Four house buyers of an abandoned apartment development sent a memorandum to Bank Negara Malaysia today, seeking for their names to be taken off the blacklist due to their home loans.

Cameron Highlands PSM secretary Suresh Kumar, who is assisting these buyers, said that they stopped paying the home loans after they found out the apartment units they purchased would not be habitable.

"The authorities refused to give a certificate of fitness (for occupation of a building) because it has 26 defects.

"The developer refused to return the buyers' money. Some of them (the buyers) had been serving the loan from 2003 to 2008 and then they stopped paying it since they cannot live in the house," Suresh told Malaysiakini yesterday.

Construction on the apartment, located in Taman Perdana Raya, Karak, first started in 2003 and was finally completed in 2008, he said.

In their memorandum to Bank Negara, the buyers are asking the central bank to remove their names from the blacklist, as they cannot apply for any other loan because of this.

"If Bank Negara can clear the names off the blacklist, at least they can continue their lives without so much burden," Suresh said.

Following a police report that the buyers had lodged last year, Suresh said the developer had been called in by the police for questioning.

However, he said that there was no way to fix the defects other than demolishing the buildings and starting from scratch.

The developer had then offered to settle the bank loans for 20 buyers of the apartment units, but will not be returning anything else to the buyers.

Fourteen buyers took the offer, Suresh said, while the other six are continuing to fight to regain everything they have paid.

Only four out of the six took out the home loans, he added, which is why they are now sending the memorandum to Bank Negara.

However, the central bank seemed unable to help them, he said.

"They (Bank Negara) said that there is a loan (that has not been) paid, so they can't do much, but we got to know that they have certain special powers to classify a borrowing as a special case," he said.

Suresh added that the buyers could be taken off the blacklist and listed under special cases, which would make it easier for them to apply for other loans.

For now, he said, the developer remained steadfast in his offer that it will only pay off the home loans and nothing more.