Act against errant developers

04/04/2003 The Star By VK Chin

THE Government's renewed effort to revive some of the abandoned housing projects will give new hope to the thousands of buyers who have been suffering as their homes have yet to be completed. 

The Finance Ministry is setting aside a few hundred million ringgit for this purpose and this will help to ease the plight of those victims who must have been losing a lot of sleep because of their predicament. 

As some of the projects have been abandoned for several years, their only hope is for the Government to step in and resolve their problems as there is really no one left to assist them out of their difficulties. 

Many of them have been suffering in silence and are in serious financial difficulties particularly those who have to continue to pay their loans while at the same time paying rental as they are unable to move house. 

Though their houses have been abandoned by the developers, those who have signed the loan agreements with the financial institutions will still need to repay the amount borrowed. 

As far as the lenders are concerned, they have to get back their money as the borrowers had already used it to pay the developers. They are hard-nosed businessmen and while bankers may be sympathetic their job is to recover their loans by whatever means. 

However, what the parties involved can do is to come to terms before the ministry can proceed with the completion of the projects. This means all legal obstacles must be removed first. 

Otherwise, there will be unnecessary delays and the National Housing Authority will not be able to continue with the task of rebuilding the units. 

Still this is a very positive way of getting the victims out of a very serious financial jam. Many of them must be quite depressed by this unhealthy situation where they are made to suffer because of the irresponsible actions of a few. 

At the same time, the government must also ensure that those who abandoned such projects without good reason should be blacklisted and not be allowed to be directors of other companies where they may have the opportunity to cause further misery to the public. 

This is the only way to teach them a lesson and to ensure that other businessmen who had cheated the public would not dare to commit such irresponsible acts with impunity. 

But knowing the way the system works, such drastic but justified actions are unlikely to be taken and this reluctance is going to enable some of these unscrupulous businessmen to carry on with their mischief.