e-Lelong online auction to begin in end-March with pilot project

PETALING JAYA (March 20): The online property auction platform e-Lelong for court auctions will be officially launched before the month is out.

According to the Federal Court of Malaysia (www.kehakiman.gov.my) website, an official launch of the e-Lelong System pilot project will be held at Kompleks Mahkamah Kuantan, Pahang on March 29.

It will be officiated by the Chief Justice of Malaysia Tun Arifin Zakaria.

The launch will mark the start of the e-Lelong Operations Centre that will oversee all public auctions of immoveable properties held throughout Peninsular Malaysia, in stages.

In an official circular to members of the Malaysian Bar dated March 14, 2017, obtained by TheEdgeProperty.com, the office of the Registrar of the High Court of Malaya had issued a copy of the Arahan Amalan (or practising guidelines) relating to the introduction of the e-Lelong System, and the handling of foreclosure proceedings and public auction of immovable properties via electronic means (e-Lelong) at the High Court

The circular stated that the practising guidelines have been in effect since last Wednesday, March 15. It also stated that the practising guidelines on public auctions dated April 29, 2014 are still applicable for states that carry out public auctions manually.

Training and development director at real estate agency Kim Realty, Lim Boon Ping noted that although the implementation of the e-Lelong will affect the livelihood of licensed auctioneers, the system will be able to eradicate the activities of syndicates at property auctions.

“There are syndicates who will usually negotiate with genuine bidders and have them stop their bids by paying them off out of court,” he told TheEdgeProperty.com.

On the other hand, Chur Associates founder and managing partner Chris Tan noted that bidders need to watch out for technological glitches as different bidders may have different Internet bandwidth. 

In the practising guidelines, it is stated that the e-Lelong Operations Centre will not be responsible for any disruption, delay, failure, mistake or loss of information that is submitted via the electronic platform due to Internet connection problems during the e-bidding process. 

“It is also not clear whether this means that there will be no more manual public auctions when the e-Lelong platform is launched,” Tan said, adding that the public and licensed auctioneers will get a better picture once the platform is officially launched.