No new licence for bad developers
The Star 17/05/04 BY LEONG SHEN-LI

PETALING JAYA: Developers with bad track records have been denied new project licences to protect buyers, Housing and Local Government Minister Datuk Seri Ong Ka Ting said.

He said these builders had been asked to sort out their previous problems before reapplying for fresh licences.

Ong said the ministry was serious in tightening control over developers to ensure that buyers would not suffer difficulties, including ending up with abandoned housing projects.

“This move will prevent them from coming back into the market,” he told reporters after opening the Kelana Jaya Barisan Nasional service centre in Bandar Sunway here yesterday.

He, however, declined to name the developers or say how many applications for licences had been rejected.


WHAT’S NEW: Ong (left) asking Kelana Jaya MP Loh Seng Kok about the development at his constituency as Kelana Jaya Umno division chief and Umno vice-president Tan Sri Muhammad Muhammad Taib looks on.
Ong said builders who had their applications rejected included those refusing to pay late delivery penalties and not following the orders of the House Buyers’ Claims Tribunal.

“They can apply again once these problems have been sorted out,” he said.

He said data on problematic developers were entered into the ministry’s computer which would enable them to be automatically identified when they tried to apply for subsequent licences.

Such stringent monitoring, he said, was the result of the 2002 amendments to the Housing Development Act 1966 which enabled the ministry to check on the capability and financial record of developers before issuing licences.

One of the main aims of the amendment, he said, was to arrest the problem of developers abandoning their projects due to financial difficulties.

He said although the law prior to the amendment required the financial situation of developers to be checked, the monitoring was now more stringent with the new law.

Additional monitoring mechanisms include the Form 7(F) which required developers to notify the progress of a project, and also checking of accounts.

“What I can guarantee is that we will take all necessary steps to minimise problems for buyers,” he said.

Asked whether the ministry would make the names of these developers public, Ong said that was not necessary as the developers had already been prevented from returning into the sector.

“There is no point letting them in again and then tell the people that this or that developer has a bad track record. I think this move of preventing them from developing future projects is fairer to the people,” he said.