HBA stays the course through 10 successive housing ministers

• The HBA protem committee came into existence on Oct 16, 1999, comprising the group of buyers who had discovered to their disappointment that getting their woes heard was a frustrating process.
• The organisation operates purely on volunteer workers’ benevolence who unselfishly give their time to strive for the interest and benefits of house buyers, based on our principle: “Our free service for nice people only”.

KUALA LUMPUR (June 24): “Minister got ticked off” – stated the front page headline of a mainstream paper. It was the year 1999, and that marked the humble beginning of the National House Buyers Association (HBA).

At that time, housing abandonments were aplenty and aggrieved buyers had problem getting their voices heard by the governing authority, i.e. ministry of housing, which was then headed by Datuk Dr Ting Chew Peh (now Tan Sri). The aggrieved buyers cornered the minister at a launching function initiated by the Federation of Malaysian Consumers Associations (FOMCA) at Olympic Hotel, Kuala Lumpur. And the very people who confronted the minister then were the ones who initiated HBA.

The HBA protem committee came into existence on Oct 16, 1999, comprising the group of buyers who had discovered to their disappointment that getting their woes heard was a frustrating process. The then housing industry was in shambles and businesses were conducted a la pro-developer style, and there was no single entity explicitly representing house buyers’ interest, though non-governmental organisations (NGO) namely FOMCA and Consumers’ Association of Penang (CAP) did assist some aggrieved house buyers amongst other public interest issues their respective organisations pursued.

HBA was duly registered on July 26, 2000 by the Registrar of Societies and then formally launched as the House Buyers Association (Kuala Lumpur & Selangor) on April 20, 2001 by Datuk Seri Ong Ka Ting (now Tan Sri) the then Minister of Housing and Local Government, where the form of acknowledgment was declared by the Minister and his related speech. The organisation subsequently evolved into a national body with the name: National House Buyers Association.

Striving for fair treatment

HBA continues to be a voluntary non-governmental, not-for-profit and non-political organisation. Our working committee consists of volunteers from various professions. Our work revolves around sheer humanitarian principles and ethics and we strive wholly for a balanced, fair and equitable treatment for house buyers in their dealings with housing developers.

Before the establishment of HBA, house buyers who had been disappointed by their developers could only lodge their complaints to the very people who had caused their problems! The number of crooks surpassed the number of responsible housing developers then.

With a slogan "Striving for house buyers' rights and interests", the HBA was determined to get the laws and legislations changed so that those buying new homes would get the same degree of consumer protection and redress accorded by the government to all other new products of substantially less cost.

From the complaints we have received and from media reports, the damage sustained by house buyers who have trusted their developers to deliver their products efficiently are too numerous. HBA aspires to see a level playing field between developers and house buyers and that the rights of house buyers are not short-changed.

In addition, HBA continues to give constructive criticism on the fundamental requirements to ensure that new homes are built and delivered timely and properly and that those buying them can have realistic confidence that they are buying well with a commensurate level of after-sales service.

Rebel with a cause

“For all the new laws and government tribunals set up to rein in our sometimes overzealous property industry, the only effective enforcement agency around, capable of righting wrongs and locking horns with errant bulls, is a group of professional volunteers called the National House Buyers Association.”

“The HBA, which only insists troubled house buyers be ‘nice and humble’ and also be ‘willing to help themselves’, before offering assistance, was originally seen as rebel-rousers – thorns at the sides of developers; whiners whose complaints would not be constructive.”

“That was then. A mere three years after its inception, the HBA is now seen as a property police squad of sorts – vigilantes comprising working professionals driven by a passion to do what is right. That the group has stuck around for so long when it could have disbanded, allowing its members to free up time to pursue their own lives instead of helping others, shows its level of dedication.”

The above excerpts were from New Straits Times (NST) Property Andrew Wong, on March 17, 2003 titled “Rebels with a cause”.

Other reports that contributed to the picture of HBA’s endeavours over the years were:

- “HBA can play a positive role” by Sheila Singam on NST dated Feb 26, 2000

- “Consumer rules” by Andrew Wong on NST-Prop dated Jan 19, 2002 

- “Solution to home ownership woes” on Malay Mail dated May 1, 2001

The pleasant and not so pleasant

Now, looking back, HBA has in fact worked through the tenures of 10 Ministers of Housing and Local Government. Through the past 23 years, there were pleasant ones to work with and not so pleasant ones to work against.

