Quit rent: Implications facing errant landowners

KUALA LUMPUR (March 18): The arrears in quit rent by landowners in the Federal Territory of Kuala Lumpur as at December 31, 2020,  amounted to RM19,584,478.00 and  involved 15,727 titles, said the Federal Territory Land and Mines director Datuk Muhammad Yasir Yahya.

He said based on records, there were 165,371 registered land titles in Kuala Lumpur in early 2020, with 16 per cent of them (26,551 land titles) having quit rent arrears amounting to  RM28,809,508.30.

He said various efforts were made by the Federal Territory Land and Mines Office to reduce the amount of the arrears.

"Among them were conducting Ops Ketuk, serving notices by hand to the errant landowners, holding engagement sessions with landowners, opening of payment counters after office hours, data clearing and enforcing the law,” he said in a statement today.

Apart from that, he said, various initiatives were made by the office to facilitate landowners to pay their quit rent, including introducing online payment (FPX) through the land office portal at www.ptgwp.gov.my and , Internet Banking (M2U, Cimbclicks and RHB Online) and cash payment at  the Post Office and DBKL Counters.

Meanwhile, Muhammad Yasir said  failure by the landowners in settling their quit rent arrears could impede any transactions involving the property.

These include to sub-divide and develop the land, as well as to merge the land and change the land category, transfer of ownership, to lease or mortgage the land, he added.

The greater risk, he said, is the landowners facing forfeiture of the property by the government as provided by  Section 97 and Section 100 of the Land Code.

For the record, since the establishment of the Federal Territory of Kuala Lumpur in 1974, the quit rent has been revised four times, in 1975, 1984, 1994 and 2006.

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