A grave matter for housebuyers
The Star 20/12/2005

I BOUGHT a house in Kota Kemuning three years ago without realising that a piece of land about 100m away from my house was being allocated by the state government for a cemetery.

Surprisingly, there was no signboard to indicate that the land was for a cemetery until recently, when the Shah Alam Municipal Council put up a signboard stating so.

When I bought the house, I was told by the developer that the land was for commercial purposes.

Furthermore, in the developer's plan given to me there is no indication that the land is cemetery land.

Had the council put up the signboard earlier, the price of properties sold would be very much lower as compared with what the housebuyers in Kota Kemuning were paying, especially for those houses
surrounding the cemetery.

Withholding such information from the public is against public interest.

The only solution is to assign another piece of land for the proposed cemetery to protect the interests of the housebuyers.

The Housing and Local Government Ministry and the state government must make it compulsory for developers to disclose full information to the public, especially on matters sensitive to the value
of property.

FRUSTRATED HOUSEOWNER,
Shah Alam.