A sore purchase

When I was young, I dreamt of having a bungalow house, with a sizable garden surrounding it where I can played with my kids, whilst my wife watched us from a gazebo, sipping a cup of tea. That mental picture was solidly etched in my mind and for a moment, I thought I got that house when I stumble upon a development project. At that time, my wife was expecting our first child. I remember going to the developer's office to enquire about the project and I was overwhelmed with the number of prospective buyers swarming all over the officers. The fact that the project is a single storey bungalow project, with land area of approx. 4000 sqf and priced of circa RM140k, was too much to ask for. At first I was a bit wary but after getting assurance from the officers and the fact that the project was co-sponsored by the state government, we finally put a booking, thinking what we had was a steal . Hey, when you got a corner lot with an additional 2000 sqf of land, you have every right to grin all the way home. Unfortunately, the excitement stopped there.


I got the ominous feeling that things were not right from the point we sign the contract. Due to misrepresentation by the developer's officer, we have to sign several versions of the contract. We were first 'forced' to take the housing loan from one of the banks and the officer was pretty imposing (which I got this nagging suspicion that they may have internal contacts with the financier). In the end, they relented after we 'strongly' insisted of co-signing the purchase with my wife and threatened to cancel my purchase if they did not let us choose the financier of our choice. We actually have to go a little bit of drama just to pull it off. The final version of the contract was finally signed after my wife deliver our first son. I remember dragging my wife who were still under confinement then to go to the developer's office to finalise the documents.


Unbeknownst to us, the project faced a lot of obstacles throughout the entire construction period. The developer run into serious financial trouble and had to abandoned the project halfway . There was a series of discussion between the buyers, contractors and state government to revive the project, but after a brief revival, the project was left abandoned again. Most of the purchasers were faced with heavy financial burden. The best thing was, the loan drawdown have been up to 60% completion. Just look at these two pictures, did it look like the project has been 60% completed?






After a series of failed discussions, the purchasers have unanimously voted to take legal action against the developer and the state government, citing breach of contract and fraudulent practices. As we speak, the case is still pending.

Looking back, this remains one of the biggest sore in my life. I remember those days when I use to sit with my wife planning how we wanted to renovate the house, how we would want to decorate it bla, bla, bla... Sometimes, I would look again and again at the developer's brochure, daydreaming of how wonderful it will be to bring up your kids in such a beautiful environment. Now with all the things that have happened, I feel as if someone have stabbed me in the back, ripped my heart out and chopped it to pieces right in front my eyes, whilst I was laying down helplessly going through a slow and painful death.

At least I was not that bad, some purchasers runs into bankruptcy whilst some died of heartache. I truly pity these true and honest people who work hard in their entire life just to get houses of their dream, only to be cheated in the end. It got me thinking, why does this happen in the first place? I believe, somewhere, someone is benefiting from our misery. Nobody seems willing to own up to the problem. Didn't the people involved in the project have a least a little feeling of accountability to the buyers? Are they human in the first place? Are the leaders we choose truly worth the position they hold? Maybe, the recent general election is god's punishment to whomever were responsible for this. Since I don't want be charged with contempt of court, let the truth be told in court!