Portrait		Name (Birth–Death) Constituency	Political Party	Title	Took Office	Left Office	Prime Minister (Cabinet)
		Suleiman Abdul Rahman (1912–1963)	Alliance (UMNO)	Minister of Local Government, Housing and Town Planning	1955	1957	Chief Minister of the Federation of Malaya Tunku Abdul Rahman
		Khaw Kai Boh (1918–1972) MP for Ulu Selangor	Alliance (MCA)	Minister of Local Government and Housing	2 May 1964	3 June 1969	Tunku Abdul Rahman (III)
		Ong Kee Hui (1914–2000) MP for Bandar Kuching	Alliance (SUPP)	Minister of Technology, Research and Local Government Minister of Local Government and Housing Minister of Local Government and Environment	9 February 1971	4 March 1976	Abdul Razak Hussein (I • II) Hussein Onn (I)
		Michael Chen Wing Sum (b. 1932) MP for Ulu Selangor	Alliance (MCA)	Minister of Housing and Local Government	9 April 1974	1 November 1975	Abdul Razak Hussein (I • II)
		Hassan Adli Arshad (1929-1987) MP for Bagan Datoh	BN (UMNO)	Minister of Local Government and Federal Territories	5 March 1976	27 July 1978	Hussein Onn (I)
		Neo Yee Pan (1938-2020) MP for Muar	BN (MCA)	Minister of Housing and Local Government	15 September 1979	15 August 1985	Hussein Onn (II) Mahathir Mohamad (I • II)
		Chan Siang Sun (1933-1989) MP for Bentong			7 January 1986	10 August 1986	Mahathir Mohamad (II)
		Abdul Ghafar Baba (1925–2006) (Deputy Prime Minister) MP for Jasin Acting	BN (UMNO)		11 August 1986	27 October 1986	Mahathir Mohamad (III)
		Ng Cheng Kiat (b. unknown) MP for Klang	BN (MCA)		27 October 1986	13 June 1989
		Lee Kim Sai (1937-2019) MP for Hulu Langat			14 August 1989	26 October 1990
		Ting Chew Peh (b. 1943) MP for Gopeng			27 October 1990	14 December 1999	Mahathir Mohamad (IV • V)
		Ong Ka Ting (b. 1956) MP for Pontian (1999-2004) MP for Tanjong Piai (2004-2008)			15 December 1999	17 March 2008	Mahathir Mohamad (VI) Abdullah Ahmad Badawi (I • II)
		Ong Ka Chuan (b. 1954) MP for Tanjong Malim			18 March 2008	9 April 2009	Abdullah Ahmad Badawi (III)
		Kong Cho Ha (b. 1950) MP for Lumut			10 April 2009	4 June 2010	Najib Razak (I)
		Chor Chee Heung (b. 1955) MP for Alor Setar			7 June 2010	5 May 2013
		Abdul Rahman Dahlan (b. 1965) MP for Kota Belud	BN (UMNO)	Minister of Urban Wellbeing, Housing and Local Government	16 May 2013	27 June 2016	Najib Razak (II)
		Noh Omar (b. 1958) MP for Tanjong Karang			27 June 2016	9 May 2018
		Zuraida Kamaruddin (b. 1958) MP for Ampang	PH (PKR)	Minister of Housing and Local Government	21 May 2018	24 February 2020	Mahathir Mohamad (VII)
			PN (BERSATU)		10 March 2020	16 August 2021	Muhyiddin Yassin (I)
		Reezal Merican Naina Merican (b.1972) MP for Kepala Batas	BN (UMNO)		30 August 2021	24 November 2022	Ismail Sabri Yaakob (I)
		Nga Kor Ming (b.1972) MP for Teluk Intan	PH (DAP)	Minister of Local Government Development	3 December 2022	Incumbent	Anwar Ibrahim (I)

Source: Wikipedia/Minister of Local Government (Malaysia)

The best ministers

We have to single out Ong as one of the best that we have worked alongside with. Even before the official inception of HBA as an organisation, our volunteer lawyers had been roped in to participate in the amendments to the housing laws, regulations and the statutory sale and purchase agreements. That was in year 2000 and the positive outcome was that our voice, representing the buyers, were heard, and due recognition was recorded in the Parliament Hansard when he tabled the amendments to the legislation for the second reading.

