Speech 2nd Nov 2000

Speech by Dato’ Hj. Zainuddin Hj. Bachik, Chairman of House Buyers Association of Kuala Lumpur & Selangor on 2^nd Nov 2000 at the Ministry of Housing and Local Government.

We are pleased to be given the opportunity of making this courtesy call to you in spite of your heavy schedules. We also feel a great honour to have a rare occasion like this to introduce to you the newly elected office bearers and committee members of the Association. We hope that by this visit we have established a relationship, to work towards the promotion of an ideal house sale and purchase system in this country. Following the Associations approval by the Registrar of Societies, we are now set to embark on our programs of actions for the fulfillment of our objectives in helping innocent house buyers from the deceitful trends of unscrupulous developers.

In our view there is no shortcut approach of magic words that can put in check or curtail their distrustful practice, except by the very existence of a non-bias law inculcating the provision of adequate protection and safeguards to the right of house buyers, to be closely followed by a vigilant enforcement of the Law. Dodgers of the Rules and Regulations of the Act must be made to face the consequences of prosecution, if the law is to be respected and public confidence regained. The various government agencies responsible for approving housing projects, should monitor them on regular basis, while the building is in progress and to apprehend whose who departed from the se norms. The need to exercise rigid control on the progress of building to ensure quality workmanship must not to taken for granted as this country has not yet put in practice the concept of ‘build and sell’ houses as is done in the many countries in the West, Australia and others.

True enough, there is much urgency to build houses of all categories to meet public demands and to prevent the mushrooming of unsightly and unhygienic squatter settlements which affect the image of the country, but housing development should not be allowed at the expense of unsuspecting house buyers, most of whom are in the middle and low income brackets who had to dole out their entire life savings to buy houses from the developers.

The recent announcement on the 2001 Budget has brought good news to house buyers. In the first place, house buyers who are EPF contributors are allowed to make a second withdrawal to buy another house provided they sell the first one they brought from an earlier withdrawal from their contributions. In short this means that a contributor can now buy a bigger and better house for his enlarged and growing family.

Secondly, the Budget showed a firm commitment of the Government by setting aside a provision of RM780 M for the purpose of reinstating housing projects that were abandoned by developers and the building of more low-cost houses that are needed in the country

The House Buyers Association appreciates the Governments concern on the plight of unfortunate house buyers who had to bear the brunt of hardship due to bogus run-away developers and the need to build more low-cost houses to meet the growing demand from a large segment of the population.

The House Buyers Association would like to call for a rigid control on the price of houses to be build by developers so as to ensure that they do not take advantage of the situation to make huge profits.

Developers should be screened on their financial capabilities and the quality of workmanship of their past completed projects to server as reference to house buyers and before new licenses were issued for new projects. Those that took advantage of the house buyers and produced shoddy workmanship should be barred from continuing in the business. The Association would encourage developers to look for design of houses that could reduce building costs with modern technology. Every housing project must be made to incorporate beautiful landscaped garden to blend well the environment.

The House Buyers Association for Kuala Lumpur and Selangor, due to an overwhelming respond from all over the country, especially from dissatisfied house buyers, plans to spread its wings to the states. The Association knew that the Minister is fully aware of the bases of discontentment, hardships and sufferings sustained by house buyers who could ill afford to drag the matters to courts, to prove their grievances, as matters of their legitimate rights. The Association is determined and committed to do everything within its power and means to seek redress to house buyers problems.

The Ministry move to get Parliament to pass a New Act on the building industry and to set up a Tribunal to arbitrate cases of disputes between house buyers and developers is highly commendable, although it is somewhat long overdue. We hope that the New Act which is expected to ensure protection to house buyers rights will not take long in the process in the face of mounting pressure from house buyers who are left in the lurch in search of justice over their predicament.

Our Association is neither commercially nor politically oriented. It plays its role on a clean platform without aligning to either pursuit. Its work is involved on sheer humanitarian principle and ethics and it strives wholly for free for fair and equitable treatment for house buyers in their deal with the developers. It advocates the policy of complementing as well as supplementing every effort initiated by the Government to make house purchase a friendly and hassle free venture in this country. It will give full support to the Government in the implementation of its Policies, the Rules and Regulations of the New Act governing the building industry.

The Association would be an effective vehicle linking the people and the Government if it is represented in the Council or Committees to be appointed by the Government to look into and observe the building industry which is fast growing and becoming more complex. We look forward to more meetings between us in the future and offer our services relating to matters of mutual interest.

Thank You.