kepayan ridge folks kept waiting
Published on: Thursday, August 25, 2016
Kota Kinabalu: The wait for strata titles by residents at the Kepayan Ridge flats Phases 18 and 19 here is far from over. It seems residents staying in the 1,008 units of low cost flats have been playing the waiting game and given the run around by the authorities and the developer, Sabah Housing and Town Development Authority (LPPB), the last 28 years or so. Despite efforts by Parti Keadilan Rakyat's Api-Api Assemblywoman Christina Liew to speed up the issuance of the titles in 2013, little progress has been made on the developer's end three years on.
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The master title CL015492501 was offered to LPPB by the Land and Survey Department on Feb 27, 2009, but the work had just stopped there. "Many of them bought the houses in 1988 and today they are suffering serious structural defects with no one they can turn to for help. "LPPB had sold them the flats without subsidiary titles. No proper maintenance and repair," she said. She recalled when she left the matter to the hands of the authorities in 2013, the then Land and Survey Department Director Datuk Osman Jamal pledged the subsidiary titles could be completed in three months.
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But before that, she said she had written letters to the mayor's office, the then Assistant Local Government and Housing Minister, Datuk Edward Yong, and the Land and Survey Department over the matter. Liew had been involved with the plight of the residents over the titles and the building defects since 2009.
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Residents are not able to form a management corporation and neither would be able to carry out repairs of the defects without the subsidiary titles. The Occupational Certificate was issued on January 1994, four years after residents signed their Sales and Purchase Agreement. Many have raised concerns over the structural integrity of their blocks, but often were given the run around by the authorities, passing the call for help from one agency to another. The same goes with the utility firms like Telekom Malaysia and Sabah Electricity Sdn Bhd. Stay up-to-date by following Daily Express’s Telegram channel.
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