HOUSE BUYERS ANGRY WITH SPNB

ANGRY.....One of the house buyers expressing his dissatisfaction to Ahmad.

By : CHRISTY CHOK

TAWAU: The house buyers of Taman Apas Permai here yesterday expressed their frustration and anger with the developer for failing to deliver the project on time.

They demanded that Syarikat Perumahan Negara Berhad (SPNB) issue them a letter to confirm that the delay in the delivery of the house keys was due to the construction project failing to fulfill the standard requirements for an occupancy certificate (OC).

A member of the Taman Apas Permai special task force committee, Melvin Abd Hamid, claimed that all the house buyers here are feeling frustrated and angry with the SPNB, consultant and contractor for failing to complete the housing project on schedule when the actual deadline for delivery of the houses was supposed to be in 2010.

Melvin said most of the house buyers here are civil servants who are anxiously looking forward to move into their new houses as soon as possible and yet, it seems, the place is more like a construction site rather than a residential area. They are feeling very apprehensive for their safety if they were to stay there right now.

He disclosed this to the media after the house keys delivery ceremony was cancelled or deferred due to some controversial matters that arose between the house buyers and SPNB together with contractor in front of the shop houses at Taman Apas Permai yesterday morning.

The house keys delivery ceremony yesterday was supposed to involve 175 units of single-storey low medium cost houses for Block B and Block C1-C4 as well as 10 shop houses. Block A and Block C houses have yet to be completed.

“Today, we want the conditional OC or temporary OC to be withdrawn and the house keys delivery ceremony cancelled. We will not collect our house keys if the housing construction fails to meet the standard specifications. We will wait and only collect our house keys once an actual complete OC has been issued certifying that the construction is fully in compliance with the standard specifications for safety purposes.

“Besides that, we also want to be paid our compensation for the delay of the project completion and delivery progress, right up to the day of issue of the actual complete OC together with delivery of the house keys.

“Although the conditional OC is valid for three months, we could see that the housing construction is not in compliance with the stated specifications in terms of drainage system, road, fire and rescue system. We wonder how the conditional OC could be issued when the construction has failed to fulfill all the required specifications.

“We would feel apprehensive and unsafe if we stayed there as we do not want a fire incident to happen at Taman Apas Permai just like the fire incident at Taman Semarak here recently,” Melvin pointed out.

Although it is a low medium cost housing project, the house buyers are aware of what they purchased and what they would receive. They however feel as if they had been cheated. They really hoped the developer, consultant and contractor would be more responsible to complete this housing project immediately accordingly with the stated specifications.

He also disclosed that the house buyers had been asked to pay RM900 (per household) for water supply, water meter installation, water meter and other maintenance fees.

Meanwhile, SPNB technical officer-in-chief Datuk Ahmad Azizi Bin Hj Ali confirmed that the house keys delivery ceremony yesterday had been cancelled until after the actual complete OC is issued, probably at the end of March, this year.

However, the home buyers still refused to take up on the offer.

The TAP project failed to be completed on schedule, sparking controversies since April last year when the 856 buyers began to speak out, demanding the developer complete the project on time. (BP)