By DayakDaily Team
KUCHING, Nov 28: The Land and Survey Department’s title renewal policy in Sarawak’s leasehold system has created significant challenges for homeowners, particularly when co-owners fail to agree on or complete the necessary renewal process, risking property reverting to the government.
This was highlighted by former Bukit Assek assemblywoman Irene Chang, who said she had been approached by numerous homeowners facing difficulties, especially when a co-owner has either refused or could not be located to sign the renewal documents.
In one such case, Chang highlighted a renewal application for a single title deed for a parcel of land with eight terrace houses, where 28 co-owners share the title, which was commonly practiced in older titles.
“In this case, there are 28 co-owners and at least 15 are staying in the eight terrace houses on the said land. However, since the co-owner of one of the houses passed away, the rest of the co-owners could not locate the deceased co-owner’s beneficiaries, who were her three children.
“And because the children could not be located to sign the renewal documents, the remaining co-owners are prevented from having their renewal application being processed by the Land and Survey Department,” she said in a statement today.
Chang pointed out that many of these co-owners have invested substantial savings, with some even obtaining bank loans for the payment, only to face the threat of losing everything due to the Land and Survey Department’s policy requiring all co-owners’ signatures.
Despite understanding the dire consequences, she said the department has failed to adopt a more practical approach that would allow renewals to be processed without the signatures of all co-owners.
“The Land and Survey should not turn a blind eye to the complexity of co-proprietorship issues, especially in those cases where a missing or uncooperative co-owner can cause the rest of the co-proprietors to lose legal ownership of their home,” she said.
She also criticised the department for insisting on a court order in such cases, a costly and time-consuming process that only adds to the financial burden of homeowners and for those unable to afford legal action, the prospect of losing their property to the government is a grave concern.
“This is grossly unfair and cannot be acceptable as this would tantamount to people buying their homes and property at a substantial sum, with some even applying for and completing payment of bank loans of hundreds of thousands of ringgit, only to have their land and property reverting to the government at the end of the 60-year lease, if they cannot renew their title because a co-owner cannot be located,” she said.
Chang called on the Ministry of Urban Development and Natural Resources and the Land and Survey Department to urgently review the policy, allowing renewal applications to proceed even in the absence of unlocated co-owners, provided that reasonable efforts to contact them have been made.
“In this way, this would alleviate a lot of anxiety and stress among co-proprietors who fear having the legal ownership of their properties being unjustly taken away from them just because they cannot locate some of their co-owners,” she said.
To better resolve this thorny issue, she also proposed amending the Sarawak Land Code to automatically renew residential land titles or convert leasehold land to freehold status, so homeowners are not treated as perpetual tenants of the government. — DayakDaily
