Housing tribunal awards reinstated

19/12/2003 NST By Rosnazura Idrus and Tan Cho Cho

Over-turning a High Court decision delivered three months ago, the Court of Appeal today ruled that the Tribunal for Homebuyer Claims has jurisdiction to hear and decide cases where the sale and purchase agreement was entered into before Dec 1 last year. Allowing the appeal by the Tribunal and 33 house buyers against the decision of the High Court on Sept 4, judge Datuk Richard Malanjum said the question of retrospectivity of Section 16AD of the Housing Development (Control and Licensing) Act 1966 (which makes non-compliance of the Tribunal's award a criminal offence) did not arise.

Setting aside the High Court decision, Malanjum said the award given by the Tribunal did not have retrospective effect and he ordered that the awards given by the Tribunal to be reinstated.

Malanjum, who sat with judges Datuk Hashim Yusoff and Datuk Tengku Baharudin Shah Tengku Mahmud, delivered the decision after hearing submissions from AttorneyGeneral Tan Sri Abdul Gani Patail for the Tribunal, counsel K.L. Wong and Yong Yung Choy for the house buyers, counsel Lambert Rasa-Ratnam for developer Westcourt Corporation Sdn Bhd, and N.V. Sree Harry for Puncakdana Sdn Bhd.

He said the grounds of judgment would be given later.

He also instructed Sree Harry, who applied for a stay of the order pending appeal to the Federal Court, to formally file the application.

On Sept 4, High Court judge Datuk Md Raus Sharif, in a landmark decision, allowed applications for judicial review by Westcourt and Puncakdana, against awards made by the Tribunal in favour of six house buyers.

The High Court ruled that the tribunal had no jurisdiction to hear and decide cases where the SPA was signed before the tribunal was set up on Dec 1 last year.

Md Raus said that as of July 3 this year, a total of 2,209 cases had been filed with the tribunal of which 438 had been settled.

He said the tribunal had also awarded RM2,396,537.73 in compensation to home buyers and that all the cases involved SPAs signed before Dec 1 last year.

Meanwhile, Housing and Local Government Minister Datuk Seri Ong Ka Ting expressed his satisfaction over the tribunal's win today, saying that the court's decision was in line with Parliament's intention to safeguard house buyers.

He said the tribunal would resume its duties following the favourable decision today.

Asked if the ministry would further fine-tune the Act to avoid further disruption in the tribunal's duties, Ong said the court's decision was already satisfactory evidence there was nothing wrong with the Act.

"The Act has been correctly formulated and it will remain as it is." Urging the developers to abide by the court's decision today, Ong said most housebuyers could afford to buy only one house in their lifetime and it was imperative that they be treated fairly and their rights protected under the law.