Three tenants at the Intan Baiduri public housing project (PPR) in Kuala Lumpur were handed a 14-day eviction notice due to their failure to settle their rental arrears.
“These tenants had accumulated thousands of ringgit in arrears after not paying for years,” said Kuala Lumpur City Hall (DBKL) Community Development and Urban Wellbeing Department Director Anwar Mohd Zain.
In fact, one unit, which had not been paying rent for more than 10 years, had accumulated RM17,000 in arrears, reported The Star.
Earlier in the month, a census was held at PPR Intan Baiduri to identify errant tenants with arrears above RM3,000.
“Out of 1,410 units here, 65 were identified to have failed to pay their monthly rental…The errant tenants were then categorised into the lower, middle and upper income brackets, based on checks conducted by DBKL,” said Anwar.
The categorisation was based on the tenant’s appliances and type of services like TV and Internet subscription. Out of the 65 units, 15 units were placed in the lower category, 40 in the middle and 10 in the upper category.
“The 10 tenants in the upper category were then issued a reminder to pay up their rental arrears in a week.” However, only seven paid up their arrears, revealed Anwar.
He explained that the move was part of the city’s efforts to recover the amount owed from rental of PPR and public housing (PA).
As of 31 December 2019, RM22.862 million in arrears is owed to DBKL by tenants who are still occupying the units.
“If we include previous tenants who had left, that figure would reach RM50 million,” said Anwar.
DBKL first inspected PPR Intan Baiduri as it registered the highest amount of accumulated arrears at about RM1 million, he noted, adding that PPR Bukit Jalil will be the second to be inspected.
Kuala Lumpur currently has about 24,000 PPR and PA units, with monthly rent pegged at RM124.
On why only the upper bracket faced eviction, Anwar explained that DBKL was aware of the financial hardship that tenants in the other two categories are facing.
“In the past, DBKL would cut the water supply to the errant units, but this also punished those who were genuinely unable to pay their rent…We would liaise with the relevant agencies to help these people pay their rent,” he said.
PPR and PA units are awarded to applicants with monthly household income of less than RM3,000.
“Other factors considered include family size, number of dependants and if there is any disabled family member. After three years, tenants have to resubmit their applications again to DBKL,” said Anwar.
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