Admission of fault is no solace

The Sun  20/03/2003 By Arion Yeow

Kuala Lumpur: The recent admission by Land and Cooperative Development Minister Tan Sri Kasitah Gaddam that he is aware of the delay in issuing certificates of fitness (CF) and strata titles is not comforting and gives no reason to rejoice.

The question is: if he is aware, then why does the problem still exist and continue to raise the ire of house-buyers?

Errant developers, lack of enforcement, shortage of manpower, and lack of coordination between government agencies have been identified as the main causes of delays. Both Kasitah and his counterpart in the Housing and Local Government Ministry, Datuk Seri Ong Ka Ting, have promised action and taken steps to address the issue.

The house-buyers, however, are still not satisfied. National House Buyers Association (HBA) secretary-general Chang Kim Loong said more can be done to protect the rights of home-owners.

"The lack of enforcement against errant developers is the most important. They must be taken to task or they will continue to flaunt the law," he said.

A report on March 12 said only one errant developer was prosecuted last year for failure to apply for strata titles because the Land and Cooperative Development Ministry had received "so few" complaints.

Chang said: "Strata title delays have been the most common complaint received by HBA for last year and 2001. Twenty-seven percent of complaints from 28,550 owners in 155 housing project have been on strata title delays."

He said the land office will have a copy of applications for approvals of building plans for stratified units.

The ministry can easily check if the developer has applied for strata titles within six months of obtaining the CF.

Chang said the fine should be more than RM25,000 for each month of delay because the large profits made from managing properties every month allow them to ignore negligible sums.

He also suggested that development projects without CFs be published in the media along with the names of the developers and others involved in the project.

On the shortage of manpower and lack of coordination between the government agencies and the industry, only time will tell if Kasitah and Ong have the dedication and competence to make changes.