Taman Kepong residents' legal rights to land titles
Thanks to the effort of the Taman Kepong Action Group, Kepong MP Dr Tan Seng Giaw and the Federal Territory Land Office, 80 per cent of homeowners can now heave a sigh of relief as they now have the permanent land titles to their homes in the 40-year-old neighbourhood.
The group's chairman, M.U. Arumugam, announced this at a press conference recently, adding that some of the 500 homeowners had collected their titles upon receiving letters from the land office.
However, Arumugam said another problem concerning the temporary land title document has cropped up -- some of them are photocopies .
The group has called on those affected to ensure that their temporary land titles are original.
The issue was brought to light after a resident, Stephen Ng, said he recently discovered that his family's temporary land title kept by his mother was in fact a photocopied document.
"This could pose another hurdle to residents in obtaining the permanent land titles of their homes as they won't be able to get it so soon.
"The land office has got to conduct checks to determine that an individual is a bona-fide owner of a house.
"We do not know how many homeowners have the photocopied temporary titles.
"We're requesting them to come forward," said Arumugam.
He said they are expected to meet with the land office to further discuss ways to resolve the problem today.
He said that the group will come together again on Sunday.
He urged those with the photocopied temporary land titles to meet at the Pemadam office at Jalan Kuang Bulan in Taman Kepong.
The meeting will take place at 3pm.
The next course of action would be for them to lodge police reports.
Subsequently, they have to take an oath before the Commissioner of Oaths.
Tan, who has been helping the residents to pursue the matter, also advised homeowners with the photocopied temporary land titles to put caveats on their properties.
Tan said the land where Taman Kepong sits on is freehold.
"Legally, homeowners should have permanent land titles to their homes," he said.
Ng was told by his mother that the document furnished to her by the land office was said to be the only one when she collected it back in 1993 or 1994.
Following that, Ng's mother lodged a police report at the Kepong station on Friday.
"I hope those who are in the same situation as my mother will come forward so that the group can help them to get the permanent titles issued to them.
"This matter is serious as the original title could have fallen into wrong hands and subjected to misuse," said Ng.
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