Syabas explains why it wants owners to register
16/03/2007 The Star By Dharmender Singh

SYARIKAT Bekalan Air Selangor Bhd’s (Syabas) move to make it compulsory for property owners to register their accounts personally is aimed at ensuring that innocent parties do not become victims and have to face large arrears.

Senior corporate communications and public affairs division manager Abdul Halem Mat Som said some tenants failed to close their accounts when they shifted elsewhere, leaving the account open to abuse by the next tenant.

“When we approach the previous tenant, he will claim the bills were accumulated after he moved out while the new tenant will claim no knowledge of the debts and the owner will say the amount is owed by the tenant.

“Since all the parties concerned refuse to pay, we have no choice but to take action against the account holder by sending out a legal letter or blacklisting his name,” he said, adding that it was unfair because an innocent party could end up saddled with the debts.

Abdul Halem said there were also cases where a house owner wanted the account of an earlier tenant closed but faced problems in doing so because the supply had been cut due to accumulated arrears.

He said the owner had to go through a lot of trouble to have a new account issued to the premises while Syabas, on its part, would face problems in tracing the tenant and demanding payment.

He said under the new system that came into effect in January, those wanting to register new accounts had to produce copies of their land titles or the Sales and Purchase Agreement (S&P) as proof of ownership of the premises.

Abdul Halem said owners can ask for a higher deposit for water supply to make sure there was sufficient money to cover any arrears that had been accumulated by the tenant.