New hope for Old Town leases
The Star 09/05/2005 By K.W. Mak

The land lease issue involving Petaling Jaya property owners being levied hefty premiums remains unresolved with a court case still pending, but residents may have a solution to their problem. 

Resident Jeyapalan T.S. Mahesan, who is suing the Selangor Government in a joint action suit over the matter, has set up a management company, Jeyamahesan Management Services, to help speed up the process of applying for the extension of land leases. 

The idea came to him after the judge presiding over the case asked Jeyapalan to follow due process and apply for the lease extension. 

The case involved property owners being asked to pay a premium based on today’s value for renewing their land leases (many priced at over RM100,000). 

However, under the provisions of the law, land leases granted and alienated before the National Land Code (1965) and the Selangor Land Rules (1966) came into force are renewable and extendable by the exercise of the option to renew under Section 228 of the National Land Code. 

File picture of houses in the PJ Old Town area.

What this means, said Jeyapalan, was that the land office was only supposed to charge owners the administrative cost for renewing one’s land lease, which he estimated at RM3,000. 

Jeyapalan clarified that this action was only applicable for owners who received their land titles prior to 1966, before the new land act came into effect. 

“Owners who bought their property after 1966 do not enjoy this benefit.” 

It would take three to six months for the applications to be either accepted or rejected by the district land office. 

“The court case has been adjourned to Nov 21 to see if the applications would be accepted or rejected.  

“If they are accepted, then we can go back to court to dismiss the case. If not, then we can bring the application papers to the judge to weigh upon,” he said. 

An administration office has been set up in PJ Old Town to help residents in their application for lease extensions and seek legal redress on the premium issue through their respective assigned legal counsel. 

There will be an administrative cost of RM1,000, but owners are not forced to sign up or take action through the management company he has set up. 

“What we are doing is taking the headache away from owners in going to the land office and applying for extension one at a time.” 

For more information, call 03-7783-6141 or 03-7783-8405 or visit www.pjresidentsrep.com.