Association: Developers’ woes self-inflicted

The Star 18/11/2002 By Clarence Chua

KUALA LUMPUR: Developers’ claims that they stand to lose as much as RM1.2bil in late delivery penalty charges are self-inflicted, National House Buyers Association (HBA) secretary-general Chang Kim Loong said.

He said the developers’ woes were a result of their non-adherence to the laws.

''They have been pre-warned that illegal construction workers will be deported and ample time were already given.

''These are not the house buyers’ problem,'' he said during the HBA’s meet-the-people session at its headquarters at Jalan Imbi here.

Under the sale and purchase agreement, developers are given 24 months to complete and hand over the houses to buyers while condominiums take 36 months to complete.

Failure to do so will result in late delivery charges payable by the developer.

Chang was commenting on the statement by the Real Estate and Housing Developers’ Association Malaysia (Rehda) on Thursday that housing developers would lose RM1.2bil in penalty charges because of the acute shortage of construction workers.

Its president Datuk Jeffrey Ng Tiong Lip had said many developers were having difficulty starting or sustaining construction work and might not be able to meet their completion deadlines as stipulated in the sales and purchase agreements.