Sure Commerce Sdn Bhd

On the court record

A developer whose matters pair the management of complex multi-party litigation through transfer, consolidation and security for costs with the reach of the HDA's Schedule H to commercially zoned units used as homes.

Sure Commerce Sdn Bhd, a developer, appears in the corpus in multi-party civil-procedure matters and housing-development appeals, and its appearances combine case-management questions with a substantive point on statutory housing protection. In High Court matters involving many parties, the court addressed the transfer and consolidation of suits — the special reason or sufficient cause required, and concerns about judge-shopping — and an application for security for costs against foreign plaintiffs ordinarily resident out of the jurisdiction under Order 23 and Order 92 of the Rules of Court 2012, weighing judicial discretion in all the circumstances, the plaintiffs' unknown solvency, the difficulty of enforcement, and whether an order would stifle a genuine claim.

In Court of Appeal appeals the company litigated the late delivery of vacant possession of accommodation suites and claims for goods-and-services tax and late-payment interest on the sale of the units. The key issue was whether the purchasers could rely on Schedule H of the Housing Development (Control and Licensing) Act 1966 (HDA); the court held that despite the land's commercial zoning, the suites were for human habitation and fell within the HDA, so Schedule H applied and inconsistent terms in the sale documents gave way to the statutory form. That holding shows the primacy of the HDA's protective regime over contractual terms where the units are in substance homes.

For a reader, the cluster is a useful pairing of procedural and substantive themes: the management of complex multi-party litigation through transfer, consolidation and security for costs, and the reach of the HDA's Schedule H to commercially zoned units used for habitation. The company and corporate parties are named as they appear on the record; the individual purchasers are referred to by their procedural role only. The developer's matters pair the case management of complex multi-party litigation — transfer, consolidation and security for costs against foreign plaintiffs — with a substantive holding of real importance for buyers: the Housing Development (Control and Licensing) Act 1966 reaches units that are in substance homes despite commercial zoning, so that its protective Schedule H prevails over inconsistent terms in the developer's own sale documents.