TAN CHEE HOE v KALIAMAH A/P SUBRAMANIAM

Case Significance

Affirms a decree of specific performance of a conditional sale of a low-cost house while revising the orders for enforcement clarity, requiring re-deposit of the RM70,000 price and approval of the Selangor Housing and Property Board for the transfer.

This High Court (Shah Alam) decision is a civil appeal in a specific-performance dispute over the sale of a low-cost terrace house. Referring to the parties as they stood in the court below, the defendant was the registered proprietor of a low-cost terrace house held under a stated title. In the Sessions Court the defendant had failed, after a full trial, to resist the plaintiff's action for specific performance of an unsigned Sale and Purchase Agreement for the sale of the property to the plaintiff for RM70,000, and the Sessions Court had also dismissed the defendant's counterclaim for vacant possession, double rental for trespass from January 2020, and the cost of a demolished wall.

On appeal, the High Court substantially upheld the outcome but revised the Sessions Court's judgment for clarity of enforcement, and, because the Sale and Purchase Agreement was conditional, allowed the counterclaim in part. The court's revised orders provided that the specific performance of the agreement was to be subject to the plaintiff re-depositing the purchase consideration of RM70,000 with her solicitors within seven days (by 30 April 2025), which date was deemed the date of the agreement for the purposes of its specific performance, together with the documents referred to in a specified clause of the agreement, and to obtaining the approval of the Lembaga Perumahan Hartanah Selangor (Selangor Housing and Property Board) for the transfer within fourteen days.

The court further directed that a copy of the agreement be attached to the judgment for clarity, affirmed the remaining paragraphs of the Sessions Court's orders, and made provision for an officer of the court to be authorised to execute the necessary documents. The judgment illustrates how an appellate court can affirm a decree of specific performance while imposing conditions — re-deposit of the price and obtaining regulatory approval — that reflect the conditional nature of a low-cost housing sale.