Govt to protect house buyers 

 01/10/2001 The Sun
Amendments to be tabled in parliament on Oct 8

Petaling Jaya, Sun: The House Buyers Association (HBA) lauds the Housing and Local Government Ministry's effort to address the various problems faced by housebuyers because of errant developers.

This is evident in the amendments to the Housing Developers (Control and Licensing) Act 1966 to be tabled in parliament on Oct 8.

HBA secretary-general Chong Kim Loong, in a statement yesterday said the association strongly believes there will be no justice unless an appropriate and rigid law is enacted and strictly enforced to protect housebuyers' rights.

To ensure that developers are seriously committed to building houses and developing housing schemes, he said, they must have paid-up capital of at least 30% of the land and project costs.

Chong said this is to ensure that the housing industry is open to only developers who are serious and experienced enough to undertake a project.

Apart from this, he added, the law should provide for:

• a feasibility study to be conducted to recommend the ministry, which should have the experienced staff, that a project is viable;

• a project applicant to obtain a letter of offer from the bank and/or financial institution, stating their agreement to provide bridging and end financing facilities to both the developer and buyers respectively;

• separate individual titles be issued for the entire housing scheme, as developers often do not pay for land office conversion premiums and fees for separate titles and this put buyers in the lurch; and

• a geological study to be done on soil settlement and suitability for housing.

Chong also said HBA wants the restriction on issuance of licence extended to developer's company, their subsidiary, associated companies and their common directors who have complaints repeatedly made against them.

On the standard sale and purchase agreement, HBA urged the ministry to provide more protection to consumers through a fair, balanced and two-way traffic agreement which places more obligations on the developer.