Buyers hope
low-cost apartment project will be revived
18/05/2009 The
Star By CHRISTINA LOW
LONGHOUSE residents in PJS1, Petaling Jaya, are still hopeful that the
stalled low-cost apartment project in which they had bought units, can be
revived if the Petaling Jaya City Council (MBPJ) is strict with the
developer.
The proposed housing project was launched in 2003 but upon completion of
the piling works for Block E, the developer, Peter’s Brickworks Sdn Bhd,
received a stop-work order from the council.
Residents in the neighbouring areas had objected to the building of Block
E and the case was brought to court.
Subsequently, a new plot of land was allocated for the construction of
Block F, which was offered to longhouse residents who had originally been
offered units in Block E. However, to date, the project has not taken off.
Since then, the affected residents, who were allocated temporary
accommodation in the longhouse, had heard nothing of the development.
The residents have blamed the MBPJ for not keeping them informed of the
progress of the project, and how long more they would have to wait for
their homes to be ready.
However, according to Taman Medan assemblyman Haniza Talha, who was
present at a protest by the affected longhouse residents, work should be
taking place but the developer had given the excuse that it lacked funds,
which she felt was baseless as it had other ongoing projects elsewhere.
Haniza also said she had spoken to officials of the bank, which had
offered to scrap the fees for the transfer of names of the buyers from
Block E to Block F.
“The MBPJ also agreed to offer free bus services to transport the 272
affected residents to the bank every week,” said Haniza, who had raised
the matter with Selangor housing, building management and squatters
committee chairman Iskandar Abdul Samad.
The residents were also furious that they have had to pay interest to the
bank for their loans all this while.
“I have been paying interest to the bank every month; if I am late, they
charge me extra. This is causing me so much difficulty.
“We keep paying but none of us knows when we will ever get to see our
houses,” said Muklis Najar, 54, who showed the stack of receipts he had
received from the bank after each payment.
Like most of the residents, Muklis had paid the 10% downpayment of RM3,500
for his three-bedroom low-cost apartment unit.
Meanwhile, P. Renganathan said the longhouse residents had been told to
vacate the longhouses soon and relocate to Lembah Subang as the land they
are currently occupying had been proposed for the building of a primary
school.
“All we want is for our homes to be ready. We don’t want to move elsewhere
as most of us have been living here for the past 30 years,” Renganathan
said.
Haniza said the MBPJ should have monitored the progress of the project
back then, but said she would continue to pursue the issue and hoped the
developer would respond to the plight of the residents before stern action
was taken.
