Housebuyers to enjoy 24 months' warranty
16/12/2007 Sunday Star By CHIN MUI YOON and NG SI HOOI

KUALA LUMPUR: Developers will now have to repair any defect in houses detected within two years of handing over vacant possession to housebuyers. Previously, the warranty period was 18 months.

This is one of the benefits that consumers will enjoy with the enforcement of the amendments to the Housing Development (Control and Licensing) Act 1966 from Dec 1.

Any defect, shrinkage or other faults in the building have to be repaired by developers at their own cost within 30 days of having received a written notice from buyers.

Such faults include defective workmanship or materials, or if the building has not been constructed in accordance with the plans and description as specified.

Housing and Local Government Minister Datuk Seri Ong Ka Ting said the changes to the Act, which came into effect from Dec 1, were made to protect housebuyers from irresponsible developers.

“There are black sheep but we cannot let this happen, even if the number is not that big.

“The amendment to the Housing Development (Control and Licensing) Act, which is the principal or parent Act, was done on April 12 this year. The regulations gazetted on Dec 1 bring all provisions into conformity under the Act.

“It includes new features such as the introduction of two new Schedule I and Schedule J catering for the Build-then-Sell (10:90) concept.

“The scheduling is vastly different for the current conventional way of selling houses.

“There is also no 5% retention fee so the onus is on developers to be responsible in building and delivering a quality property to buyers in order to collect payment.”

Ong said the Build-then-Sell concept remains optional to developers instead of mandatory.

This parallel system will be observed for a period of time.

As it is, he said, only companies that are financially sound are able to adopt the new concept.

On the extended warranty period for defects, Ong said the increase to 24 months was a period acceptable to both housebuyers and developers after the ministry’s technical team had evaluated feedback from both parties.

Significant changes include a requirement for developers to deliver vacant possession to buyers that must be supported by a Certificate of Completion and Compliance (CCC) certified by registered architects that a building is safe and fit for occupation.

Previously, when developers handed over vacant possession of a property, the keys were given to buyers for inspection.

But buyers could not move in until the Certificate of Fitness (CF) was issued by the local authorities, which could be several months later.

Also for strata titles (applicable under Schedule H for apartments, condominiums, flats and townhouses), a crucial change is the mandatory enforcement of the Fifth Schedule in the sale and purchase (S&P) agreement on what buyers can expect to pay besides the cost of their individual unit, including service charges.