GEORGE TOWN, Sept 13 — Factory worker Shaharizah Mohamad Saarah was hoping to finally move into her own house when she forked out RM80,000 in cash to buy a single-storey terrace house back in 2010.
However, 13 years later, not only has she not been able to move into the house that she bought, but she was also asked to pay another RM21,000 in cash upfront before being issued the house deed.
The developer that she bought the house from had gone into liquidation, and as part of the liquidation process, she was told she must pay the sum to get the house deed.
The 47-year-old is one of 115 affected buyers of the Taman Halaman Indah project in Sungai Bakap.
“We received notices from the liquidator in August to pay RM21,000 in cash each within two months if we want our house deeds,” she told reporters at a demonstration held by a group of house buyers at Komtar today.
Taman Halaman Indah action committee chairman, Habibur Rahman Seeni Mohamed, said if they fail to pay the RM21,000, they will lose the houses they have already paid for.
“All of us signed the sales and purchase agreement in 2010 and 2011 and paid in full for the houses in cash,” he said.
He said the project was previously an abandoned project, so they had fought for it to be completed.
“When it was finally completed, we appealed to the Housing Ministry under the federal government for help and the project obtained the CCC in 2019,” he said.
Habibur, who had paid RM69,000 in cash when he bought his house in 2011, said the Housing Ministry had helped them to resolve issues regarding the project in 2019 but they did not expect this to happen.
“When we went to the Land and Mines Department to check the title for our properties, we found that it was under the name of nine other companies that were the developer’s creditors,” he said.
He said the developer had already gone into liquidation so they could not seek it out.
“We have tried so many other ways to get our house deeds but to no avail,” he said.
He said among the buyers were those who have paid in full for the houses priced at between RM42,000 and RM300,000.
“It has been so many years, some of the buyers have passed away, some have retired, all of them can’t afford to fork out RM21,000 in cash,” he said.
He said all of them have already paid for their houses in full, so it was not fair that they have to pay an additional RM21,000 to get their house deeds.
“We were told if we don’t pay the RM21,000, our houses will be auctioned off,” he claimed.
Today, the group decided to hold a peaceful demonstration appealing for help from the state and federal government.
They also handed a memorandum containing all relevant information on the project to the chief minister’s office.
“We hope the Penang Chief Minister Chow Kon Yeow can help us to resolve this. We don’t want to lose our houses which we have already paid for,” he said.
Sungai Bakap assemblyman Nor Zamri Latiff was also present at the demonstration.
He said the he hopes the state government will find a way to help the house buyers.
