Apex court orders full trial for 58 unit holders of Empire City Damansara over strata title

• The apex court, in allowing the appeal of the 58 purchasers, ruled that this was not a suitable case to be summarily struck off.

PUTRAJAYA (Oct 16): A group of Empire City Damansara unit holders who had not been issued a strata title succeeded in the Federal Court on Thursday to have their lawsuit against the developer heard.

The apex court, in allowing the appeal of the 58 purchasers, ruled that this was not a suitable case to be summarily struck off.

The developer, Cosmopolitan Avenue Sdn Bhd, had initially failed to strike out the suit at the High Court. However, the Court of Appeal subsequently allowed the developer's appeal for the company to be struck out as a party in the case.

Chief Justice Datuk Seri Wan Ahmad Farid Wan Salleh sat with Tan Sri Ahmad Terrirudin Mohd Salleh and Datuk Lee Swee Seng in making the unanimous decision at the Federal Court.

The 58 purchasers had sought to ask the apex court three questions of law in their appeal:

1. Can there be issuance of strata title if only a partial certificate of completion and compliance (CCC) has been issued?
2. Can a development project be regarded as completed if no CCC is issued?
3. Can a development project continue indefinitely without a deadline on the issuance of a full CCC to the detriment of the purchasers who have invested?

However, the bench did not answer the questions posed during the hearing of the appeal on Thursday, saying that the issues raised can be resolved at the trial of the matter in the High Court in due course.

The issues initially raised by the buyers in the High Court were on the payment of liquidated ascertained damages for late delivery of vacant possession, and how the Empire City project still had not obtained its strata title nine years after the delivery of vacant possession of the purchasers' unit or parcel in 2016 and the issuance then of a partial CCC.

They further complained that strata titles could not be procured with a partial CCC.

The Empire City Damansara project, located along Lebuhraya Damansara-Puchong in Petaling Jaya, comprises 11 blocks of apartments, hotels and office buildings, including the HCK Tower and MyEG Tower, which sit atop a retail podium called Hextar World. The retail podium has 1.7 million sq ft of net lettable area.

The purchasers were represented by Ranjan N Chandran, T Susielan, Jayasri Nadarajan and Rani Nadesan

Cosmopolitan Avenue was represented by Justin Voon Tiam Yu, Alvin Lai Kok Wing and Cheryl Leong Kit Yee.

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