Lawyers told about consent fee rule

Thursday, 16 August 2007 07:57am
©The Sun Letters to the Editor Section (Used by permission)by Roger Tan

I REFER to Dr Goh Ban Lee’s column “Refund illegal consent fees” in theSun of Aug 14 wherein he wrote: “Unfortunately, many who sold properties after April 12 have been asked to pay consent fees. It is possible that the errant developers did not know of the new ruling and many lawyers involved in property transactions were also in the dark.”

This may not be correct as it is not possible that many lawyers were in the dark about section 22D of the Housing Development (Control & Licensing) Act 1966 which came into force on April 12 this year.

The Bar Council had informed all legal practitioners of the section before and after April 12. Since then, my committee had also conducted many talks for lawyers about this section and the implications arising out of non-compliance with it.

Lawyers have also been reminded that section 22D(5) provides that any person (and that includes a lawyer) who requires any consent from a housing developer to an assignment shall be guilty of an offence and shall, on conviction, be liable to a fine which shall not be less than RM50,000 but which shall not exceed RM100,000 or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding three years or to both.

Roger TanChairmanConveyancing Practice CommitteeMalaysian Bar Council