It's time Sabah amended its housing laws to safeguard buyers and hold developers responsible for delays.
KOTA KINABALU: The Sabah government has been urged to immediately review and amend the state housing development laws to protect the house-buyers who are being short-changed by developers, an MP said today.
Kota Kinabalu MP Hiew King Cheu said the current laws governing property development have caused many house-buyers and property owners to endure substantial losses often due to reckless approval and lack of monitoring of the projects by the authorities.
Hiew said this was the only solution if state did not approve the extension of the newly amended Federal Housing Development (Control and Licensing) Act 1966, to Sabah.
He noted that unlike the amended federal law which was passed in Parliament this month, Sabah’s existing housing development laws are outdated and inadequate to protect the house-buyers.
“The (federal) amendments give more protection to the house-buyers who can now begin criminal proceedings against developers who abandon their projects.
“The new clause stated that if the developers failed to complete housing projects, they can be fined between RM250,000 and RM500,000, or jailed no less than three years, or both.
“The law is to deter the developers from abandoning their projects as well as to protect the interest of the buyers,” he said.
He pointed out that in Sabah, developers are rarely held liable for failing to fulfil their obligations.
Extend housing law to Sabah
The new federal laws also defined “abandon” as refusal to carry out, delays, suspending or ceasing work continuously for six months or more or beyond the stipulated period of completion as stated in sale and purchase (S&P) agreement.
Thus, if this happens, house-buyers have the right to terminate the S&P agreement and the developers have to refund the money to the purchasers within 30 days.
The developers can be fined from RM250,000 to RM500,000 with a further fine not exceeding RM5,000 for every day that the offence continues after conviction.
The new amendment also requires the developers to deposit three percent of a project cost to obtain a developer’s licence.
Hiew said it was unfortunate that the Sabah Barisan Nasional (BN) government did not see fit to extend this set of laws to Sabah to protect the rights of house-buyers in the state.
He said by imposing the newly amended federal law only in Peninsular Malaysia, house-buyers in the state had been unfairly deprived of their rights to similar protection.
Who’s protecting buyers? Hiew said it was clear that the state government was shirking its duty on the matter and property buyers in the state had been hard hit over the years.
“Even the government’s own housing schemes are facing stop-work and some even ended up with long delays.
“Who is protecting the buyers and why does the Sabah government not allow the federal set of laws to be implemented in the state?
“If this set of federal of laws on housing development cannot be used here, why is the state government not amending the Sabah housing development laws to protect the house-buyers’ interest?”
Hiew said the the failure for decades to look after the interests of the public in this matter showed that the Sabah BN government was irresponsible.
He added that with the new federal law in place, the many delayed federal housing projects like the SPNB and PPRT projects (for the hardcore poor) in Sabah should be subjected to similar laws, so as to protect the rights of the buyers.
“The house-buyers (here) should be able to seek protection under this new amendment. The federal Housing and Local Government Minister Chor Chee Heung should seek to enforce this this law on all federal housing development projects in Sabah,” he said.
Queville To | December 14, 2011
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