Wedding on hold due to developer's shortcomings

The Star 19/02/2001 By Sira Habibu

A production executive has put his wedding plans on hold because a double-storey house he bought has not been completed.

Tan Boon Leong, 31, said his plan this year had to be put off because his RM95,000 house at the Taman Widuri housing project in Nibong Tebal was supposed to be ready at the end of 1999, but was now only 70% completed.

"As the project in Sungai Bakap has come to a standstill, I am afraid I have to postpone my wedding for another two or three years,'' he told reporters at the site yesterday.

Another housebuyer, army personnel Mohd Rodzi Hamid, 32, who is now based in Kuala Lumpur, said he was planning to send his five-year-old son to school in Sungai Bakap in another two years.

"But I am in a dilemma now because I am not sure whether or not to register my son at the school there as the house may not be ready in another two years.

"According to the sales and purchase agreement, my low-cost unit which is under the first phase was supposed to have been completed in September 1998,'' he said.

Mohd Rodzi said he went personally to the Housing and Local Government Ministry to complain about the stalled project, adding that he felt hurt when told that the project would only restart if another developer is willing to take over.

An ex-army personnel, who declined to be named, said he was angry with the developer as he had used up all his life savings amounting to RM40,000 to purchase a low-medium cost unit.

Customs Department staff Daud Salleh, 39, said he had been paying RM151 monthly in interest to the bank for the past three years for his low-cost unit.

"It is financially a strain for me as I am renting another house nearby and I have four school-going children, aged between eight and 16,'' he added.

Another buyer, K. Segar said he had paid a total of RM65,000 to buy a RM168,000 shoplot.

"It is disheartening that I have paid so much for a structure of only concrete frames,'' he said.

General worker Sam Ah Kim Lai, 43, said he had obtained the keys to his RM59,000 single-storey low-medium cost unit more than a year ago. "But I can't stay there because there is no OC (certificate of fitness).''

"I am paying RM380 a month for this new house, and another RM230 for the one I'm renting,'' said the father of two.

Some 100 angry housebuyers who had gathered at the site on Saturday formed a 13-member Taman Widuri Sg Duri action committee to look into their woes.

It is learnt that the developer is trying its best to source funds to revive the 1,545-unit mixed development project, which began in mid-1996.