Many home buyers are often unaware of their rights and entitlement.

HBA remains committed to the interest and benefits of house buyers

Contributed by Datuk Chang Kim Loong

Looking back at the start of the National House Buyers Association’s (HBA) past and the first article regarding the association that splashed the headline in a mainstream newspaper was Minister got ‘Tick Off’, marking its spectacular debut in 1999.

At the time, housing abandonment was aplenty and aggrieved buyers had difficulty getting their voices heard by the governing authority namely the Ministry of Housing which was then headed by Tan Sri Dr Ting Chew Peh. The very people who confronted the minister in 1999 are the ones who initiated HBA.

The HBA protem committee came into existence on Oct 16, 1999 comprising a group of aggrieved house buyers who had discovered to their disappointment that getting their woes heard was a frustrating process. The then housing industry was in shambles following a worldwide Financial Crisis in 1997-98. In the preceding year, businesses were conducted pro developers and there was no entity explicitly representing house buyers' interests although there were non-governmental organisations (NGOs) like the Federation of Malaysian Consumers Association and Consumer Association of Penang assisting some aggrieved buyers of housing-related issues amongst other public interest issues that their respective organisations’ pursue.

HBA was duly registered on July 26, 2000 by the Registry of Societies and then formally launched as the House Buyers Association (Kuala Lumpur and Selangor) on April 20, 2001 by then Housing and Local Government Minister Tan Sri Ong Ka Ting. The organisation subsequently evolved into a national body with the name National House Buyers Association. 

Striving for rights

HBA continues to be a voluntary non-governmental, not-for-profit and non-political organisation. Its working committee comprises volunteers from various professions. Work revolves around sheer humanitarian principles and ethics and HBA strives wholly for a balanced, fair and equitable treatment for house buyers in their dealings with housing developers.

Before the establishment of HBA, house buyers could only lodge their complaints to the very people whom they have discontentment with. With a slogan Striving for House Buyers' Rights and Interests, HBA was determined to get the laws and legislations changed so that those buying new homes would get the same degree of consumer protection and redress accorded by the government to all other new products of substantially less cost.

From the complaints HBA has received and from the media reports, the damages sustained by house buyers who have trusted their developers to deliver their products efficiently are too numerous. HBA aspires to see a level playing field between developers and house buyers and that the rights of house buyers are not short-changed. 

HBA continues to give constructive criticism on the fundamental requirements to ensure that new homes are built and delivered timely, and properly and that those buying them can have confidence that they are buying well with a commensurate level of after-sales service.

Down memory lane 

Looking back, HBA has worked through the tenures of ten Housing and Local Government Ministers. There were pleasant ones to work with and not-so-pleasant ones to work against all these 23 years. HBA singled out Tan Sri Ong Ka Ting as one of the best that it has worked alongside with. 

Even before the official inception of HBA as an organisation, its volunteer lawyers were roped in to participate in the amendments to the housing laws, regulations and statutory sale as well as purchase agreements. That was in 2000 and the positive outcome was that HBA’s voice, representing the buyers was heard and due recognition was recorded in the Parliament Hansard when he tabled the amendments to the legislation for the 2nd reading.

Ong too was instrumental in the tabling of the Building and Common Property (Maintenance & Management) Act 2007 (Act 663) that gives power back to the hands of the owners in 2007. The previous Act instilled in the developers the mindset and recognised the rights, benefits and entitlement of the strata owners upon delivery of vacant possession. 

The Developer’s duty was to sell property whilst that of the owners was in forming a community. The said Act 663 has worked with some teething problems for eight years. There were a lot of uncertainties and ambiguities. But it has since outlived its usefulness and was repealed.

When Tan Sri Chor Chee Heung helm the Housing Ministry portfolio he boldly took a notch higher in the succeeding years to table the current wholesome legislation named the Strata Management Bill, in Parliament on Dec 19, 2012.

Kudos to the past ministers and their teams who have worked through numerous weekends with the countless stakeholders (including HBA volunteers) in the related Industries tweaked and tuned both the management and maintenance aspects in the Strata Titles Act, 1985 (Act 318) and the related Housing Development legislation. Hence, the birth of the Strata Management Act, 2013 (Act 757). 

Equally important was then Natural Resources and Environment Minister Datuk Seri Douglas Uggah Embas who also simultaneously tabled the Strata Titles Act,1985 (amendment 2012) at the sitting in Parliament to make the SMA a reality.

536 EOTs approvals invoked

The floodgate of Extension of Time (EOT) began from 2014 onwards. Prior to 2014, the granting of an EOT was almost unheard of. There have been a total of 536 EOTs approvals from 2014 to mid-2019 granted by the Controller of Housing under HD Reg 11(3) and HD Reg 12 by the housing minister, according to the Parliament Hansard that was made available (see graph). 

Table: Number of EOT approvals from 2014 to July 2019

Source: HBA compilation from Parliament report

HBA took Datuk Seri Abdul Rahman Dahlan to task for giving a housing developer more time (extended 12 months) to complete a project during his previous tenure as housing minister in the landmark case of Ang Ming Lee & Ors vs Menteri Kesejahteraan Bandar, Perumahan dan Kerajaan Tempatan & others (2020) CLJ 162, whereupon the Federal Court on Nov 26, 2019 ruled that the EOT was invalid. The HBA legal team working on a pro bono basis represented the 103 aggrieved buyers from the High Court to the Court of Appeal and finally, the Federal Court.

The figure is mind-boggling. How could they have issued the EOTs to developers to save them from having to pay late delivery compensation to the detriment of house buyers? Has our country now reached a state of an economic crisis that the minister must dish out EOTs to developers who are already in distress and threatened to abandon their projects? The buyers will ultimately be at the mercy of housing developers, especially those who walk the corridors of power.

The issue should be checked under the new housing minister’s watch. Any decision which deprives the house buyers of their rights and entitlements should be exercised transparently, strictly and with open communication. At the very least, the views of the buyers, directly affected, must be considered prior to the minister making a decision – the right to be heard is of utmost importance. 

Home buyers too face hardship and commitments, having to pay rent or instalments on their current residences while servicing their housing loans for the delayed developments. They too bear the burden of additional costs and expenses for the delay as well as having their future plans derailed. One cannot continue to unilaterally hear the views of the housing developers and shun the buyers.       

Remaining steadfast

HBA continues to stand for the truth and be the source of accurate information and advice for our fellow rakyat who are still led to believe in inaccurate information and sometimes misinformation.

HBA remains a voluntary, non-profit, non-political organisation manned by volunteer members of various professions. The organisation operates purely on volunteer workers’ benevolence who unselfishly give their time to strive for the interest and benefits of house buyers, based on our principle: Our free service for nice people only.

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