to the account. It also gives the Controller the right to freeze the Account if it finds the developer contravening the law. As for the Housing Tribunal, the Act now allows retired judges to be appointed chairman to the tribunal while the maximum award for each claim has been increased from RM25,000 to RM50,000. “For the Act to succeed, everyone must cooperate in the interest of housebuyers and the industry,” says Tan. The HDA is not the only law that will offer purchasers better protection. With the Building and Common Property (Maintenance and Management) Bill 2006, which was also passed this week, high-rise home owners will now have a say in the running and management of their properties. Purchasers and the developer will have to form a “Joint Management Body” to handle property management and maintenance before strata titles are issued. The Act covers all strata-title property, including those built on commercial land such as serviced apartments. It will also lead to the appointment of a Commissioner of Buildings or COB to handle disputes related to the management services of high rises. Comments (1)
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Circular No 106/2012: Accountant’s Report 2011
This is a welcome development. At long last, the ordinary purchasers have had the uneven playing field levelled against the powerful and well-connected lobby of developers. It is also in the long-term interests of genuine developers to weed out the recalcitrants from within their circle.
The Minister ought to be congratulated for this courageous move although the devil is always in its implementation and enforcement by government officials. That is where our Malaysian weakness always lies. We have to throw the book at some of these recalcitrant developers whose activities have caused abject plight and misery to an untold number of innocent buyers over the last many years.
As I have said earlier in another place, it is not unknown for:
(a) sinking funds to evaporate under the sinning sun of these greedy developers.
(b) stakeholders funds to also develop legs and wings and go everywhere except where it sohuld be.
(c) developers to delay the issuance of strata titles by delaying their application so that they can continue to milk the purchasers of the monthly service fees.
(d) lifts or their parts to suddenly give way so that new lifts or parts must be bought - all at the expense of the purchasers.
(e) jerry-built apartments and houses to be built and passed on to the unwary purchasers. Even apartment bathrooms have been known to leak to their neighbours downstairs because developers want to save some money. The effect of this is to create quarrels among neighbours!
The time of reckoning has come for all of us to get these unscrupulous developers out of our way. We need the genuine developers to do the job and do it properly so that we can achieve our firm objective of a house-owning democracy.
The setting up of a joint management body will ensure that the occurrences of the above malpractices will be eradicated, if not minimised.