Many improper charges against the developers
23/10/2003 Daily Express

DATUK Dr Clarence Bongkos Malakun (Upko-Moyog) said many improper charges had been imposed against private developers.

One must also understand that members of the Sabah Housing and Real Estate Developers Association (Shareda) are also useful components of our society, he said.

Some of these companies are, in fact, State-owned, like LPPB and SUDC. So, he said, to accuse Shareda members of profiteering and getting undue benefits at the expense of the rakyat was indirectly also accusing the State Government.

Malakun said that developers do not, in reality, take home deposits for booking property purchases.

He said that aside from RM500 to book a house, the rest of the payment would go to paying the lawyer.

He also refuted the notion that most developers do not want to apply for strata titles for their projects.

The first thing that developers would do, upon approval of their Development and Building Plans and getting the Occupation Certificate (OC), is to apply for sub-division of the master titles. This they do almost immediately.

In between submission for sub-division of title to final completion and delivery of draft title to the individual properties, it is entirely beyond the control of the developers because it is in the hands of the Land and Survey Department, he said.

He then said that interim management fees have to be charged by developers to maintain their properties, especially flats and condominiums, until the strata titles are finally issued to buyers.

Between 30 and 70 per cent of house occupants refuse to pay but they want all the services like rubbish collection, swimming pool, streetlights, landscaping, security service and so on.

I wish to emphasise that those genuine developers have nowhere to hide and their reputation either rises or sinks in accordance with their capability to build and deliver houses to buyers, he said.