Five years on, and still no home
The Star 14/4/2005

By Salina Khalid Photos by Sam Tham

When Jackie Tang decided to buy a house in Alam Perdana, she thought she would be able to move in two years later. 

The place seemed ideal – she would be starting work in Shah Alam and it would save her time and money travelling from her family home in Segambut, Kuala Lumpur, to her work place. 

Tang visiting the site of the house she bought.

However, now almost five years after signing the sale and purchase (S&P) agreement, Tang is still waiting for the completion of her house.  

Today, she still stays at her family home, drives to Shah Alam to teach at a kindergarten and pays about RM300 to service the bank loan she took to buy the RM148,000 house. 

To make matters worse, she says, her mother has fallen ill. 

“She is constantly thinking about the new house and it worries me, too. 

“We tried getting confirmation on the delivery date from the developers but ended up with nothing,” she said. 

Since then she has lodged a report with the Housing Tribunal.  A visit to housing area revealed that the houses are completed. Some of them have received new coats of paint while patch-up jobs have been done on others. 

However, the area was deserted, with no workers in sight despite the fact that it was a working day.   Some of the houses were damaged due to earth movement, especially the corner lots.  

Tang said she had tried to contact other purchasers but to no avail.  “I tried to wait for them at the housing area on the weekends, but nobody came to visit their house. 

“I even tried to get the list of buyers from the developers but was turned down,” she said.  When contacted, Vega Builders Sdn Bhd sales department manager Chew Kok Lian said they expect to deliver the houses by the later part of this year. 

“We have informed the purchasers that the delivery target of the houses is at the later part of this year,” he said.  However, he refused to disclose further information on the development or the reason for the delay, saying these could only be revealed to purchasers.