Ministry tightening Housing Act

THE SUN 20/08/2004

KUALA LUMPUR: The Housing and Local Government Ministry is tightening the Housing Development (Control & Licensing) Act 1996 after the first round of amendments in 2001.

Its minister, Datuk Seri Ong Ka Ting, said yesterday the ministry was gathering feedback from various quarters to tackle some of the housing-related problems that had emerged in recent years.

"This could include giving more power to the tribunal (for home- buyer claims) to hear claims for more than RM25, 000, for example," he told reporters after presenting "The Edge Top Property Developers Awards 2004" to 10 companies.

"And we also want to lump in service apartments so that they can be regulated under the act."

Presently; the tribunal can only hear claims where the monetary amount does not exceed RM25, 000 for each cause of action.

Service apartments are considered commercial property and so buyers do not enjoy the protection accorded to purchasers of condominiums, apartments and other non- commercial property under the act.

Ong said his ministry would continue to learn from its experience of dealing with problematic housing projects to refine the act time goes by, the act will get more complete, although a lot of new elements, including the tribunal, were introduced in the last amendments," he said.

"As a result of the various measures taken by the government, such as denying errant firms and developers the license for new projects, the number of abandoned projects and other problematic cases had decreased substantially.

He also said the government would study the pros and cons of gated communities after some parties expressed concern that the concept could create a form of "social apartheid".