SHAH ALAM, Mar 12 – The Selangor state government today announced it will appoint a third parties such as law firms to receive payments from housing project buyers.
 
Chairman for Permanent Committee on Housing, Building Management and Squatters, Iskandar A Samad said there were cases where the developer asked for extra payment from buyers in order to complete their work.

“Using the excuse that building costs have gone up, some buyers have agreed if the amount asked for is reasonable,” he  said.

However, he said, buyers were afraid that their houses still would not be completed despite the extra payment.

“These third parties will channel the funds to the developer when needed for building,” he said  in reply to Dato’ Ir. Muhammad Bushro Mat Johor (BN-Paya Jaras) on the steps being taken by the state government in relation to the problem of abandoned housing projects, at the state legislative assembly (Dun) meeting this morning.

He added, the state government would also appoint  experts in material measurement to ensure the extra payments requested by these developers are reasonable.
 
In a related development, he also announced another step in overcoming the problem of housing status in Selangor was to add information relating to the status of these projects in the Selangor Housing and Property Board (LPHS) website.

“At the end of March, this website will include the status of abandoned projects in the state,” he said.

He said this was to enable buyers to know the status of their housing projects while developers could also get information on projects that could be  redeveloped.

He added, they were also studying whether the names and identitiy card numbers of the developing companies’ boards of directors should also be included in the website. – MURIZA ABDUL HAMID