Casa Gemilang: Buyers to get refund for abandoned project

By SITI NURSURAYA ALI

Thursday, January 20th, 2011 04:56:00

PICKET AGAINST DEVELOPER: Buyers of houses at the abandoned project showing their displeasure outside the company's office — Pic: Samsul Said

GOMBAK: After waiting for almost eight years, those who signed up to buy service apartments and townhouses at the now-abandoned Casa Gemilang project have finally got the developer's assurance their money will be refunded to them.

Matters came to a head on Tuesday when about 30 members of the Casa Gemilang house buyers association picketed in front of the office of the developer, Capital Land Sdn Bhd, in Taman Sri Gombak.

After about an hour, a team of policemen arrived and spoke to the group. Upon providing police with a letter of consent for the picket, issued by Gombak Police Department, the group was allowed to continue.

Project manager Azman Rosdi, 44, eventually met with four representatives of the house buyers— Casa Gemilang house buyers association action committee chairman Jaafar Ismail, 34, Zaidil Akbar, 40, Zawawi Seman, 34, and Kamaruddin Yusoff, 34.

After the hour-long meeting, Azman confirmed the developer would not continue with the project and would provide a full refund to the buyers.

"A notice of refund will be issued within seven days and we will work closely with the representatives present to obtain an update on the buyers and to ensure they receive the notices."

When it was launched in 2003, the project offered 300 service apartments and 52 townhouses priced between RM148,000 and RM223,000 each.

Asked why the project was abandoned, Azman said it was the result of a stop-work order issued by the Selayang Municipal Council (MPS) in 2006.

"MPS issued a stop-work order on the grounds that we, as the developer, must first strengthen a slope near the construction site before continuing.

"This was not part of the agreement, and undertaking such work would have cost the developer almost RM5 million.

"We could not charge the house buyers this additional cost as the sales agreements had already been signed and the developer could not afford the extra cost.

"After much deliberation and several meetings with MPS, the stopwork order issued in March 2006 was retracted in late 2009."

Azman said by this time, many of the buyers had cancelled their sales agreements, leaving the developer without enough funding to proceed with the project.

"Some 60 per cent of the buyers had pulled out by then and we couldn't get any more bank financing to continue as there was no guarantee of sales."

Concern over those who terminated sales agreements
GOMBAK: Buyers of houses at the abandoned Casa Gemilang project are hopeful the developer will live up to its promise to refund them their money.

However, they are concerned as to whether those who had terminated their sales and purchase agreements will also be refunded.

Said Casa Gemilang house buyers association action committee chairman Jaafar Ismail: "We are happy refunds will be made to those of us who have maintained our agreements. But, what about those 60 per cent of the buyers who had no choice but to pull out earlier?

"I understand it is the buyers' responsibility to pay their loan instalments. But, in this case, how were they to pay when no progress reports were sent? The buyers had no idea what was going on.

"I don't think this issue will be resolved as some of the representatives here had their sales and purchase greements terminated because they did not pay the loans, due to the developer's handling of the matter."

Jaafar was disappointed the developer had failed to update the buyers of key developments. If the problem had been made known to the buyers earlier, he believed they could have brought the matter up with the authorities "who would listen to the rakyat's voice instead of sweeping the problem under the carpet".

"If we had been told earlier, we could have done something to help resolve the matter."

Jaafar said those eligible for the refunds would claim the 40 per cent disbursed so far with interest paid, bank fees, lawyers' fees and the 10 per cent deposit.

He expressed hope the developer would issue the refund notices after seven working days, as promised.