Nuarrual Hilal Md. Dahlan, Ph.D
Institute for Governance and Innovation Studies
Universiti Utara Malaysia
&
Ahmad Masum, Ph.D
Institute for Governance and Innovation Studies
Universiti Utara Malaysia
Email: asmad@uum.edu.my
Abstract
The licensed housing industry in Peninsular Malaysia is governed by the Housing Development (Control and Licensing) Act 1966 (Act 118) and its regulations. The licensed housing developers are required to use the statutory contract of sale and purchase as prescribed in the Housing Development (Control & Licensing) Regulations 1989 viz in Schedules G, H, I and J (‘the said agreements’). The said agreements provide the duties, responsibilities and liabilities of the vendor developer and the purchasers. It also provides the remedies to the contractual parties. According to some case law, the remedies for grievances of the parties are exhaustive in that the remedies are restricted to the ones that are spelt out in the said agreements. Thus, the aggrieved purchasers cannot claim for other types of damages such as exemplary, aggravated and non-pecuniary damages for their inconveniences, troubles, anxiety, mental pressure, distress, humiliation, personal, family and employment problems that have led to their lives being chaotic and miserable and that have been detrimental to their personal, professional, family (including divorce and its consequences) and societal health and overall happiness due to the losses caused by the default of the vendor developer. Nonetheless, there are case law that held otherwise, in that the aggrieved purchasers can invoke general and wider damages affordable by the contractual principles (such as rescission) and equity, other than what are provided in the said agreements. This paper will highlight and discuss the divergent principles of law decided by case law in Malaysia in regard to the damages and remedies for the aggrieved purchasers in abandoned housing projects. The methodology used in this paper is a composite of the legal and social research methodologies. The end part of this paper will be the conclusion and recommendations of the author in the face of the issues highlighted.
Keywords: Housing sale and purchase; statutory housing contracts; Peninsular Malaysia; purchasers’ grievances; Legal and equitable damages and remedies
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