Jelutong apartments under bank auction leave owners in a bind

Seventy-eight apartment owners here now facing the possibility of being made homeless after a bank obtained a court order to auction off their property in Jelutong. The auction is scheduled to take place tomorrow.

Ooi Swee San, who represented the Taman Jelutong Jaya owners, claimed today that they were unaware of the auction order until word got around two weeks ago.

He said the owners were taken aback as they had all paid their dues to the developer.

"We are now in a dilemma as the auction will take place on Wednesday,” he said. "How can this happen? Many of us have been staying here since 2000 and now we face the risk of losing our units when the auction gets going.”

He was relating the owners’ plight to Datuk Keramat state assemblyman Jagdeep Singh Deo and MP for Jelutong Ooi Chuan Aun.
Another resident, See Kim Hee, said he was told that the developer allegedly encountered some problems resulting in the bank's action to auction off the two low-medium cost apartment.

Public Bank Berhad had obtained a court order on Sept 22, 2005 to proceed with the auction following Taman Penawar Sdn Bhd's failure to service its loans.

Jagdeep said many of the residents had paid between RM50,000 and RM80,000 for the units. 

Ooi said their counsel Malkit Singh Randhawa had filed an application at the High Court to intervene against the auction order.

"We are also asking for a stay of action pending our application to set aside the entire order of sale," he said. The developer could not be reached for comment.

--NST