Foreign developers face tighter control

31/03/2007  Daily Express

Penampang: The Local Government and Housing Ministry may introduce several measures to have a better control over foreign companies carrying out housing projects in Sabah.

Assistant Minister Edward Yong said this would ensure foreign developers don't leave house buyers in a quandary when problems arise, particularly on strata titles.

"In future, the Ministry may require foreign companies to enter joint ventures with local companies so that problems can be referred to the latter companies when the projects are completed.

"By doing so, the local companies cannot escape attending to the house buyers' complaints when the foreign developers are no longer in the State. At the same time, we would be giving some kind of assurance to the house owners that the developers would be responsible for such problems," he said.

Yong told this to reporters when attending to complaints of Taman Desa Manis residents in a dialogue, here, recently.

The residents of 55 units there had complained particularly about the issuance of strata titles and some facilities not being well maintained like the sewerage treatment plant.

A Taiwan-based company developed the residential park and the residents moved into their units in 2000.

Another measure, Yong said, would be to require foreign developers to pay bigger deposits that can be used to tackle problems that may arise in their projects in future.

Presently, he said, foreign companies are allowed to be involved in housing projects in the State so long as they are legally registered companies.

On the strata titles, Yong assured that the Ministry would step in to help the residents obtain their titles.

"The Taiwan developer was no longer in Sabah when the housing project was completed. So, now the burden of chasing for strata titles lies with the residents. For a start, we are going to trace the master title in order to assist them with the strata title applications."

On another complaint, Yong said the District Council here would check on a recycle company set up in front of the residential park to determine whether it has a licence or otherwise to operate.

"If the recycling company does not possess any licence, then the premises will be asked to shut down right away because the surrounding is not environment-friendly given the dust problem there.

"If the premises has a licence, then the Health Department, Public Works Department and Land and Survey Department would be called to do a joint inspection at the premises," he said.