One of my sons is a lawyer, and I had the benefit of reading the article 'The Other Side of the Tribunal' in the February 2006 issue of Praxis, which calls itself the chronicle of the Malaysian Bar.

I was surprised with the following revelations by the writer:

  • the Homebuyers Claims Tribunal is only located in Kuala Lumpur. This causes hardship for poor homebuyers from outside the Klang Valley;

  • although the tribunal is less technical than a proper law court, there are still many bureaucratic procedures to follow. This is unfair to less educated claimants; and

  • once the buyer gets an award from the tribunal, and if the developer doesn't pay up, the buyer must go to the monitoring division of the housing ministry at Pusat Bandar Damansara in Kuala Lumpur.

    • Apparently there is no proper procedure in place there too. Also, the writer of the article abovementioned stated that at the time of writing, there were about 80 developers who were in default of tribunal awards.

    Can the minister of housing please do something urgently, if he has not done so?