MBSB’s woes put buyers in a bind
THE STAR 6/11/2001By CLARENCE CHUA 

PETALING JAYA: A developer has terminated the sale and purchase agreements of 20 housebuyers after their common end financier failed to honour the progressive billing demanded since June. 

House Buyers Association (HBA) secretary-general Chang Kim Loong said the complainants were upset with their financier, Malaysia Building Society Berhad (MBSB), as they stood to lose their houses and all monies paid so far. 

“The worrying thing is that a bank will only refuse to release progressive payments when the customer’s legal securities are not in order. 

“But in this case, MBSB having made earlier releases, has stopped payments since June. If their documents were not in order, MBSB would not have released the loans in the first place. 

“MBSB has acknowledged in its letters to several customers that it has not released the progress payments and has offered to bear the late payment charges imposed by the developer,” he said. 

MBSB, Chang said, had in its letters to housebuyers, also admitted that it was under financial constraints and seeking more funds from other sources. 

“As contributors, we need to know whether our contributions to the Employees Provident Fund (EPF) are safe as the fund is the majority shareholder of MBSB,” he said. 

Malaysian Trade Union Congress president Zainal Rampak, who is EPF board member, said they were aware of the situation. 

He said the restructuring of MBSB was currently in progress. 

The developer confirmed they had received letters from MBSB seeking more time and promising to make all payments before the end of last month. 

However, a spokesman said no payment had been made yet. 

MBSB declined to comment.