Zuraida: Govt formulating law to prevent legal action against delayed housing projects

TAIPING (June 28): Housing developers and homebuyers of projects affected by the enforcement of the movement control order (MCO) cannot take legal action against one another if the Temporary Measures Bill to mitigate the impact of Covid-19 is passed by Parliament.

Housing and Local Government Minister Zuraida Kamaruddin (pictured) said the bill is expected to be tabled in the Dewan Rakyat in the middle of next month.

“Many housing projects were disrupted and had to be stopped until they could not be completed in the stipulated time. As they occurred due to the Covid-19 pandemic, we cannot blame any party, including the developers and homebuyers.

“When we draft the bill, there will be a clause where both parties (developers and buyers) cannot sue one another. We will be making new terms,” she told reporters after visiting the Kamunting Fire and Rescue Station here yesterday.

To date, she said 700 to 800 applications had been received from developers to extend their completion periods, which had been interrupted for three months due to the MCO.

“Buyers must also accept the fact that they cannot make any claim based on the original agreement,” she said.

In another development, Zuraida said the local authorities (PBT) must be more serious and take stern action against those who commit mistakes or abuse the national language on advertisement boards.

She stressed that the matter must be addressed in the best possible manner by ensuring all applications for the purpose of advertisement must comply with the stipulated standard operating procedure (SOP).

“So, it is not necessary for the DBP (Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka) to perform the task because the PBT can enforce it. I will also remind the local authorities to enforce the existing act and to be more firm against those who misuse the language,” she said.

Zuraidah was commenting on DBP’s board of control chairman Prof Datuk Dr Awang Sariyan’s call for the government to give some power to the statutory body to take action against those who disrespect the national language, including the local authorities.

Awang claimed that almost all out of 150 local authorities nationwide were not prioritising the Malay language, and some even failed to carry out enforcement according to the by-laws.

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