Ong: No excuses for late delivery of houses
The Star 12/04/2004 By Sim Leoi Leoi
CYBERJAYA: Housing developers must plan ahead and not use economic
crises or downturns as an excuse to make late deliveries, said
Housing and Local Government Minister Datuk Seri Ong Ka Ting.
This is because the average Malaysian only have one opportunity in
their lifetime to buy a home with their savings, he said,
reiterating that he would not cave in to demands and requests by
developers at the expense of house buyers.
“When developers fail to deliver on time, they would come and ask me
to use ministerial powers to extend the delivery period so they
would not have to pay penalties.
“I want to make this clear. I have been very firm over the last four
years and, except in cases of natural disasters, I will not relax on
enforcement or give in to pressure to use these powers,” Ong said,
when launching the Cyberia Smart Homes community centre here,
yesterday. He later presented the house keys to 10 owners of the
condominium project.
Speaking to reporters later, Ong said the Government will appoint
three more people to the House Buyers’ Claims Tribunal, which still
has some 3,153 cases to be resolved after it was revived in
February.
He said the Bar Council had submitted its recommendations, all of
whom have legal experience in the field.
Ong was confident that with the appointments, the tribunal would be
able to resolve more cases.
He said that as at April 6, the tribunal had received 5,178 reports
from house buyers. Of these, 2,025 cases have been resolved.
Ong said most of the cases involved complaints relating to late
delivery claims, defects during the liability period and failure of
developers to abide by promises made in the sales and purchase
agreements (SPAs).
The tribunal was halted for a time late last year after developers
argued that it had no jurisdiction over cases where the SPAs were
signed before Dec 1, 2002.
On developers who had been found liable by the tribunal but had yet
to pay up their dues to the buyers, Ong said many of them were still
appealing against the decision.
“Most of them have paid up what they owed to the buyers. We are
monitoring the situation very closely and we will not relax on our
enforcement,” he said.
On the establishment of one-stop centres to process applications for
certificate fitness of occupation for newly completed projects, Ong
said so far, some 97 local councils had set up such centres as
required by the Cabinet.
On the planned incinerator in Broga, Selangor, Ong said the ministry
was waiting for the Department of Environment to give the go-ahead
on the project’s Environmental Impact Assessment Report.
He said the decision was expected soon and that the groundwork had
yet to begin. |
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