Buyers of the low-medium cost flat units of Penang’s Green Garden project in Paya Terubong will have to fight their own battle to get compensation for the late delivery of their units.

The developer has again rejected the appeal by unit purchasers for 50% of the compensation amount and has stood by its offer of only RM3,800.

The buyers’ pro tem committee treasurer Low Siang Hock said yesterday that the committee would no longer represent the buyers as the developer had refused to budge from its offer.

“We offered to compromise on the compensation quantum but the developer, Gelanggang Kemilau Sdn Bhd, refused to even enter negotiations,” Low said.

“So, the buyers can now either choose to accept the developer’s offer or consult their lawyers on the next cause of action,” he said in an interview.

Low said the committee made this decision after a futile meeting with the developer at Paya Terubong assemblyman Datuk Dr Loh Hock Hun’s service centre on Tuesday night.

The committee’s earlier meeting with the developer on Oct 10, with Chief Minister Tan Sri Dr Koh Tsu Koon’s political secretary Teng Chang Yeow as the mediator, also ended in a deadlock.

Based on the sale and purchase agreement of unit buyers who first signed up in 1996, he said, buyers were entitled to seek late delivery compensation for 36 months.

The sum, he said, totalled RM18,000 comprising RM15,000 for late delivery of vacant possession of their unit and RM3,000 for late delivery of the common facilities.

“But the buyers at a meeting with the developer on April 14, agreed to claim only 50% of the RM15,000, but the developer had further reduced the sum to 30% of the RM15,000 or RM4,500.

“The developer later sought a six-month reprieve from the Housing and Local Government Ministry to calculate the compensation for only 30 months, and brought its final offer to RM3,800,” he said.

Low said the committee agreed that the claim would be settled by way of renovation work to be done to the flat units of buyers “but the low compensation offer was simply unacceptable.”

He said the developer also refused to to accept the committee’s request for free parking lots for unit buyers.

“The developer had in fact verbally set parking lot rental at between RM30 and RM40 a month,” Low said.

Penas Group of Companies general manager Tean Kok Pin issued a press statement yesterday on behalf of its subsidiary Gelanggang Kemilau, the project developer.

Tean said Block A of the two-block Green Garden project had been issued with partial occupational certification (OC) on Oct 15.

Block A, he said, comprised 1,124 residential units, 15 shop units, a surau, a hawker centre and a community hall.

“Construction of Block B is still in progress and is expected to be completed by next year,” Tean said.

The Green Garden project, which was started in 1996, was originally scheduled for completion in 1999.