go under his (the owner's) name?

After speaking to tatatan, he told me that by having the owner's name on the booking fee cheque, it is a risk that the buyer can lose out the booking fee if the owner is a bankrupt.

The agent insists that it was the owner's request that the booking fee cheque goes under the owner's name instead of agent. My questions is: Can the owner make such a request?

Just to share, I found this at iproperty:

It happened that during the process of doing the purchase, he didn't want to go through agents (saying that he wanted to save the fee to agents). He trusted the vendor, in fact the vendor was his friend, so he paid him the booking and the bla bla bla close to RM7K, cash! After signing the S&P, during the process of transferring and and waiting for the bank disbursement, they finally found that the vendor was actually declared bankrupt, thus none of his property what so ever can be transacted. So my friends RM7K is gone.

but before the s&p is ready, the owner can get rid with the booking fee....i think it should be stated in the booking receipt instead?

yah...