Wong Chun-Keat

On the court record

Engages strata-management transitions under the Strata Management Act 2013, the illegality of unlicensed estate-agency arrangements, and the proof of wills and testamentary capacity.

Wong Chun-Keat's appearances in this corpus, in the High Court and the Court of Appeal, engage strata management, the illegality of estate-agency arrangements and the law of wills. As counsel for the respondent in the High Court (Mahkamah Tinggi), he acted in a strata-management dispute concerning the transition from a joint management body to a management corporation. The questions were whether the management corporation came into existence by operation of law upon the opening of the strata register; the transitional role of the joint management body under the Strata Management Act 2013; and whether the joint management body was automatically dissolved upon the establishment of the management corporation. Those questions determine which body has authority over a stratified development at the point of transition, a recurring source of dispute in strata schemes.

In the Court of Appeal (Mahkamah Rayuan) he acted as counsel for the respondent in a matter concerning the enforceability of an alleged oral revenue-sharing agreement arising from estate-agency business. Although the High Court had found that such an agreement existed, it held the arrangement to be illegal and unenforceable because it involved profit-sharing by a person who was not registered, contrary to rule 91(1) of the Valuers, Appraisers and Estate Agents Rules 1986, rendering the contract void under section 24 of the Contracts Act 1950. The case illustrates how statutory licensing requirements can defeat an otherwise-agreed commercial arrangement.

He also acted as counsel for plaintiffs in a matter engaging the law of wills, where the issues included the credibility of attesting witnesses — an advocate and solicitor and an interpreter — and questions of testamentary capacity and sound mind, together with a pleading point about the failure to plead an admission relied on at trial, in proceedings that also involved a garnishee. Across these matters, Wong Chun-Keat's practice engages strata-management transitions, the illegality of unlicensed estate-agency arrangements, and the proof of wills and testamentary capacity.