Failure to fine landowners
The Star 9/9/2006  BY K. SUTHAKAR

THE Penang Land and Mines Office did not take strong action against landowners of high-rise buildings who failed to apply for the strata title, the Auditor-Gene-ral’s Report 2005 said.

This has resulted in the state government being unable to collect application and preparation fees for strata titles amounting to RM1.7mil.

“The state government would have collected reve- nue between RM6.29mil to RM62.9mil if fines had been imposed on the errant land-owners,” said the report.

It said landowners who constructed high-rise buildings must apply for the strata title within six months of the issuing of the Certificate of Fitness under Section 8 of the Strata Title Act 1985.

Section 8 (5) empowers the office to impose fine on land-owners who failed to apply for the title within the period.

The report stated the office was facing a shortage of staff to process strata title applications and that there was a lack of officers with legal background.

The report called for a re-structuring of the office especially in the strata ownership division to smoothen the issuing of strata titles and the en-forcement of the Act.

The report stated that the office could not process the ap-plications within the stipulated 12 months due to the landow-ners’ failure to submit complete documents.

It added there was also a de-lay on the part of the Survey and Mapping Department in the processing of the applications.