Developers taking advantage of grace period

24/05/2002 The Star

Writes UNHAPPY HOUSE BUYER of Petaling Jaya.(via e-mail)

I REFER to your report, “Making builders keep promises’’, (The Star, April 22)

It quoted Deputy Housing and Local Government Minister Datuk M. Kayveas as saying the ministry was studying a proposal to make it mandatory that what is promised in developers’ brochures be included in sale and purchase agreements and that the Housing Development Act be amended to protect buyers from being short-changed.

As an earlier amendment to the Act some time ago, also to protect property buyers, was re-amended, thereby withdrawing the protection to property buyers and giving the benefit to developers, I wonder whether the same might happen again.

I am referring to the issuance of the Certificate of Fitness for Occupation (CF).  Property buyers were protected when developers were made to hand over vacant possession only after the CF was issued. Buyers were then entitled to claim damages in case of late delivery.

The ministry, after giving in to arguments by developers who claimed that local authorities were causing delays in the issuance of CFs, re-amended the Act in favour of developers and without arresting the problem, i.e. expediting the approval of CFs.

The period for handing over completed houses was extended from eighteen months to twenty-four months without giving any consideration to the plight of buyers.

With the period extended by six months, developers were given a grace period to complete houses with enough time for building inspections by local authorities.

However, some unscrupulous developers are taking twenty-four months to complete and hand over vacant possession and then leaving it to local authorities to issue the CFs.

Buyers are not to physically take over vacant possession unless the CF is given. My friends and I bought houses in Shah Alam when the developer launched its new phases two years ago.

Our houses were handed to us on the day of expiry of the twenty-four month period. It has been two months since and the CF was issued but rectification work on defects is still going on.

When we approached the developer to find out when the CF would be issued, we were told to contact the architect. The architect, when contacted, gave us the Shah Alam Municipal Council file reference and asked us to check with them.

The council, in turn, asked us to deal with the developer. While we are given the run-around, our housing loans have to be serviced and our rental expenses have to be met.

Who is to compensate us? What about the tribunal set up to look into the woes of house buyers? Can someone in the ministry enlighten us? It is not the plight of a few. There are many suffering in silence.