After more than 10 years of fighting for her house, Jayainthy Subramaniam finally lost the battle when the single-storey home that she bought for RM78,850 was auctioned off on 9 December, 2020.
“I have been told the property was sold off at an auction at the High Court in Alor Setar. We could not get any other details,” said Jayainthy as quoted by Free Malaysia Today.
The administration executive believes she was cheated out of house and home.
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From 2001, Jayainthy faithfully paid a developer the progressive payments for her 1,400-sq-ft house. As such, she was so happy when she finally received the keys to her home in 2005.
However, the joy was shortlived when she was told the developer – Lunas Garden Sdn Bhd – had not remitted the money to RHB Bank, the financing institution for the project.
Moreover, the house could not be transferred to her name pending payment of the redemption sum.
This comes even as Jayainthy has shown the bank receipts of all the payments she made to the developer.
For her to reclaim the property, the bank told her that she has to pay around RM100,000 in redemption sum, interest and other charges.
The bank has made at least five attempts to auction off the property since 2009, with no interested buyers.
“It is unjust of the bank to auction the house when I have evidence that I have paid for the house in full. It was the developer who failed to pay the bank. It is my family’s hard-earned money. Is it my fault that I did not know the bank had issues with the developer?” said Jayainthi.
“The bank gave the loan to the developer, who turned out to be dishonest and did not settle the dues at the bank. So, why am I being victimised?”
Her efforts to ask the developer to at least return back her money proved futile since she could not reach anyone from the company. She revealed that a recent check showed that the developer had not yet been declared insolvent.
She brought her case to National Housing Department in 2015. But while the developer had been sent two letters asking for explanation why the house was being auctioned when it was fully paid for, no response was received from the developer.
In 2017, Jayainthy filed an originating summons against RHB Bank and the developer at the High Court in Alor Setar.
Instead of getting a favourable ruling, she said the case was summarily dismissed “without any reason”. She was also ordered to pay the lawyers of RHB Bank RM1,500 as costs.
Unable to pursue her case further due to lack of money, Jayainthy finally gave up the legal fight.
The complaint she has lodged with the Consumers’ Association of Penang (CAP) also got no response from the bank or other parties.
Ravinder Singh, Complaints Bureau Chief at CAP, said the bank should let Jayainthy have her house back.
Unlike those who acquired properties via loans, Jayainthy is unaware that a redemption sum had to be paid for her to claim the house, he said.
“She is an innocent purchaser. The developer did not hand over the redemption sum to the bank after having taken the money in the form of progressive payments,” he said.
While the bank sympathised with her plight, an RHB spokesperson said they could not help her since she was not their customer.
The sale and purchase agreement was entered into by Jayainthy with the developer, and the bank was not privy to such contract.
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