Ong too was instrumental to the tabling of the Building & Common Property (Maintenance & Management) Act 2007 (Act 663) that gave “power back to the hands of the owners” in the year 2007. The previous Act instilled on the developers the mindset and recognised the rights, benefits and entitlement of the strata owners upon delivery of vacant possession. The developer’s duty was to sell property whilst that of the owners was in forming community. The said Act 663 has worked “with some teething problems” for eight years. There were a lot of uncertainties and ambiguities. Having outlived its usefulness, it was then repealed.

When Tan Sri Chor Chee Heung helmed the housing ministry portfolio, he boldly took things a notch higher in the succeeding years to table the current wholesome legislation named the Strata Management Bill in Parliament on Dec 19, 2012.

Kudos to the past ministers and his team at the housing ministry, who have worked through uncountable weekends with the numerous stakeholders (including HBA’s volunteers) – tweaking and fine-tuning both the management and maintenance aspects in the Strata Titles Act, 1985 (Act 318) and the related Housing Development legislation – to birth the Strata Management Act, 2013 (Act 757) (SMA). Equally important was his counterpart minister at the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment, Datuk Seri Douglas Uggah Embas, who also simultaneously tabled the Strata Titles Act 1985 (amendment 2012) at the sitting in Parliament to make the SMA a reality.

A whopping 536 EOTs approved

The floodgate of Extension of Time (EOT) began from the year 2014. Prior to 2014, granting of an EOT was almost unheard of.

There were a total of 536 EOT approvals from 2014 to mid-2019 granted by the Controller of Housing under HD Reg 11(3) and HD Reg 12 by the housing minister, according to the Parliament Hansard that was made available. Below is the table of the EOTs approved and invoked:                              

                                 TABLE OF EOTs

HBA took Datuk Seri Abdul Rahman Dahlan to task for giving a housing developer more time (extended 12 months) to complete a project during his previous tenure as housing minister in the landmark case of Ang Ming Lee & Ors vs Menteri Kesejahteraan Bandar, Perumahan dan Kerajaan Tempatan & others (2020) CLJ 162, whereupon the Federal Court on Nov 26, 2019 ruled that the EOT was invalid. The HBA legal team working on a pro bono basis represented the 103 aggrieved buyers from the High Court to the Court of Appeal and finality at the Federal Court.

The figure is mind-boggling. How could they have issued the EOTs to developers to save them from having to pay late delivery compensation to the detriment of house buyers? Has our country now reached a state of economic crisis that the minister must dish out EOTs to developers who are already in distress and threaten to abandon their projects? If left unchecked, the power may be abused and susceptible to corrupt practices. The buyers will ultimately be at the mercy of housing developers, especially those who walk the corridors of power.

The gross injustice should be checked under the new housing minister’s watch. Any decision which deprives the house buyers of their rights and entitlement should be exercised transparently, strictly and with open communication. At the very least the views of the buyers, directly affected, must be considered prior to the minister making a decision – the Right to be Heard is of utmost importance. Do they not know that buyers too face hardship and commitments, having to pay rent or instalments on their current residences while servicing their housing loans for the delayed developments? They too bear the burden of additional cost and expenses for the delay as well as having their future plans derailed. One cannot continue to unilaterally hear the views of the housing developers and shun the buyers.       

Remaining steadfast

HBA continues to stand for the truth and be the source of accurate information and advice for our fellow rakyat who are still led to believe in inaccurate information and sometimes misinformation.

HBA remains as a voluntary, non-profit, non-political organisation manned by volunteer-members of various professions. The organisation operates purely on volunteer workers’ benevolence who unselfishly give their time to strive for the interest and benefits of house buyers, based on our principle: “Our free service for nice people only”.

Datuk Chang Kim Loong is the honorary secretary-general of the National House Buyers Association (HBA). 
HBA can be contacted at: 
Email: [email protected]
Website: www.hba.org.my 
Tel: +6012 334 5676