House owners to face action
NST 14/12/2006 By Adrian David

PETALING JAYA: The owners of six houses in Jalan Gasing and Jalan University will be issued with stop work orders for flouting building regulations during renovation work.

The Petaling Jaya City Council (MBPJ) will issue the orders this week after finding that the owners of the bungalow lots had altered the floor plans of the premises.

Council public relations and corporate director Haniza Abdul Hamid said yesterday the owners had been given approvals to carry out renovations for limited commercial purposes.

"This roughly means they were permitted to alter the facade, but not the floor space of their properties. Our investigations have found that they have misused the planning permission approvals by carrying out renovations beyond the permitted stage."

Haniza said the property owners would have to explain the reasons for doing so. However, they would still be subjected to penalties, and bear the cost of any demolition for their unapproved structures.

She warned that errant property owners faced the risk of their properties being seized.

The council had issued stop work orders against owners of 19 residential and commercial properties this year, while 424 others were issued notifications to explain unauthorised renovations; and 245 others were issued with demolition orders.

Haniza was responding to complaints submitted by residents through the All Petaling Jaya Pro-Action Committee and Section 5 legal adviser Derek John Fernandez, recently.

Fernandez had forwarded complaints that some bungalow lots along main roads had converted two-storey bungalows into commercial lots.

He alleged the property owners took advantage of avoiding payment of full commercial tax and utility rates by duping the council into believing that they wished to operate businesses on a limited commercial purpose. Thus, they paid residential rates only.

"I believe many property owners used the professional services of architects and engineers to take advantage of loopholes when submitting plans for approval. By doing so, they were committing wrongs at the expense of other residents," said Fernandez.