Kota Kinabalu:The State Legislative Assembly passed a Bill to amend the Housing Development (Control and Licensing) Enactment 1978 which aims to strengthen the licencing control of housing development matters in Sabah and ensure the protection of home buyers’ interest.
Speaker Datuk Seri Kadzim M Yahya announced the passing the Bill – Housing Development (Control and Licensing) (Amendment) Enactment 2023 – tabled by Local Government and Housing Minister Datuk Seri Dr Joachim Gunsalam.
The Enactment was originally scheduled to take effect on Sept 1, 2023. However, due to an application from Dr Joachim to amend Clause 1(2), the Enactment will now be enforced on the date following its publication in the Government gazette.
“In general, this Enactment is a law for the licensing control of housing development matters in Sabah and serves to protect the interests of home buyers. This enactment was last amended in 2007,” said Dr Joachim when tabling the Bill.
“Since then, there is a need to update and improve this Enactment to meet the demands of the people, especially to help home buyers of ‘sick’ housing projects so that it will not turn into abandoned housing,” he said.
He said the amendment is necessary because the existing Enactment is not sufficient to defend the plight of home buyers who are faced with the problem of ‘sick’ housing projects in addition to ensuring that the problem does not repeat itself in the future.
In addition, the amendment is also to ensure that the monitoring and control of housing development can be carried out more effectively and further strengthen the enforcement actions to reduce the problem of housing development in Sabah thus providing more protection to home buyers.
A total of six assemblymen debated the Bill.
Dr Joachim said the Bill has gone through a process involving all stakeholders such as ministries, departments, government agencies, the Sabah Housing and Real Estate Developers Association and Sabah Law Society before being finalised at the level of his Ministry and brought to the Bill drafting process.
He said the amendment to the Bill also involves a comprehensive study and reference to the federal government’s legal model, namely the Housing Development (Control and Licensing) Act 1966.
“The essence of the amendment to this Bill is firstly, to protect homebuyers, especially from problematic housing development.
“Secondly, the purpose is also to prevent any housing developers from taking the easy way out and neglecting their responsibilities when faced with certain problems.
“Meaning to say, if the problem is caused by natural phenomenon, earthquake or war, it is not within this amendment,” he said.
“Thirdly, to be in line with the existing laws at the Federal level which have been in place for the past 10 years with the aim of benefiting buyers and also housing developers in Sabah,” he said.
