|
|
1. Information which a buyer should obtain when buying a house
1. Does it have a separate title?
2. Take a photocopy of the title.
3. Get a photocopy of :-
(a) current quit rent receipt;
(b) current assessment receipt.
4. Make sure you deal with owner of house or his duly authorized agent.
(such authority should be in writing). Any other person will not be able
to make any binding commitment to you.
5.1. If the house/apartment does not have any title, then get evidence of
the seller's ownership i.e. a copy of the Sale & Purchase Agreement (SPA)
made by the seller with the developer when he purchased the
house/apartment.
5.2. If the seller is a Second/ Third hand owner, then he would have to
give you:-
(a) 1st SPA made by 1st owner with developer;
(b) 2nd SPA made between 1st owner and seller, (if 2nd hand); and
(c) 3rd SPA between 2nd owner and 3rd owner seller, (if 3rd hand).
as proof that the seller is the owner of the house/apartment.
6. Did the seller take a loan to buy the property?
For most cases, the answer is "yes". In such a case, you should get the
seller to provide you with the bank's statement of how much he still owes
the bank (redemption statement). With the redemption statement, you would
know how much money you can release to the seller and how much is to be
paid to his bank to obtain a discharge of the property from the bank.
2. Information relevant to apartment
1) Maintenance and other charges that need to be paid to
developer/management committee. You should check that seller is up to date
with his payments and there are no arrears due to developer/management
committee.
2) If the apartment has no strata title, the seller must get the consent
of the Developer to assign the unit to you. Developers may charge
"administrative charges" to give such consent. Such Charges are now
regulated by the latest amendment to the Housing Development (Control And
Licensing) Regulations 1989 by the inclusion of regulation 11A which reads
as follows:-
11 A. Consent to assignment.
(1) Subject to sub regulation (2), where in the sale of a housing
accommodation to which no separate or strata title has been issued, no
housing developer shall impose any administrative fee or any fee by
whatever name called upon any purchaser or subsequent purchaser for giving
his consent, if required, for such purchaser to resell the housing
accommodation if such fee shall exceed zero point five per centum (0.5%)
of the purchase price or five hundred ringgit, whichever is the lower.
(2) No housing developer shall collect any fee by whatever name called for
giving his consent to any purchaser or subsequent purchaser of a housing
accommodation to assign his rights and benefits to and in the contract of
sale to any financial institution providing a loan for such purchaser to
finance or part finance the purchase of the housing accommodation.
(3) Where in the sale of a housing accommodation to which no separate
title has been issued, a housing developer shall execute the instrument of
title within twenty one (21) days from the date the separate title is
subsequently issued and received by the housing developer from the
Appropriate Authority and thereafter forward the same to the purchaser who
shall execute the instrument of transfer within twenty one (21) days from
the receipt of the same from the housing developer.
(4) This regulation shall have effect notwithstanding anything to the
contrary in any agreement.
3. Housing Schemes that are developed by Statutory bodies e.g. Penang
Development Corporation (PDC), Perda, PKNS, etc
1) The SPA of such schemes may have restriction on the buyer selling the
property i.e. it could not be sold within a stipulated period or without
the consent of the government.
2) The title to the property may have restrictions. (the restrictions
could be read from the title or search of the title) e.g. property cannot
be transferred or charged without State consent.
3) The consent application may take a few months to be approved.
4. Documents you need to sign
1) Sale & Purchase Agreement;
2) CKHT form (form required to be submitted by Vendor and Purchaser to
Inland
3) Stamp Duty form;
4) Transfer form 14A. (If title is issued);
5) Deed of Assignment (if title is not issued).
5. The process involved in getting you registered as the owner of the
property (in cases where title is issued)
1) Both seller and buyer sign transfer form 14A.
2) Lawyer sends transfer form to Stamp Office for adjudication to
ascertain how much stamp duty is to be paid.
3) Stamp Office then stamps 'transfer form' for a nominal value of RM10.00
and returns transfer form to lawyer.
4) Stamp Office then informs Valuation Department of transaction.
Valuation Department then values property and informs Stamp Office of
valuation.
5) Stamp Office then issues PDS form to the lawyer. Buyer is normally
given three (3) to four (4) weeks to pay stamp duty failing which, a
penalty would be imposed.
