Support for Bill on errant builders

PETALING JAYA: Housebuyers welcome the Bill to punish errant developers, but feel that the best solution would be the build-and-sell system.

Buyers who have been victims of abandoned projects are especially keen for such a system to be introduced and strictly enforced.

Housewife Nor Hidayah Yeoh Abdullah, 51, said she was not too enthusiastic about the proposed law to fine developers who abandon their projects up to RM500,000 or jail them for a maximum of three years or both.

“For me, the answer is a build-and-sell system,” she said, adding that a house she had paid for had been abandoned for 12 years.

Nor Hidayah thinks that it is unlikely that the proposed amendment to the Housing Development (Control and Licensing) Act will work because “even if the developers are prosecuted, the buyers would still have taken a housing loan”.

“And if the buyers cannot repay the loan, the financiers will sue them,” she added.

According to her, many buyers have gone bankrupt because they could not settle loans they took for the houses which were never completed.

Housing and Local Government Minister Datuk Seri Chor Chee Heungtabled the Bill in Parliament for first reading on Wednesday making the abandoning of housing projects an offence.

The Bill also allows affected house buyers to terminate the Sales and Purchase Agreement if the housing project is abandoned, and the developer is required to refund any money paid within 30 days.

Ahmad Nasurah Hassan, 38, had to wait seven years for his house to be completed in Puchong.

He said he only got the keys this year with the help of the Housing and Local Government Ministry and the Selangor government.

“I think it is a good first step, but the real solution is still the build-and-sell system.

“We housebuyers should not have to keep pressuring developers to finish when they take too long. I hope that this will scare irresponsible developers,” said the government officer.

Welcoming the move, the National House Buyers Association said the proposed legislation would give further protection to buyers.

“We applaud the minister’s positive response in addressing the cumulative problems related to the housing industry.

“This will give further protection to housebuyers against the antics of irresponsible developers,” association secretary Chang Kim Loong said.

“Developers will now think twice about trying to profit at the expense of the housebuyers.”

He added that the new law gives housebuyers “equitable rights that they have waited a long time to get”. - The Star