Tribunal orders awards of RM333,229.14 to house buyers

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(From left) Ali, Alhadi, Trabawan and Mohammad Abd Aziz looking at the case papers.

KUCHING: The Sarawak Housing Purchaser’s Claims Tribunal yesterday ordered four developers to pay house buyers a total of RM333,229.14 for late delivery of properties.

The awards were determined after the tribunal heard eight cases against various developers (all within Kuching areas) yesterday.

“Most of the cases involved property late deliveries followed by late delivery of common facilities as according to the contract,” Tribunal president Trabawan Mandi said at a press conference yesterday.

Yesterday saw the biggest claims made by Yong YitChien/Evelyn Chia Hui Jee and Jong Min Shien/LiewGuo Chen, on a developer involving a total sum of RM208,771.52 for delay in delivering the properties and work quality defects.

Both claimants were issued occupation permit (OP) for the properties on Nov 25, 2019.

Trabawan, assisted by the Tribunal panel of Alhadi Ibrahim and Mohammad Abdul Aziz Ariffin, instructed the developer to pay each claimant a total sum of RM104,385.76.

Three other developers were asked to pay claimants Nancy Maked/Albert Johek(OP issued on Nov 6, 2020), and Noorfazilla Yan/Idris Dol (OP issued on July 25, 2019) for delay in delivering the property, Mohd Safiq Mohd Sahari(OP issued on July 25, 2019), and Abang Amirul Abang Abdul Razak for delay in delivering the property and work quality defects (OP was issued on July 11, 2019), Edison Ricket (OP not mentioned in case sheet) and Hew Chin Teng for delay in delivering the property and common areas (OP issued on Sept 30, 2019).

Trabawan urged property development companies to send a qualified representative who has knowledge about their property and is ready to state their defence to the Tribunal.

“If the developer sends its representative who has no knowledge or does not know how to do updates or how to answer the Tribunal, the Tribunal will deliver judgement based on what is claimed by the buyer.

“Due to the unpreparedness of the property developer representatives who have no idea about their property, we would more or less assume that they are not ready to state their defence,” he said.

He added that if property developers do not comply with the awards granted to the buyers, the Tribunal would proceed with charges in the High Court.

“We have the Ordinance with regard to no compliance under ‘Criminal Penalty for Failure to Comply 53 (1) under The Housing Development (Control and Licensing) Ordinance 2013 Section 53 (1)’ which says any person who fails to comply with an award made by the Tribunal is committing an offence and shall, on conviction, be liable to a fine of not exceeding RM5,000 or imprisonment for a term not exceeding two years or both.

“It is the same for property developers who are not satisfied with the decision of the Tribunal, they can go to the High Court for judicial review,” he said.

Also sitting as panel member was Tribunal secretary Ali Abdullah.