6) Lawyer collects stamp duty from purchaser and proceeds to stamp
transfer form. It may take about a week for the Stamp Office to return the
lawyer the duly endorsed form. After stamping transfer form, lawyer
presents the transfer form to the Land Registry/Office for registration.
On presentation, you would be the registered owner of the property.
However it may take several months (depending on which Land Office) before
the physical title is returned by the Land Registry/Office. With the
computerization process recently implemented in all Land Offices/
Registries in the country, the process is expected to be shortened.
If you obtain a loan from a bank to buy the property, the title would be
sent to the bank. You should get a photocopy of the title from the lawyer
for your record.
6. How is stamp duty calculated?
For the transfer/assignment (if no individual title is issued), based on
the adjudicated value by the Stamp Office:
|
Amount charge (RM) |
Percentage |
Duty (RM) |
|
|
|
|
|
On
the First 100,000.00 |
1% |
1,000.00 |
|
|
|
|
|
On
the Following 400,000.00 |
2% |
8,000.00 |
|
|
|
|
|
More than 500,000.00 |
3% |
|
For Charge
Stamp duty on a Charge is RM5.00 per RM1,000/- or part thereof of the loan
amount e.g. Loan of RM100,000/-, stamp duty is RM 500/- on the original.
The stamp duty per copy of the document is RM10/-.
The assessed value is the value assessed by the Valuation Office based on
the purchase price or the market value of the property, whichever is
higher.
7. Appointment of Lawyers
1. You have the right to appoint a lawyer of your choice to act for you in
any transaction whether it is a purchase from a developer or an
individual. After all, legal fees etc, are borne by you. You should
ascertain that:-
(a) he is a lawyer;
(b) that he has a valid practising certificate for the current year.
Verification of the above can be done with the Bar Council.
Each party to the transaction is advised to retain separate lawyers to
protect their respective interests.
A lawyer can:
(a) advise, prepare and /or vet documents such as SPA, deed of assignment,
deed of reassignment, deed of mutual covenants, deed of reassignment and
loan document. However, the SPA for purchases of residential properties
from a developer is a standard form agreement fixed by law;
(b) conduct land, bankruptcy/insolvency and company searches to ensure
that there are no surprises, such as a different registered owner,
encumbrances (charges, caveats), conditions or restrictions on the title
(important for a buyer), or that a party is bankrupt/insolvent;
(c) if there is an individual title, to enter a private caveat to freeze
all dealings in the property until it is transferred to the buyer;
(d) send documents/instruments to the Stamp Office for adjudication and
arrange for their stamping;
(e) act as stakeholder, to hold all money paid, retain 5% of the purchase
price for the purpose of Real Property Gains Tax; and/or to hold the
balance of the purchase price;
(f) prepare and witness the execution of statutory forms;
(g) for a sub-sale where the individual title has not been issued, get the
consent of the developer to the sale of the property to the new buyer and
to undertake the registration of the property in the name of the new
buyer. The lawyer should also get an undertaking from the developer not to
further encumber the property, and for a development project with a master
title, a letter of disclaimer from the chargee of the master title
confirming no right or interest in the individual property;
(h) if the buyer takes a loan, get a letter of undertaking from the
lender. The undertaking will include an undertaking that it will not
foreclose the property if the loan, interest, etc has been repaid/paid;
and
(i) present the transfer (Form 14A) and if applicable, the charge (Form
16A) for registration at the land office.
Can a lawyer act for the seller, buyer and the buyer's lender?
A lawyer may only act for one party in one transaction, but may witness
the execution of any documents/instruments by any party. A sale and
purchase is one transaction and a loan is another separate transaction.
Therefore a lawyer can act for a seller or buyer, and also a lender or
borrower. However, the solicitor concerned should have regard to any
possible conflict of interest situation.
Lawyers are bound by the Solicitors' Remuneration Order 1991 (SRO) and
there are scale fees for all conveyancing transactions and secured banking
transactions done by a lawyer.
Lawyers are not allowed to give any discount. If any lawyer gives a
discount on the scale fees, he could face disciplinary action.
There are fixed scales for lawyers' fees if you, as a seller or buyer,
engage a lawyer. (stated herein is for fees only and does not include
disbursements).
|
