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Buyers Still Waiting For Their Homes After 12 Years
19/05/1999 Utusan Online
SLIM RIVER May 18 - Former estate worker P. Arumugam took out his life savings
to stay in his own house after retiring.
''Instead, after 12 years, my house is nowhere to be seen, the RM13,150 money
is gone and someone else is staying in my lot,'' he said.
He signed a sales and purchase agreement to buy a low-cost house in Bandar Baru
Slim in 1987 but the project was abandoned a year later.
Arumugam had sleepless nights, resigned to the fact that his dream of owning
a house was shattered, let alone his hope of getting his money back.
But 65-year-old Arumugam is not alone.
With him are 155 other buyers, mostly estate workers and the rest teachers,
policemen and firemen left in the lurch, fighting a losing battle to get their
homes.
The buyers had paid about RM2 million to the developer, Honley Development Sdn
Bhd, with some forking out as much as RM28,000 for units that cost between RM25,000
and RM31,000 each.
Efforts to revive the project in 1990 with an injection of RM1.41 million fresh
allocation from Bank Negara's special fund for abandoned projects failed due
to problems between Honley and its financier, Maybank Finance, according to
S. Velayutham, secretary of a committee set up by the buyers to redeem their
homes.
Velayutham, who is also one of the affected buyers having paid RM14,000, said
the project was then auctioned off in 1993 without the knowledge of the buyers
and the Housing and Local Government Ministry.
The anguished buyers were hit by further betrayal when the new developer, Noble
Gain Sdn Bhd claimed that since it had acquired the project through an auction,
they are not entitled to compensation for payments made to the original developer.
Stranger still, only 133 lots were auctioned off, sparing 23 units involving
buyers who took government loans.
Although the project was later revived, the original so-called low-cost houses
now cost more than RM60,000.
''How can this (the auction) happen? The lots have been allocated to us and
the project was meant to be revived. Nobody wants to give our money back...instead
they sold our lots to others,'' he said.
Units taken up by civil servants who took government loans remained abandoned
with only skeletal concrete structures erected although the other units are
taking shape under the new developer.
Velayutham said that on one of the lots set aside to the original buyers, Tenaga
Nasional, the utility company had built a sub-station.
Noble Gain apparently did offer the original buyers first priority to own houses
in the new scheme at one per cent discount but company officials declined comment
when contacted.
Velayutham, a 50-year-old estate worker said the original buyers had written
to ministers, politicians, the developer and even the Anti Corruption Agency
besides spending thousands of ringgit to fight for their cause over the past
12 years.
''But almost everyone tells us there's nothing they can do. There is no provision
in the law that protects us,'' he said.
Another buyer, Siti Jamiliah said her teacher-husband, Hassan Basri was now
repaying RM169.76 monthly for his government loan for a house which has not
been completed, let alone occupied.
''We're not only repaying the government loan but on top on that have to rent
a house for the past 10 years. How much longer do we have to endure this,''
she said.
Wong Sin Moi, also an estate worker then, said she took out RM8,950.20 from
her EPF savings while lorry driver S. Thannimalai withdrew RM9,343 to buy units
in the project.
''Almost all us took out our EPF money, some are servicing their government
loans but those who secured bank loans are lucky as the money was not released,''
said Velayutham.
He said the buyers are perplexed as to how the EPF could release to the original
developer up to RM10,000 each from their contributions when the quantum allowed
for withdrawal should not exceed 10 percent of the price of a low cost unit.
EPF Public Affairs Manager Nik Effendi Jaafar said the EPF was aware of the
buyers' plight and was investigating the matter.
The EPF had on several occasions enquired from Honley the status of the project
and was informed that it was being revived through a Bank Negara loan, he said.
Velayutham said some of the original buyers had died but the rest would keep
fighting and had put a caveat on their individual lots last year.
The Housing and Local Government Ministry's supervision and enforcement division
said it could not do much as the project had been auctioned off and advised
them to take up the matter to the court.
Perak Consumers Association (CAP) president Abdul Rahman Said, to whom the buyers
also turned to for help, said the matter was brought to the attention of several
ministers and government agencies.
But the most they could do was to lament on the lack of provisions to protect
the buyers' interest in such circumstances, he said.
''They ask us to go to the police or the court as they said they cannot do anything
under the Developer's Act. But we think if there is a will, it can be done,''
said Abdul Rahman.
''These are poor people...they lost their EPF and some are repaying loans for
houses that do not exist. In fact, the EPF and the ministry should have done
more to protect them,'' he said.
Similar cases were also reported in Teluk Intan, said Abdul Rahman insisting
that the housing sector should be included under the ambit of the proposed Consumer
Protection Act.
Abdul Rahman said it would be more appropriate to deal with such cases under
the proposed Act.
Bringing the cases to court would involve a lot of money and may drag on for
years, he said.
As for Arumugam and the 155 others in Slim River and similarly unfortunate lot
elsewhere, this would mean pursuing their dream homes into the next millennium.
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