Better protection for house buyers
27/05/2003 Daily Express
 
Kota Kinabalu: The newly-amended Sabah Land Enactment 2003 will provide better protection to house buyers, other than generating more revenue for the State Government.

Owners of units in flats or condominiums will undoubtedly heave a sigh of relief at being able to finally obtain their subsidiary titles that have always been subjected to delays, to enable the State Government to collect assessment rates and land cess.

The Land Enactment Amendment Bill, labelled Subsidiary Title, was passed by the State Assembly here during its sitting on Monday, after the motion was tabled by Datuk Sapawi Haji Ahmad, Assistant Minister in the Chief Ministers Department.

According to Sapawi, the amended enactment is focused on the sub-division of a building to facilitate the issuance of subsidiary titles, in view of the current trend among property developers to construct multi-storey buildings.

In this respect, it is compulsory for the developers to complete the survey on the subdivisions of a building earmarked for subsidiary titles before the authority can issue an occupation certificate, he said.

Another provision focuses on a consideration to determine the number of share units that have been subdivided or merged through the approval of the Lands and Survey Director.

An additional provision (Section 16A) under the enactment also safeguards the house buyers against unnecessary risks or inconvenience when buying a property through an auction.

It is now compulsory for the bank to inform the prospective buyers on the actual costs, including accumulated arrears of payment, assessment rates, and water as well as power supplies, among others, incurred by the original owner before preparing a sale and purchase agreement.

Any financial institution or original owner failing to comply with such requirements before making a sale risks being fined up to RM500.

Another provision in the amended Land Enactment is aimed at formulating uniformed by-laws to maintain control over any renovation works by the floor owners to avoid any drastic changes in the original exterior outlook of the building.

There had been some tendencies by the owners to modify the outlook of the building to accommodate advertising board, canopies, air-conditioning units and new window designs.