Residents peeved by defects in flats

03/09/2004 The Star BY EMMELINE TAN

PENANG: Laundrywoman M.A. Vijalashmei washes hospital garments clean for patients but comes home to dripping sewage water in her two-year-old Taman Sri Pinang flat in River Road.

Ever since she moved into the unit, she has had to endure the drips in her toilet from the unit above.

Vijalashmei, 50, said she had complained to the developer, the Penang Municipal Council, about the matter but they never addressed the root of the problem.

“Some council workers came and merely sealed cracks in the floor joints so the water would stop seeping down. Two months later, the seal peeled off,” she said.

Taman Sri Pinang Residents Association chairman Mohd Ishak Baba said almost three-quarters of the residents in the medium-cost units had some sort of complaint or other. About 90% of the residents in the two blocks of low- and medium-cost flats are council workers.

Mohd Ishak, who is also a council worker, showed a section of the wall in his medium-cost unit where water had seeped down from the unit above, affecting the wiring. Sparks emitted when one of the switches was turned on.

“When we brought the matter to the council, they said that the leakage occurred because renovations had been done in the unit above. But the unit above mine has not been renovated,” he said.


Taman Sri Pinang Residents' Association chairman Mohd Ishak Baba (left) showing a basin of water collected in the flat surau from the leaking ceiling. Looking on is Syed Ameruddin Syed Ahmad(centre) and Looi Swee Cheang(right).
Apart from water marks and algae growth, cracks in the walls and beams were also present in some units. Others had cracks in their floor tiling.

Some residents have covered the broken sections with carpeting so that they would not accidentally bruise themselves. On the topmost floor, missing ceiling boards in the passageway allowed access into the nearby units.

“As developer and employer, the council should at least ensure decent and comfortable housing for their workers. We don’t want to set a precedent for shabby government housing projects,” said Penang Housing, Culture, Arts and Heritage Committee chairman Syed Ameruddin Syed Ahmad, who inspected the housing project yesterday following complaints.

“What is worse, the approval for government housing loans was delayed on the council’s side and they are now charging the residents interest for late payment. The interest was deducted from council workers’ salaries without their consent.

“I will be calling the council to immediate action and bring the issue directly to the state exco level.”

He added that house owners should file a tribunal claim with the Housing Ministry for the cost of damages to their units.

A resident and council worker who declined to be named said that the council’s action of deducting interest from their salaries for late payment was akin to that of a “father hanging a son”.