Laws to be amended to allow unit owners to settle own quit rent

NST 25/03/2003

Penang, Mon: The Strata Title Act, 1985  and the National Land Code 1965 will be amended to put the onus on high-rise unit owners to pay their quit rents individually, rather than through their management corporations (MCs) or developers as is the current practice.

Deputy Land and Co-operative Development Minster Dr Tan Kee Kwong said the amendments would make unit owners responsible for settling their quit rent.

"This is because some of the MCs and developers have not been settling their buildings' quit rent on time," he said after chairing a meeting on issues pertaining to strata title at Level 52, Komtar here today.

Dr Tan said the proposal by the department to amend the two laws was being fine-tuned by the ministry's legal advisers.

"We need to study feedback from various groups on the proposal before tabling it at the National Land Council meeting, which will be chaired by Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, at the end of the year before taking it to Parliament," he said.

Dr Tan also suggested that survey fees paid by the developers to the Survey Board for strata titles be settled before the building's temporary certificates of fitness for occupation were issued.

Previously, many developers claimed they had no money to pay survey fees when it was time to apply for strata titles, for buildings where CFOs had been issued and in which the purchasers had even moved in for a number of years.

"We do not want such cases in future as it will delay the strata title applications."

"I shall be taking up the matter with the Housing and Local Government Ministry to ensure the survey fees are paid before temporary CFOs are issued in future," he said, adding that survey fees amount to hundreds of thousands of ringgit.