KOTA KINABALU: Sabah’s housing laws are being overhauled to ensure home owners need not wait a long time to get their strata titles.

State Local Government and Housing Minister Datuk Seri Hajiji Noor said the state Attorney-General was drawing up the proposed amendments to the Housing Enactment, adding that he hoped to table them in the state assembly by the end of this year.

Currently, if an apartment project consists of three phases, the unit owners will have to wait until all phases are completed before the strata titles can start to be processed.

“Under the amendments, the processing of the strata titles can begin as soon as the occupancy certificate for the individual units is issued,” Hajiji told reporters yesterday.

Noting that certain apartment and condominium owners had waited 25 years to get their strata titles, Luyang state assemblyman Hiew King Cheu had asked the state government to resolve the issue.

Without strata titles, he said there were many problems involving housing loan documentation, formation of management corporations, sinking fund with developers, payment of management consultancy fees, water bills and other legal requirements.