Make developers pay
The Star  26/04/2004

WE have a ministry devoted to housing, but problems still persist with uncompleted houses, delays in delivery, money solicited but house nowhere to be seen, and so on.

I believe buyers are partly to be blamed. Many people rush for new launches so they can make a booking and profit from the rising prices once the units are completed. It is a gamble, sometimes taken without investigating the background of the developers.

I work for a developer who treats complaints from housebuyers with utter disdain, while the chairman travels around the world first class. People like him have no qualms about "stealing" house buyers' money, spending it and then hiding behind legal niceties. They delay as much as they can, hoping buyers will just run out of steam. Not completing projects should be made a criminal offence.

I suggest all launches have a compulsory buyers' association that can monitor progress and act collectively on any issue. The law can be amended to cater for this. The buyers' association can become a residents' association once everything is completed.

Of course, there is another way. Don't buy a house until it is completed. Developers give a thousand excuses why this cannot be done, but the power is in our hands. If we go to a car showroom and the salesman shows us a diagram and two set of tyres and asks us to pay, will we? Surely not.


V.R.K.
Petaling Jaya