Housing safe even without warranty
13/08/2007 NST-PROP By Zuhaila Sedek

The absence of a warranty does not mean that a house is not safe for occupation. So said developers in response to questions from reporters at a media briefing on compliance issues in hillside developments, held in Petaling Jaya, Selangor, recently.

The Public Works Department's Slope Engineering Branch director Datuk Dr Ashaari Mohamad pointed out a lifetime warranty can never be given because nobody can ensure that a house won't collapse.

"We can never tell when a natural disaster such as a landslide will strike and affect houses in a locality."

The Real Estate Housing Developers' Association (Rehda) called for the briefing in an attempt to address concerns over recent instances of collapsing houses.

Seeking to allay concerns, Rehda deputy president Datuk Michael Yam said even without warranties, houses are "still safe to live in".

"It doesn't mean that a house that has not been issued with the Certificate of Fitness for Occupation (or a Certificate of Completion and Compliance) before it is handed over (to buyers) is not safe for occupation - all development projects are thoroughly regulated from the design stage before they are approved by the authorities," he said.

He explained that in the United Kingdom, houses are given 10-year warranties, but if implemented here, it would only increase the price of a house.

"Developers do provide liability periods to cater to defects, and we have proposed to increase this period from 18 months to 24 months under the Build-Then-Sell system," said Yam, who is also the managing director of main-board developer Sunrise Bhd.

Ashaari, whose presence at the press conference was arranged by Rehda, said warning systems, such as those to monitor earth movements that can result in a landslide, could be installed in a house. However, this would certainly increase costs.

With many examples of houses collapsing as a result of landslides, such as the Pos Dipang incident in Perak in 1995, where 38 were killed in a mudslide; the collapse of Block A of Highland Towers in 1993 in which 48 people died; a landslide in Taman Hillview in Ampang in 2002; and the Precinct 9 landslide in Putrajaya last March in which the cars of 25 residents were damaged, cries have been made that uncontrolled development is the cause of such disasters.

"We are not perfect... in reality, many things in life aren't, either," said Yam.

"Even though we have qualified, experienced and competent professionals who certainly do not plan for projects to fail, like many other industries, housing too suffers from quality issues and in some cases, project abandonment.

"The best that can be attained is achieving optimum design, even if not a perfect design... we cannot design for all eventualities, such as an act of God or the future risks arising from global climatic changes."

On why developers are keen to undertake "corrective rather than preventive maintenance", Yam said many companies that are undercapitalised would prefer to "go for the cheaper alternative".

"Preventive maintenance costs more and of course, developers (without sufficient funds) will go for the lower cost alternative that brings higher yields.

"But, we are moving towards a country that delivers better housing. We are still improving."