1. ) MOHD HAFIS BIN MOHD NASIR 2. ) NURUL IZZATY BINTI ROSLAN v 1. ) ZAHARUDIN BIN OTHMAN 2. ) AZHANI BINTI AZMAN

Case Significance

Illustrates how a purchaser's default under an early-vacant-possession and tenancy arrangement can support summary judgment terminating the sale and purchase agreement and recovering vacant possession and rental arrears, where no triable issue is disclosed.

This High Court decision at Shah Alam concerns an application by vendors for summary judgment on their counterclaim arising from the sale of a house. The vendors, the defendants in the action, had entered a sale and purchase agreement in August 2023 to sell a two-and-a-half-storey terrace house at Ampang to the plaintiffs, the purchasers. Before completion, early vacant possession was delivered to the purchasers under an arrangement coupled with a tenancy, but the sale did not proceed to completion and disputes arose. By their counterclaim the vendors sought, under Order 14 rule 5 of the Rules of Court 2012, a declaration that the sale and purchase agreement was void and terminated, removal of the purchasers' caveat, delivery of vacant possession, and arrears of rental, including double rental for holding over. The court examined the early-vacant-possession and tenancy arrangement and the purchasers' conduct under it. It found that the purchasers had breached that arrangement by failing to pay the monthly rental and by failing to obtain the local authority's approval for renovations they carried out, which amounted to a default; and it found that they had thereby also breached the sale and purchase agreement and an accompanying undertaking letter. On that footing the court held that the termination letter the vendors had issued was correct and in order. Satisfied that there was no triable issue, the court allowed the vendors' summary judgment application on the counterclaim, with costs fixed at RM2,000. The court's approach shows that a purchaser who is let into possession early, on terms requiring payment and regulatory compliance, cannot both retain the benefit of that possession and disregard the obligations attached to it; a clear and admitted default under those terms leaves no triable issue and entitles the vendor to enforce the termination summarily. The judgment is a useful illustration of how a purchaser's default under an early-vacant-possession and tenancy arrangement can support summary judgment terminating the sale and recovering possession and rental arrears.