KUALA LUMPUR: The Dewan Rakyat Wednesday approved a bill which
provides for vacant possession and the strata title to be issued
simultaneously instead of separately as has been done until now.
The
Strata Title (Amendment) Bill 2012 is expected to overcome the problems
of applying for and registering strata titles for old buildings
occupied before 1996, said Natural Resources and Environment Minister Datuk Seri Douglas Uggah Embas.
The Bill is an improvement over the Strata Title Act 1985 which underwent amendments four times, in 1990, 1996, 2001 and 2007.
Uggah
said that over the 27 years of implementation of the act, the land
administration in the country registered more than 970,000 strata titles
pertaining to more than 15,000 multi-storey building schemes.
The
ministry would impose tougher penalties as a deterrent on developers
who failed or were reluctant to apply for strata titles, he said when
winding up the debate on the Bill.
He said Section 8 of the Act
provided for the state authorities to act against developers who failed
to apply for the titles, including for old buildings.
A developer could be fined up to RM100,000 or sentenced to a jail term of up to three years, or both, upon conviction, he added.
Earlier,
the Dewan Rakyat also approved the Traditional and Complementary
Medicine Bill 2012 which, among others, requires practitioners to
register with the Traditional and Complementary Medicine Council, which
will be similar to the Malaysian Medical Council. - Bernama