Chiang Chambers

On the court record

The firm's record spans property and strata management, showing how the Strata Titles Act 1985 governs developer accountability and how section 329(1) of the National Land Code measures damages for wrongful caveats.

Chiang Chambers appears in the corpus as counsel across strata-management, property-development, criminal and land-caveat litigation, argued in the High Court (Mahkamah Tinggi) and the Court of Appeal (Mahkamah Rayuan).

In strata work the firm acted for applicants in a dispute over the management of a subdivided building, where a management corporation had been established under the Strata Titles Act 1985 and the questions included whether the developer had failed to convene a general meeting to establish the management committee, whether it could deposit maintenance charges and sinking-fund contributions into its own account, whether it must account for sums received and spent, and whether it could impose a condition barring residents from voting until arrears were paid.

The firm also appeared in a property-development dispute concerning a joint-development agreement, argued substantially in Malay: the judgment records that the parties memasuki Perjanjian Pembangunan Bersama (entered into a Joint Development Agreement) to develop the plaintiff's land, later varied by several addenda (empat adendum) amending the agreement's terms, with the arrangement subject to conditions precedent.

On the criminal side the firm acted for appellants before the Court of Appeal in an appeal against conviction for trafficking under section 39B(1)(a) of the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952, where the issues were whether exclusive possession had been established, the physical and mental elements of possession, the credibility of the police witnesses, the absence of corroborating fingerprint or DNA evidence, and the operation of a double presumption.

A further matter, acting for the defendant, concerned the assessment of damages for the wrongful entry of private caveats under section 329(1) of the National Land Code, including the recoverability of alleged third-party losses, the foreseeability of loss and whether only nominal damages were appropriate where no actual loss was proved. The firm's record is a broad property-and-litigation practice, moving between the statutory regimes that govern strata living and land dealings and the occasional serious criminal appeal, and it reflects a chambers equally at home with the granular procedure of the Rules of Court 2012 and the substantive law of the National Land Code and the Strata Titles Act 1985.