In Depth

Vacancy tax a bad idea – HBA

A recent article in a daily portal reported that Khazanah Research Institute (KRI) had urged the government to study the proposal to impose vacancy tax on unoccupied and unsold residential and commercial units, citing it would “help prevent an oversupply of products, which contribute to a property glut, such as high-priced high-rise units”.

Increase in legal fees will, however, be set off by (legal) discounts

The last few years have seen challenging times for many people, including professionals and lawyers too. In a nutshell, in line with the rising cost of living and doing business since the last revision of the SRO 2005 (revised in year 2017 hereinafter referred to as ‘SRO 2017’), the SRO 2023 reviewed upwards the schedule of fees that lawyers can legally charge and offer discounts and rebates

Housing Tribunal may now award above RM50,000 for same property but for different issues

Recently, the Federal Court, in the case of Remeggious Krishnan vs SKS Southern Sdn Bhd (previously known as MB Builders Sdn Bhd) Civil Appeal no. 02(f)-50-09/2021(J), confirmed that homebuyers can bring separate claims involving the same property in order to stay within the RM50,000 jurisdictional limit of the Tribunal for Homebuyers’ Claims or Tribunal Tuntutan Pembeli Rumah (TTPR), and that the RM50,000 limit is for each separate claim, not the total combined claims for the same property.