BADAN PENGURUSAN BERSAMA TASIK HEIGHTS APARTMENT v ASM DEVELOPMENT SDN. BHD.

Case Significance

A joint management body's action to compel a developer to progress subdivision and strata-title issuance under the Strata Management Act 2013, granted with the developer's locus-standi challenge rejected.

This High Court decision concerns an originating summons brought by the joint management body (JMB) of an apartment development against the owner-developer of that development. After the JMB was formed to manage the property, it discovered that the developer had failed to pay the premiums necessary to progress the application for subdivision of the apartments, so that separate strata titles could be issued and ownership transferred to the individual purchasers. Despite repeated requests, the developer did not pay the required premiums, and the application for the strata titles stalled.

The dispute engaged the developer's statutory obligations under the Strata Management Act 2013. A developer of a subdivided building is under a duty to take the steps necessary to have the building subdivided and strata titles issued to the purchasers who have bought and paid for their units; the machinery of the Act, including the provisions engaged here, exists to ensure that purchasers ultimately receive the individual titles to which they are entitled and are not left indefinitely without them because a developer has failed to discharge its part. The JMB, as the body charged with the management of the common property and the interests of the parcel owners, has standing to seek relief compelling the developer to fulfil that obligation. The Court addressed and rejected challenges to the JMB's locus standi and to the competence of the proceedings, being satisfied that the deponent of the JMB's affidavits was duly authorised and that there was no ground to dismiss the originating summons on those preliminary points.

The Court found it fit and just to grant the JMB the relief it sought, allowing the substantive prayers of the originating summons and ordering the developer to pay the JMB costs of RM7,000. The judgment is a useful illustration of a developer's obligation to progress subdivision and the issuance of strata titles under the Strata Management Act 2013, and of the standing of a joint management body to enforce that obligation on behalf of the purchasers.