HOUSING and Local Government Minister Datuk Seri Ong Ka Ting has rejected outright that he would use his ministerial power to extend the completion period of projects due to labour shortage.

The appeal came from housing developers whose operations have been severely affected by August’s crackdown on illegal immigrants.

As most of the construction workers are Indonesians, their hurried departure has caused a nationwide shortage of such labourers in the industry.

Ong explained that the power vested on the minister could only be used where natural disasters were concerned but not due to poor planning and negligence of the projects.

This rejection is indeed a big blow to the developers who are projected to suffer RM1.2bil in penalty payments for not delivering their units on time as stated in the sale and purchase agreement.

The completion period ranges from two to three years upon signing of the sale and purchase agreement depending on the type of property involved.

The industry will now have to brace itself for a series of claims for late delivery.

However, the financial burden may not be as heavy as that described by the industry.

Most developers usually have non-performance insurance cover, which should help to lighten their burden should they fail to complete their projects on time.

When this happens, they can always claim against their insurers though there must also be conditions attached to such policies.

If there is basis for a claim then the insurance industry will end up footing the bill on the developers’ behalf.

In this respect, the coming into force of the Housing Tribunal can only be described as timely as the ministry has set it up for the sole purpose of helping aggrieved housebuyers to make claims against their developers for shoddy workmanship or late delivery.

So the tribunal, which is scheduled to begin work on Dec 1, will have its work cut out.

It can expect thousands of cases being filed by dissatisfied buyers who can claim up to RM25,000 in compensation.

It will no longer be necessary for them to go to court to make their claims as this will involve a lot of time and money as invariably the services of lawyers will be required.

All this is good news for the long-suffering housebuyers who believe they have been given the runaround by their developers whenever they have complaints to make.

As for the errant developers, this is another headache they have to live with as once the tribunal begins its work their unhappy purchasers will no doubt be making full use of this new mechanism.

The developers will need to defend themselves once the cases against them have been filed and this could mean having a permanent member of the staff just to attend the tribunal proceedings.

Hopefully, the tribunal will be able to cope with the expected heavy workload and if necessary more such arbitrary centres be set up so that there will be a minimum delay in disposing of the disputes.