High Court reverses Tribunal’s RM90,000 award to three house buyers

TAIPING (Dec 3): The hopes of three house buyers in being awarded a total of about RM90,000 by the housing tribunal were quashed when the High Court here overturned the former’s ruling made last year.

The three had earlier filed a complaint to the tribunal for defects found in the double-storey houses they bought in a scheme in Gerik, on the grounds of a breach of a sale and purchase agreement entered with the developer in January 2017.

The develpor, First Success Sdn Bhd, had filed for a judicial review to quash the award, citing the purchasers had failed to give any notice of defects as required under the agreement before pursuing a claim with the tribunal.

In overruling the judgement, judicial commissioner K Muniandy said “the tribunal chairman had acted outside his jurisdiction and was swayed by the plight of house buyers, while the right of the developer was sidestepped”, reported Free Malaysia Today today.

The developer said its workers and its representative attempted to carry out repair work to the three premises in December 2018, but were prevented to because a stop-work order had been issued.

“The applicant (the developer) has been successful in demonstrating procedural impropriety and unreasonableness as well as illegality in the decision-making process,” said Muniandy in his ruling.

The tribunal’s decision-making process was fraught with multiple flaws and inconsistencies, which had prejudiced the developer, he stated.

The tribunal chairman had instructed a technical inspection team to investigate the defects and based on an evaluation report, awarded Ng Tiong Ruen  RM29,800, Chan Cheng Yong RM30,000 and Lim Chin Yee RM28,600 in March last year.

“It has to be iterated that the chairman had conducted the proceeding with settlement by parties as foremost.

“What is paramount is that if the settlement via mediation has failed, it is only proper for the tribunal to get on with the hearing of the case via oral testimony, which is subject to cross-examination by the applicant,” Muniandy said.

Muniandy said the tribunal, having made a finding, could have ordered a technical team to investigate and report on the defects once the buyers had ventilated their grievances.

“That would be consonant with the fact finding inquiry by the tribunal at all material times,” he stressed.

Making ex-parte rulings without proper and adequate submission by parties who were not represented by lawyers did not augur well in proceedings of this nature, Muniandy added.

The High Court judge also ordered the three buyers to pay RM3,000 each to the developer as costs. They have subsequently filed an appeal in the Court of Appeal.

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