Dream homes become nightmare

KOTA KINABALU - Hardly a year after moving into their spanking new apartments, their dream home is fast becoming a nightmare.

Residents of Universiti Kondo Apartment 2 here have been experiencing sinking floors, bursting pipes and collapsing ceilings and they are rallying to get their developer and management to act.

Unhappy with the alleged apathy of the developer and the management of the apartments, some of the 150 owners of the 2,464 apartments filed their case with the Housing Purchasers Claims Tribunal since Friday.

"The developer has failed to act on our complaints, so we are forced to take the action to protect ourselves," said Mohd Soffian Eting, 50, who spoke on behalf of the housebuyers.

Some of the owners are not around or have rented out their units, he added.

He said people started to move into their apartments which they bought at between RM150,000 and RM210,000 since last September and various structural problems arose after a few months.

He claimed the developer refused to hold discussions with them and officials of the tribunal who were brought in by the Consumer Affairs and Protection Society of Sabah.

According to another owner Sylvia Shantau, 35, the ceiling in her master bedroom had collapsed when she went to check her new apartment in March.

"I wrote a letter on March 27 asking the developer/management to rectify the problem and they did not respond.

"I wrote them a second letter and they came but told me the problem was not serious.

"They have not done anything to rectify it until today," she said, adding that there were large cracks on most of her apartment walls.

The tribunal's legal officer Rafidah Maqbool Rahman and its building surveyor Herddy Erzuan Md Sidik had received the complaints from the housebuyers who had gone to the tribunal.

The developer and the apartment management officials were not present and could not be reached for comment.