Strata titles for apartments soon

27/10/2007 The Star By BAVANI M

WE are truly sorry for all the inconvenience caused and we promise to push for the strata titles as soon as possible, this is the pledge made by Sea Housing, the developer for nine blocks of low-cost apartments in Taman United Garden, Jalan Kelang Lama recently.

Residents of the apartments, comprising 667 units in Taman United Garden (formerly known as Taman Lee Yan Lian) have been waiting for years for their strata titles to their units, which they purchased in 1970.

It’s been 30 years since they moved into the units and many of them are already in their golden years.

Desperate and fed up of waiting for an answer from the developer, the residents decided to seek help from the newly established Condominiums, Apartment and Highrise Committee (CAHC) set up to fight for the rights of owners.

Long wait: The block of flats in Taman United Garden that is still awaiting strata titles.

CAHC vice-chairman Khong Chee Seng said the residents moved into their properties in 1970, and in 1983 they received letters from the developer Sea Housing Corp Sdn Bhd (formerly known as United Housing Sdn Bhd) asking them to pay RM546 to the developer to enable them to secure the issuance of the strata titles.

“The residents dutifully paid up as it was an opportunity for them to gain actual ownership of their units and gain the right to manage it,” said Khong.

But until today, there has been no news of their strata titles or the money collected.

“We are talking about RM365,000 that was collected by the developer. What happened to the funds?” asked Khong.

According to him, the developer had given many excuses regarding the failure of getting the strata titles throughout the years.

One excuse was due to the fact that the land was encroaching into government land, and another was that in the 1970’s the Strata Title Act was not in place – hence they were not able to apply for the strata titles.

But according to Khong, sections in the National Land Code, which are similar to the Strata Title Act, provides for the developer to apply for the titles.

“Why did they not utilise it? he asked.

“They are merely giving excuses,” Khong said, adding that residents just want a solution to this matter once and for all.

Sea Housing financial controller Kuan Chew Heng said the delay in obtaining the strata titles was due to technical problems that resulted from land encroachment.

“Block B of the flats was encroaching into government land, so we had to buy the land first and amalgamate the properties in order to apply for the qualified title,” he said, adding that an application was made three years ago.

“We only received the qualified title for the government land in January and we are waiting for the main title of each lot to be issued before we can apply for the individual titles,” he said.

“We are pushing hard to get the strata title out as soon as possible, he said, adding that he was truly sorry for the inconvenience caused and that he had directed the surveyors to act quickly to get the title out in 12 months time.