Pay up or no sale of house, owners warned

THE STAR 06/08/2004

THE Shah Alam City Council is placing a a caveat on 500 more properties with assessment arrears totalling RM40mil. Each property owner owes the council more than RM10,00O or has unpaid dues of over five years.

The caveat, a form of statutory injunction, prevents registration of any kind on the property.

Owners cannot sell nor change ownership of the building until the arrears are settled and the caveat withdrawn.

The council is confident that such an action can fill its coffers again. It has, so far, placed caveat on 78 properties with assessment bills totalling RM889,694.69.

Until June 30, MBSA has recorded RM50,538,829.40 in uncollected assessment fees from 27,887 property owners.

"Though, it is a requirement that owners settle their assessment bills before selling their properties, some did not do so," said Shah Alam mayor Ramli Mahmud at a full board meeting recently. "They escaped by selling their properties. When this happens we cannot collect from the new owner what the previous owner owes us."

He said the new owners only found out about the overdue arrears after the sale had been sealed.

Ramli said the amount would snowball over the years and the previous owners would be even harder to trace. "The cost involved in trying to locate the errant owners and recovering the amount is high. Most of the time it is not worth the effort."