Ministry: Section 11 only as last resort

The Sun 18/10/2003 By Arion Yeow

Petaling Jaya: The Housing and Local Government Ministry wants to revive the Lembah Beringin abandoned housing project and will only use its powers to wind up the developer as a last resort.

Deputy Housing and Local Government Minister Datuk Peter Chin said this yesterday when asked about the possibility of the ministry invoking section 11(1)(d) of the Housing Development (Control & Licensing) Act 1966 (Act 118) and Regulations to wind up the developer Lembah Beringin Sdn Bhd.

Section 11(1)(d) empowers the Housing and Local Government Minister to direct the developer to present a petition to the High Court to wind up its business for the purpose of safeguarding the interests of purchasers.

Earlier this week, Lembah Beringin house buyers and the House Buyers Association called for the ministry to wind up Lembah Beringin Sdn Bhd, as subsidiary of Land & General for abandoning the project.

Launched in 1996, the project, comprising about 900 units of single- and double-storey houses in four phases, was supposed to be delivered in 1998.

About 70% of the units were sold before the project stalled during the 1997 financial crisis.

According to Chin, the ministry has appointed Syarikat Perumahan Negara to study the feasibility of revitalising the abandoned project.

However, Lembah Beringin House Buyers Pro Tem Committee chairman Gevanantham Marimuthu said the house buyers do not support the ministry's proposal because they are no longer interested in the project.

According to Gevanantham, who represents about 60 house buyers, numerous attempts to resolve the matter in the past five years were unsuccessful and the residents just want their money back.