Don't prolong our suffering: Buyers
Published on: Wednesday, September 27, 2017
Penampang: A long delay in releasing the Occupancy Certificate by the Penampang District Council (PDC) to the developer of The Gardens at Bundusan has left about 500 home unit owners feeling anxious and helpless.With construction already completed in April this year, unit owners still cannot move in until the developer, SC Land Group, receives the OC. The cause of the delay is said to be due to a dispute over usage of a road access.It has been reported that the PDC had insisted SCLand to get the consent from a developer of an adjoining land on the usage of the road reserve.
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Spokesman for the affected homeowners, Eppe Charles Constantine, said the whole issue has caused a huge headache to all of them."We're left wondering what's been going on. It's not our job to find the solution and approval. We expect the developer and the Penampang District Council to work together. But until today, there's been no solution," he said after leading a group of home owners to meet with Penampang Member of Parliament Darrel Leiking, Tuesday.
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According to Eppe, many of them are first-time home owners."But because we can't move in, some of the home owners have to move out from their rented homes and stay with their parents," he said.
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He also insisted that the PDC should be the one taking the lead in finding a solution to the issue."If they say the road reserve can't be used, then they should give us an alternative access," he suggested.He also said a dialogue between SCLand and the property buyers concerning PDC's delay on the OC had been held but ended without any solution.According to one of the unit owners, Mitchell Lee, the delay has upset her plan to expand her family."My husband and I have actually planned to have a second child after we move in. Now we have to postpone it. But I hope the problem will be resolved soon because we now have a 4-year-old child and we don't want a big age gap with a second child," she said.She also said that the delay has caused her to renegotiate extension of stay in her current rented house with the landlord."And I've also paid an interior designer to design my home. She's been asking me when she could start work but I told her I can't move in yet because of the OC issue," she added.Another unit owner, Lynette Wong, said she and her husband feel it has been a waste of money for them after having been servicing their loan with the bank for over the past two to three years but they still cannot move in."We're paying with our hard-earned income for our home unit but until today we can't yet move in. This is hard for us," she said.Meanwhile, Darrel said the whole fiasco only points to bad governance on the part of PDC."Why did they approve the development plan of The Gardens when the road access issue hasn't been settled yet? It doesn't make sense," he said.Stay up-to-date by following Daily Express’s Telegram channel.
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