Some developers never apply for strata titles

08/10/2006 Sabah Daily Express

Penampang: Some property developers in Sabah were found to have never submitted any application for strata titles, even years after their development projects had been completed and sold.

Assistant Minister to the Chief Minister, Datuk Edward Khoo, said this was discovered during a recent meeting chaired by Local Government and Housing Assistant Minister, Edward Yong, to look into the application of strata titles and help resolve some of the problems in their issuance.

"During the meeting, we found there are some property developers who are irresponsibleÉthey, including some who are already no longer around today, have never submitted their application for strata titles," said Khoo.

In hoping those developers who have yet to submit their applications for strata titles will now do it so that the Government can help them, he said this was because to the Government the house buyers are entitled to get their respective title.

"So we, with the leadership of Edward Yong, are trying our best to ensure everybody gets their respective title," he assured, adding that Yong is expected to come up with the details later.

Khoo said this when met at the official launching of the showhouse of Imperial Villa, near Donggongon, here, Saturday. Also present were Penampang District Officer Stephen Sondoh, Penampang Chinese Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PCCCI) President and the developer PCCCI Corporation Sdn Bhd Chairman, Datuk Kenneth Yen, and Federation of Sabah Manufacturers (FSM) President, Datuk Wong Ken Thau, among others.

Khoo took pride that Penampang is slowly changing from a paddy-planting district into a sub-urban area, with a lot of residential development projects already completed or still under construction.

"It is a sign of economic prosperity as well as improvement in the lives of the community here," he said, urging the developers to be more responsible when carrying out their work.

"I hope they will help the Government by being a responsible developers ... during the construction period, they need to monitor the development of their projects to avoid unnecessary problems like flooding.

"This is besides inferiority in the quality of houses, like cracks appearing in the walls and so on due to the use of poor standard products," added Khoo.