Over 80% of developers of highrise housing in Kuala Lumpur do not follow approved building plans.

Segambut MP Dr Tan Kee Kwong said these developers submitted plans to City Hall but during the construction made changes as they liked. "These alterations and changes prompted City Hall to freeze issuance of Certificates of Fitness (CF)," he said.

As a result, buyers were caught without CF's and strata titles to their units, he added. One example which he cited was the Desa Kiara Condominium which was completed in 1994 but had not been issued the CF until today.

Dr Tan was speaking to reporters after visiting the work sites to widen roads and rebuild drains along Jalan Jambu Jembah 1 in Jinjang Selatan. City Hall is spending about RM150,000 to carry out the work to put an end to frequent accidents caused by the narrow road.

Dr Tan said there were also developers who used the non-issuances of CF to their advantage as they would collect fees for handling the maintenance of the highrise housing.

"We have heard of developers who collect the fees and pump the money into their other subsidiaries or use for something else. "The residents from where they collect the money from in the meantime do not even get the basic service that they are paying for," he said.

He added that according to existing laws the owners of such condominiums or apartments could not form their own management committee unless the CF and strata title had been issued. Dr Tan said he had raised them matter with City Hall recently and told Datuk Bandar Tan Sri Kamaruzzaman Sharif that the laws and regulations needed to be re-studied.

"It seems the regulations we have now are not enough to stop developers from flouting them," he added. He said he hoped that the Housing and Local Government Ministry would also look into the matter soon.