Hilltop Apts owners cry foul over non-issuance of subsidiary titles
www.newsabahtimes.com.my 30/1/2004

KOTA KINABALU: Owners of the Hilltop Apartments, in Luyang here are crying foul over the non-issuance of subsidiary titles to their properties despite having moved in 10 years ago.

They occupy two blocks of apartments consisting of 96 units which were completed in 1995.

Apparently they were informed that the application for the subsidiary titles had been submitted in December 1996 but to date there was still no sign of the document.

They also claimed that they were now at the mercy of the Interim Management Corporation (IMC) which had been set up by the developer.

The IMC charged exorbitant monthly maintenance fees of between RM220 and RM236 or an equivalent of 22 sen per sq ft.

According to them the services provided did not justify the amount they had to pay and said the rates were among the highest compared to properties of the same type.

The owners are also required to pay a “consent fee” that is one per cent of the selling price of the property should they intend to sell and cannot seek recourse to their dissatisfaction and grievances.

One such owner was apparently threatened with a legal suit by the developer when he attempted to file a complaint with the Consumers Tribunal in April 2002.

The complainant was said to have withdrawn his complaints with the tribunal on the day of the hearing itself.

Although the house owners can set up their own management corporation to maintain the common areas, they can only do so after the subsidiary titles are issued.

They recently decided to pour their grievances to Christina Liew, the deputy chairperson and Complaints Bureau Chief of Parti Keadilan Sabah, during a dialogue at the premises of the apartment blocks, on Tuesday.

The dialogue was organised by the House Owners Committee who claimed the delay in the issuance of the subsidiary titles stemmed from a “dispute” between the developer and the Sabah Lands and Survey Department.

They said certain bureaucracy matters had emerged but stressed that the problem should have been resolved before the development plan was approved and certainly before the houses were sold.

The department is said to refuse issuing the titles to the developer because the latter failed to exclude the Sabah Electricity Sdn Bhd (SESB) substation that is sited within the housing estate, from the parent title.

Furthermore, the developer also did not excise the existing settlement road from the parent title as a road reserve.

Christina said it was unfair that the house owners were being penalised by negligence on the part of the department and questioned the need for separate titles for the substation and road reserve.

“Why didn’t they stipulate it in the conditions for the approval of the Development Plan then? To me, this shows a lack in professionalism. You should first study the Development Plan properly and bring up whatever discrepancies there are and not after it has been approved and houses have been built, sold and occupied,” she said.

She said she would be calling on the developer concerned as well as the Lands and Survey Department to resolve the matter amicably and added that legal action would be the last option. – Michael Teh