30-year wait and still no strata titles for 667
18/05/2007 The Star By Bavani M.

RESIDENTS of nine blocks of low-cost apartments comprising 667 units in Taman United Garden (formerly known as Taman Lee Yan Lian) in Jalan Kelang Lama have been waiting for 30 years to get strata titles.

The residents who are in their golden years now are wondering if they would ever see the strata titles in their lifetime.

The residents moved into their properties in the 70s and, in 1983, they received letters from developer Sea Housing Corp Sdn Bhd (formerly known as United Housing Sdn Bhd) asking them to pay RM546 to the developer to enable them to secure the issuance of the strata titles.

This was good news as it was an opportunity for them to finally gain actual ownership of their units and gain the rights to manage it.


Long wait: The block of low-cost apartments where residents are still waiting for their strata titles.
Many paid up but until today, are still waiting for an answer from the developer.

Fed up with the developer, the residents decided to seek help from the newly established Condominiums, Apartment and Highrise Committee (CAHC) set up to fight the rights of owners.

CAHC vice-chairman Khong Chee Seng said certain parties promised residents a solution to their problems two elections ago but nothing ever came out of it.

“They have been victimised long enough and they want to know what has happened to the money collected in 1983,” said Khong.

“Some of the residents had visited the developer’s office to seek answers and were given excuses that the files were lost and there were no records kept,” Khong said, adding that residents had all the necessary documents including the receipts.

Khong said the residents want to know what happened to the monies collected.

“We are talking about roughly RM365,000 in total that the developers have collected. “What happened to the funds?,” said Khong.

When contacted, Sea Housing financial controller Kuan Chew Heng said the delay in the issuance of the strata titles was due to a technical problem.

“When the surveyors came in to carry out the surveying work in 1983, they discovered that Block B was encroaching into government land,” Kuan said.

“The only way to solve the problem was to buy the land from the government and we had to amalgamate the properties in order to apply for the qualified titles before proceeding to apply for strata titles,” Kuan said.

Kuan added that they had submitted an application for the qualified title about three years ago.

“We cannot be sure when the land office will issue the titles but matters like this take a long time,” he said.