I recently purchased a house in Glenmarie Cove, which is a residential area developed by DRB Hicom and Comtrac Sdn Bhd. Approximately two years after the keys were handed over, 75 percent of my ground floor tiles heaved.

The damage covered areas of my living room and dining room. It is hard to believe that this could happen in a high end project by a prestigious developer.

I was told that the developer has no responsibility to me for this latent defect, for two reasons.

Firstly, the defect liability period of 1.5 years had lapsed. Next, I am the second buyer.

In countries like Australia and United Kingdom, home buyers are offered a longer warranty period. For instance in the United Kingdom the home warranty period offered by the National House Building Council against major structural defects is for 10 years.

The 1.5 years of warranty period by my developer does not adequately protect home buyers from defects as some defects occur after the warranty period, for example due to land settlement.

Are Malaysian housing developers not confident of their buildings? In my case, I had purchased this house from the first buyer very early after the keys were handed over.

From the time I purchased the house till the time of the damage, no renovation had been done to the damaged area.

I also cannot not help but reflect on the poor quality of houses nowadays and compare them to the quality of houses of old. For example, I grew up in a house in Petaling Jaya and we lived in that house for over 20 years.

The floor of that house has survived not only 20 years of everyday batter but also two cycles of renovation to other parts of the house.

We home buyers lack protection where developers are not constructing quality houses with good workmanship attitudes and quality materials.

Due to this home buyers are left having to fork out more money to rebuild already completed homes.

As for being the second buyer, there are laws to protect housing developers from being responsible to second buyers for defects. However, does this imply that the house was not constructed by the same developers?

Why are there no laws to protect subsequent home buyers in this respect? Should housing developers be allowed to constantly deny responsibility for sloppy work?

If vehicle manufacturers' warranties cover the subsequent owners, I don't see why the housing developers should not. Houses don't even suffer as much abuse as vehicles from everyday use.

It is therefore my humble yet reasonable opinion that Malaysian home buyers are not adequately protected.

If we as home buyers do not stand up, we indirectly encourage housing developers to continue to build substandard houses on the assumption that home buyers will renovate and rectify the defects anyway .

Ultimately it is the home buyers who are the victims.