Lau: Fee for land status transfer up to developer and residents’ lawyers

The Selangor state government has no power to fix a flat rate or offer discounts for residents of the Sri Aman low-cost flats in Section 22, Petaling Jaya, who are having difficulty paying for their transfer of land status to strata title.

Kampung Tunku assemblyman Lau Weng San, in rebuking a statement made by Selangor MCA Public Services and Complaints Department deputy chairman Kelvin Chong Seng Foo, said the state government was not involved in matters pertaining to payments to obtain the strata titles by the residents.

Two weeks ago, Chong, who is Kampung Tunku co-ordinator, urged the state government to fix a flat rate and “to be fair to all low-cost unit owners” as they all have different rates to pay for the transfer of strata title.

Lau rebutted by saying that this was an issue between the residents, the Sri Aman low-cost flat developer and their respective lawyers who are handling the transfer of land status.

“It is incorrect for Chong to say that the state government is charging a high fee for the residents for the transfer of land status to strata titles.

“However, I have made a request to the state government to extend the Oct 15, 2011 deadline for the residents to settle the fees for the strata title allocation.

“In this matter, we do have the power to make the time extension under Section 40A (2) of the Strata Titles Act 1985,” explained Lau after meeting with the residents of Sri Aman low-cost flats.

He also urged the residents to settle their outstanding debts to the Sri Aman Joint Management Body (JMB) to expedite the process of obtaining their respective strata titles.

“Some of them have yet to pay up their maintenance fees which includes the sinking fund and water bill.

“This will only slow down the process of getting the strata titles. It is not possible for the state government to help the residents pay for their outstanding arrears because it will be unfair to other low cost unit owners who have settled their debts,” added Lau.

In October last year, all 342 households of Sri Aman flats received notices from the developer requesting them to pay the processing fees to exercise the transfer of land status to strata titles.

The residents were given a year to settle the processing fees which range from RM500 to RM2,000.

By The Star