Jayainthy Subramaniam is an administration executive who lost her home after she was informed that her house was being sold off at an auction at the Alor Setar High Court by a Penang-based developer Lunas Garden Sdn Bhd.
Her story travels back to 2001, when Jayainthy started paying a developer for her house in Kulim, Kedah and in 2005 she was so glad to receive the keys to her 1,400 sq ft unit home.
This joy though did not last long as she started to encounter problems regarding her house, and 2009 a bank auctioned it off.
She lost the battle on Wednesday.
Her issues started after she was told that the developer had not paid the money to RHB Bank, which was the financing institution for the project. In order to move the property onto her name, the redemption fee must also be paid.
When she arrived at the bank, she was asked to redeem the property for around RM100,000 with overdue interest and other costs, despite the proof of payments she made to the developer which was collected.
Jayainthy said that the bank has been attempting to sell the property off at least five times since 2009, albeit without any interested buyers.
“It is unjust of the bank to auction the house when I have evidence that I have paid for the house in full. It was the developer who failed to pay the bank. It is my family’s hard-earned money. Is it my fault that I did not know the bank had issues with the developer?” said Jayainthy, showing the receipts she had received for her payments.
“The bank gave the loan to the developer, who turned out to be dishonest and did not settle the dues at the bank. So, why am I being victimised?” she asked.
Jayainthy said that she went to Lunas Garden Sdn Bhd to request them at least to pay back her money, but she was not able to meet anyone. She said a new review showed that the company was still not insolvent.
In 2015, she met with the National Housing Department to justify that the house was auctioned after the owner charged the entire price. But she said, even after two letters to the developer, there was no reply.
She sent an initial summons in 2017 at the high court in Alor Setar against Lunas Garden Sdn Bhd and RHB Bank, after her pleas to the developer and the bank were unheard. However, the developer did not represent itself.
Jayainthy said that the case was heard in chambers and claimed it was summarily dismissed “without any reason”. Instead, she was ordered by the court to pay RM1,500 in costs to RHB Bank’s lawyers on 13th September 2018.
After her RM78,850 was gone, she said she pretty much gave up on the legal dispute and she couldn’t afford more fees for prosecutors to resolve her case.
Jayainthy filed a complaint with The Consumers’ Association of Penang (CAP), who also did not see any reaction to the correspondence of the party from the bank or other parties.
CAP complaints bureau chief Ravinder Singh said the bank should be big-hearted enough to let Jayainthy have her property back.
He said that the buyer who paid in cash for the property, unlike those who have purchased properties by loans, did not know that a redemption amount has to be charged to claim the house.
“She is an innocent purchaser. The developer did not hand over the redemption sum to the bank after having taken the money in the form of progressive payments,” he said.
A representative of RHB Bank said while sympathising with Jayainthy‘s distress, they couldn’t help her since she wasn’t their client.
The bank said the contract of sales and acquisitions was with the developer, and RHB was not subject to it.
“The complainant’s civil action against the bank was dismissed by the court in September 2018 and the complainant did not appeal against the decision,” said the bank.
It has been more than 10 years since she has been trying to salvage the single-storey home she bought for RM78,850. However all her efforts seemed to be Unvalidated in a legal manner.
Now, Jayainthy is only hoping for some sort of help from somewhere to keep the house which she spent her hard earned money on.
Source: Free Malaysia Today
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