Illegal tenants in PPRs: Klang Valley local authorities still waiting for instructions

KUALA LUMPUR (June 8): It has already been announced by the Housing and Local Government ministry (KPKT) — owners of People's Housing Projects or PPR units renting them out to foreigners have been given 90 days from June 5 to evict them.

Failure to do so will result in a fine, or worse, ownerships could be revoked.

But local authorities of Kuala Lumpur and Selangor apparently have still not got any directives from the ministry on the new policy, according to a report by StarMetro.

“We welcome and fully support the ministry’s decision but we have not received further directive on the issue,” said DBKL Socioeconomic Development executive director Datuk Ibrahim Yusoff.

He also added that DBKL will be ready, with a task force being formed to enforce the ministry’s orders when they come.

“The directive is timely so that local authorities can evict foreigners who have been occupying PPR units.”

Ibrahim also revealed that DBKL has actually conducted enforcement operations before and units with foreign tenants were confiscated from the owners.

However, they had to contend with interference from locals community leaders

“They try to obstruct our officers. But if the directive comes from the ministry, we feel that we have more authority while carrying out our duties and the raids can be done more effectively,” he added.

Meanwhile, Petaling Jaya City Council (MBPJ) Corporate Communications deputy director Abdul Hakim Khairuddin told StarMetro that they also carried out operations to remove foreign tenants in PPR homes.

He said during inspections, there was a unit occupied by migrant workers.

“We sent a notice to the unit owner and we got the tenants to move out and the unit owner or original tenant will be blacklisted.”

Housing and Local Government (KPKT) Minister Zuraida Kamaruddin explained earlier this week that PPR projects were built for Malaysians, hence ownership and tenants should be limited to Malaysians.

“Some PPR unit owners have rented out their units to foreign workers. This can cause social problems in the community,” she said.

The move was also one of the ministry’s efforts to improve the community environment of PPRs nationwide and to raise homeownership among the B40 and M40 groups.