Crack down on rogue builders
The Star 18/10/2005 COMMENT BY V.K. CHIN

Rogue developers are giving unsuspecting housebuyers a serious financial headache as well as stress, not to mention that they are also creating a bad image for the industry.

Unfortunately, we have to live with a few black sheep in any industry, and consumers usually find out too late that they have been conned by unscrupulous businessmen.

Some of the more serious sins committed by this group include abandoning of housing projects, not delivering their units on time and shoddy workmanship.

Tens of thousands of innocent housebuyers have found themselves in the unenviable situation of being committed financially without being able to own the houses they were supposed to have bought because the rogue developers had stopped construction work.

The buyers were then left with having to be responsible for huge bank loans to purchase the property and end up in paying, perhaps for the next 20 years, for something they cannot occupy.

The result is that the Government had to step in to ease the plight of the victims, and billions were spent to salvage some of these projects. This special effort had helped some of the victims to finally take possession of their houses.

To stop this rot, the Housing Development Act was amended to deal with such errant developers and to bring them to book. But for the punishment to be a deterrent, it is doubtful if some of the fines imposed are sufficient.

For starters, it will be a good idea if the Housing and Local Government Ministry can go after developers of abandoned projects so that they will never have the chance to be industry players again.

They should not only be blacklisted but their family members, such as spouses, children and siblings, too. At present, there is nothing to stop the culprits from financing their relatives to start future housing projects.

Perhaps, the Government should go even one step further and ensure that these cheats are barred from sitting on boards of companies and obtaining facilities from financial institutions to venture into other businesses.

This is the best way to ensure that they will not get away scot-free from the serious breach of responsibility and the misery they have caused to their previous clients.

If these businessmen had done it once, there is nothing to stop them from cheating other consumers in the future.

This will send a clear message to businessmen that they just cannot commit such offences without paying for their dishonesty.

If action cannot be taken against them in a court of law, then at least their ability to cause further financial hardship to the people must be restricted.

Only the Government has this authority to deal effectively with such despicable businessmen.