Property Chat - Why you need lawyers in property transactions, unlike buying cars (Part 2)
This is Part 2 of an article published here.
This is Part 2 of an article published here.
“When we buy a luxury car for RM800,000, we can get our bank facility within two or three days without a lawyer, but when we buy a house for RM300,000, we are required to have a battery of lawyers to complete the transaction which takes an average of three to six months.
Yesterday (April 13), the Federal Court dismissed the leave applications brought by Country Garden Danga Bay Sdn Bhd (CGDB) against a group of seven unit purchasers of Country Garden Danga Bay, Johor Bahru.
Some developers are ‘arm-twisting’ house buyers to sign away their rights to late delivery compensations, but are such waivers legitimate? Ever so often, when developers fail to complete their projects on time, they devise ways and means to avoid paying compensation for late delivery or liquidated ascertained damages (LAD) to their house buyers.
The National Homebuyers Association (HBA) is calling out that the drafted laws of the proposed Residential Tenancy Act (RTA) draft have incomprehensible sections.
The Delivery of Vacant Possession (VP) under Housing Development (Control and Licensing) Act 1966 (HDA 1966) has presented a perennial question to purchasers: Why are the purchasers being delivered purportedly completed housing property that could not be occupied due to not having an actual supply of running water and electricity? Under the current act, which is to be read together with the Housing Development (Control and Licensing) Regulations 1989 (HDR 1989), the developer is supposed to conduct the delivery of VP of the completed property to the purchasers with water and electricity supply ‘ready for connection’.
Do we honestly need new laws to purportedly “offer more protection” for house buyers when the existing ones are adequate? Do we lack laws or the will to enforce them? Would amending the Housing Development (Control &Licensing) Act, 1966 (Act 118) and their related Regulations honestly solve the problem of abandoned housing project? There is nothing wrong with the current laws.
Last week, I presented the National House Buyers Association (HBA)’s: ‘tick where applicable” checklist to our newly minted Minister of Housing & Local Government, YB Datuk Seri Reezal Merican Naina Merican in my article published on Dec 11, 2021 entitled: ‘If I were the Housing Minister” I have since received positive feedback from my fellow volunteers, friends of HBA, industry players, stakeholders, civil servants, politicians from both sides of the divide and housing developers (of the decent and responsible variety).
The National House Buyers Association (HBA) is appreciative of the housing industry’s significant contributions to our country’s economic development and likewise mindful that house buyers play an important role as the industry’s customers.
According to earlier news reports, the Housing and Local Government Minister Datuk Seri Reezal Merican Naina Merican said there are only four developers in Malaysia capable of carrying out the build-then-sell (BTS) concept.