Unlicensed builder under probe

27/01/2007 NST By Neville Sypkerman

Klang: On the surface, the developer seemed successful and had even developed six housing estates.

But yesterday, his luck ran out when he was busted by officers from the Ministry of Housing & Local Government after it was found that he had been operating without a licence for more than three years.

A team from the ministry's monitoring and enforcement division raided the developer's premises here following complaints from house buyers.

"The company had been operating without approval from the ministry. Their customers reported them after they became suspicious when some of the housing projects faced problems or were abandoned," said division director G. Parameswaran.

He said 10 house buyers had lodged complaints related to the sale and purchase agreements, building specifications and money collected by the company.

Yesterday's raid was aimed at gathering evidence such as payment receipts, sale and purchase agreements, list of customers and the list of company directors.

The operation initially hit a dead end when no directors or senior management were present on the premises.

However at 11am, a director showed up after being informed of the raid by one of his staff.

However, his explanation and documents failed to satisfy the raiding party.

The Company will be blacklisted with immediate effect while investigations are carried out.