FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Kuala Lumpur, March 13 (Sunday) – Nearly four months after the issue of Qualified Title was raised, Taman Kepong residents are now seeing light at the end of the tunnel.
Residents’ Action Group chairman, M.U. Arumugam said that by end March, most house owners should be receiving a letter of notification from the Federal Territory Land and Mines Office to collect their final title.
To date, 475 titles in Phase One of Taman Kepong have been registered and ready for collection, while 49 titles are still held up. In Phase Two, 385 of 600 titles are already registered, and the remaining to be completed within the month of March.
Arumugam revealed the figures after another successful meeting with the Land Office officials on Wednesday (March 10). “We were told all 1,124 Qualified Titles should be converted into final title soon,” he said.
However, Arumugam said that there are a number of other issues which cropped up. “Because the Taman Kepong title issue is four decades old, the transactions made are harder to trace, as some residents did not keep their documents properly,” he said. “Some have lost their Sales and Purchase Agreements and Memorandum of Transfer, and to prove ownership of the land, evidence of this nature is important.”
This is one reason why the Action Group urged residents to immediately collect their titles the moment that they are registered.
Arumugam said there are many titles that are issued in the name of the developer, Kepong Garden Development Sdn Bhd, which means, the transfer has not been properly executed. “These owners will not receive their title deeds, until the Memorandum of Transfer is properly executed with the consent of the developer,” he said.
Arumugam said according to the Land Office, the developer still exists as a company with a registered address in Cangkat Raja Chulan, Kuala Lumpur. “The Land Office is willing to assist with the transfer but the owners will have to fork out the stamp duty,” he said. “Without a proper transfer being carried out, the ownership of the property could be disputed and we do not wish this to happen.”
According to a resident, Stephen Ng (黄荣裕), his mother was one of the residents who were given photostat copies of the title back in 1994. Ng said, although no allegations are made against any party, in order to protect his mother’s interest, a police report has been lodged and a Statutory Declaration made in accordance to the Land Office procedure for titles considered lost.
“The comforting thing for my mother is that after 17 years, when we discovered it was a Photostat copy of the Qualified Title she had with her in the safe deposit box, the Land Search revealed that there was no transaction made,” he said.
Ng urged all housebuyers to check their documents to make sure that they are in place. “As a title deed is a legal document which is used to prove ownership of a piece of property, especially for homes and vehicles, we cannot afford to be negligent,” he said.
There are also titles that still carry the old correspondence addresses. “For this reason,” Arumugam said, “the letter from the Land Office do not eventually reach the house owners. It is the onus of the owners to register a current correspondence address.”
Kepong MP Dr Tan Seng Giaw said he will also be looking into a similar issue involving residents of Kepong Baru and Jinjang. “Land matters are important to the people, and should be dealt with urgently,” he said. “The longer it is delayed, the more complicated it becomes.”
Dr Tan said that, in the case of Taman Kepong, residents are fortunate because the developer had already conducted the survey of the two phases. “However, in Kepong Baru, the survey was never carried out, and now, we have the question of who should pay the bill,” he said.
Dr Tan said a number of other housing estates throughout the country are facing similar issues and there are loopholes which allow developers to abscond from its responsibility. “I will raise this matter in the parliament soon, to urge the Government to put together a more effective mechanism to monitor the developers to ensure that they are fulfilling their obligations, following a strict timeline,” he said.