Media statement by Dr. Hiew King Cheu in Kota Kinabalu on Tuesday, 22^nd May 2012:

New act on Housing Starta-titles and Management Corporation timely

The proposed new Act on the Housing Strata-Titles and on the Management Corporation is timely and indeed needed immediate implementation to resolve the many long overdue issuance of the strata titles and to provide proper management of the high rise residential building. This will be table in the June sitting in Parliament for approval by the Federal Minister of Housing and Local Government Datuk Chor Chee Heung.

This proposed Act is good, if only this includes the East Malaysian states. The Federal Housing Acts normally do not covers East Malaysia and that caused numerous problems as far as the house buyers here are concerned, and their rights are not protected by the Acts.

The proposed new Act calls for the Strata titles to be issued within six months from the issuance of the OC (occupation certificate), but it is a question whether this can be done or achieved due to the inefficiency of the land office. It is known that until today there are still huge numbers of strata titles not being issued. Sabah is a typical case where house buyers had been waiting for their strata titles for as long as twenty over years. The reason still boils down to the slackness in the laws and the government operational deficiency, and coupled with the deliberate fault of the developers not cooperating with the authorities. Thus, the new Act must incorporate all the essential controls and measures to ensure once the building is completed and passed, the strata titles must be issued within six months, or else heavy penalty will be imposed on the developer. The house buyers' rights and well being must be protected and be given top priority.

The management corporation is always a headache to the house owners, because the late issuance of the Strata titles had given chance for the developers to hang on to run the management of the particular building. In many cases their work is not up to the required standard of efficiency and care. Many house owners are not happy and some even refused to pay their contribution on the management fees. This problem caused many unhappiness and grievances among the unit owners, and sometimes this resulted in the cutting off of water and power supply.

I proposed that the Act should impose strict conditions in such a way that all the developers must proceed to comply with the procedure there is for the application of Strata titles once the building plan has been approved. This is to ease the work load involved both in the land office and the authorities. An early start will iron out many obstacles. The developers have to fully pay up the premium money for the subdivision and issuance of strata titles upon the completion of the building. There should be no issuance of OC until the premium is paid up.

The problem on the collection the management fees, I proposed that it will be better for the local authorities to include it in the house assessment bills. The collected management fees can then be reverted to the individual management corporation concern. Of course if there is any non-payment or default payment on the house assessment, there is always a penalty clause to take care of it. A certified management account can then be submitted to the local authorities to verify that the money is spent accordingly and rightfully.

Anyhow, I want the proposed Federal Housing Development (Control and Licensing) Act to be extended to East Malaysia, and to streamline the particular aspects to protect the house buyers and to be fair to the housing developers. There is no reason that the Sabah State Government should object to this.

* Dr Hiew King Cheu, MP for Kota Kinabalu