Media statement by Dr. Hiew King Cheu in Kota Kinabalu on Monday, 12^th December 2011:

Housing Development (Control and Licensing) Act 1966 - Amendment not applicable to Sabah

The Housing Development (Control and Licensing) Act 1966 was proposed to amend and the amendments were passed in the Parliament in December 2011. The amendments gave way to more protection to the house buyers and the house buyers now can begin criminal proceedings against the developers who abandon housing development projects.

The amended law now gives the house buyers a chance to initiate criminal proceedings against the developers on abandon housing projects. The new clause stated that if the developers who failed to complete housing projects can be fined between RM250,000 and RM500,000, or jailed no less than three years, or both. The law is to deter the developers from abandoning their projects as well as to protect the interest of the buyers.

The clause defines "abandon" as refusal to carry out, delays, suspends or cease work continuously for six months or more or beyond the stipulated period of completion as stated in Sale and Purchase (S&P) agreement. If this scenario happens, house buyers have the right to terminate the S&P agreement and the developers have to refund the money to the purchasers within 30 days. The developers can be fined from RM250,000 to RM500,000 with a further fine not exceeding RM5,000 for every day that the offence continues after conviction. The new amendment also requires the developers to deposit three percent of a project cost to obtain a developer's license.

It is very unfortunately that the mentioned law amendment in the Housing Development Act 1966 is not applicable in Sabah and Sarawak and it is only for the Semananjong. The particular Act not being extended for use in Sabah had deprived the house buyers' right being protected.

This has very much to do with that Sabah actually is having a different set of Local Government and Housing Acts and By-laws which is different from the West Malaysia set of Federal Housing and Local Government Act and by-laws. Sabah actually rejected and refused to adopt and allow the Federal set of Housing and Local Government Acts to be used in Sabah. There are discrepancies in the two sets of laws and we still saw the differences actually affecting all of us today. The good example is the new amendment to protect the house buyers and sage guard their interest did not apply to Sabah had disappointed many house buyers who suffered deeply from the housing developers abandoning the projects or having a long delay in completion. There are many projects in Sabah which had stopped work or totally abandoned, seriously delayed or in financial hardship. These many projects had caused thousands of house buyers fell into hardship and ended up with financial difficulties.

The Sabah government did nothing to protect the rights of the house and commercial unit buyers and even the government own housing schemes are facing stop work and some even ended up with long delay. Who is protecting the buyers, and why Sabah government did not want to allow the federal set of laws to be implemented in Sabah. If the federal set of laws on housing development cannot be use here, why the State government is not amending the Sabah housing development laws to protect the house buyers' interest? This reflected that the BN Sabah government did not care about the interest of the house buyers and push them to suffer continuously.

Strictly speaking the many delayed federal housing projects like the SPNB and PTPTN housing projects in Sabah should be subjected to this new amendments to protect the rights of the buyers. The house buyers equally can act and seek protection under this new amendment. The Federal Housing and Local Government Minister Datuk Seri Chor Chee Heung should act and seek this act to be enforced in Sabah on all federal housing developments.

* Dr Hiew King Cheu, MP for Kota Kinabalu