Buyers always at the losing end
NST 7/10/2005

I SIGNED up to buy an apartment from a reputable housing developer in early 2001. According to the sale and purchase agreement signed on Feb 21 of that year, the house should have been ready within 36 months.

Since late last year, I have been calling the developer to know whether the deadline would be met.

Now it is already October and, according to the latest information, the apartment will be ready only in February. In other words, the project will be delayed by 12 months.

Apart from the trauma of waiting, I have to fork out extra now to pay the bank interest. By right, I should have started repaying the loan (the principal plus the interest) last February.

Now, I have not started to pay the loan, just the interest, and paying close to RM400 in just interest is not productive at all.

Of course, I am disappointed. But my greatest fear is getting a unit with a host of defects. A colleague who received her keys from the same developer told me her unit (in a different block) required a lot of repairs.

She was paid RM6,600 for the delays, but almost two months after getting her keys she has still not moved in because the repair works, which the developer had promised to undertake had not been carried out.

The bank has sent her a notice to start repaying her loan. At the same time, she has to pay the rent for the house she is renting now.

I believe handing over the keys to units that require a lot of repairs is a tactic by developers to avoid paying more to unsuspecting house-buyers for the delay in handing over the keys.

I don’t know whether there is any way of addressing this issue. I feel house-buyers are always at the losing end.

I believe houses should be sold only after they are completed. Developers without a sound financial background should not be allowed to undertake housing projects.

In this regard, I hope the Government will be firm in the not-too-distant future when approving applications from developers.

AZMI ATAN Balakong