'Fault for strata title jam at ministry's door'

04/03/2004The Sun   By Arion Yeow

Petaling Jaya: The Land and Cooperative Development Ministry should be held responsible for the delay in obtaining strata titles for subdivided buildings, the National House Buyers Association (HBA) said yesterday.

In a statement, HBA secretary-general Chang Kim Loong said the ministry has failed to enforce the laws that are already in place to address a problem which has been repeatedly high-lighted by the media for the past three years.

Section 8 of the Strata Titles Act 1985 (Amendment 2001) requires developers to apply for strata titles within six months of receiving the certificate of fitness (CF) or be fined not less than RM10,000 but not more than RM100,000, and further fined not less than RM100 but not more than RM1,000 for each day the offence continues to committed.

"We want the ministry to start enforcing the law, Parliament has vested the Strata Title Act with vast and sweeping powers to bring to book errant developers who refuse, neglect or conveniently fall to obey the laws but only one errant developer was prosecuted in 2002.

"In such a laid-back environment, is it any surprise that developers continue to ignore the law and house buyers continue to suffer in frustration?" said Chang, who challenged the ministry to reveal the number of prosecutions made against developers who flaunted the law since the Act came into effect 19 years ago.

Chang also said the delay in obtaining strata titles remains the biggest problem for house buyers for the third year running.

Last year, the association received complaints from 33,722 house buyers in 187 housing projects. The problem of strata titles accounted for 28% of the complaints - a 1% increase from 2002.

"If no strata titles are issued the developer can set up its own management company and collect maintenance fees for the administration of the flats, apartments and condominiums it built," said Chang.

The Act stipulates that home owners cannot appoint their own management corporation unless they have obtained the strata titles.