he claimed that he did not know the original owner already passed away

i haven't proceed my fren and i have yet to sign the S&P

if i back out, i have the risk of losing the deposit..that is my problem from the beginning i open this thread

Actually from what I've heard, ownership transfer can take up to 6 months, depending on state of property (strata-title, freehold vs leasehold, etc...)

But, in your case, it seems your major concern (IMO) is the timeline of property delivery, and whether it will actually be delivered at all in the end.
As such, you can make known your concerns to your lawyer, and have him worded the S&P in such a way to protect your interest. Say for e.g. the ownership transfer should be completed within 6 months pending which, you reserve the right to charge interest. If seller has doubt he cannot complete the transfer within such period, he wouldn't dare to seal his fate with the contract.

You probably also want to check the contract you've signed when you paid he earnest deposit. Btw, the agent has no right to withheld the deposit if seller is unable to fulfill his obligations, he risk having his licence revoked. Also, I'm wondering if seller can actually try to sell a property if he isn't the owner and doesn't have legal consent from owner, thus he cannot sign the letter of intent or some other documents to sell to you. Would be a breach of contract already. I think you need your lawyer to tell you all this, not us here.

You might wanna check out hba.org.my, it's a non-profit org for housing related issues. There are some veterans and maybe lawyers there who might be able to give you better advice. Or other property related forums.

Agreed. Better for you to check with HBA or Real Estate Association/Institute. Good agent should check status of properties, including obtaining a copy of the title and S&P before selling the property for the owner - Not representative.

i can ask the lawyer to set the T&C in the S&P..but i need to throw in another 7% upon signing S&P..later if the seller cannot fulfill his obligation + nasty, then i will get into more trouble

i called MIEA and they told me the agent sure know that the seller is not the rightful owner yet..he might be a half-past-six agent

i am facing the similar problem too. but in my case, we are quite lucky as in we havent pay the deposit yet. the day before we pay the deposit, my gf went to view the unit again and have a short talk with the owner's daughter. and in the conversation, my gf found out that the lady father just passed away.

upon checking with the agent, we know that the late father own 50% of the house. the agent kept telling us the transfer of ownership and etc has been completed and kept asking us to pay for the deposit... of course we do not pay for it, we insist to look at the documents first before placing the deposit. my lawyer is handling it now and after few weeks, they still havent handover the appropriate documents to us...

as far as i know, the whole process of transferring ownership from her late father will take very long time... it could take up to 2 years or more?

for me,i only found out after i paid the deposit

tough luck for me..

it depends whether the deceased has a will or not; and how the will is being stated; i noe of someone who's dad pass away, the mum got the remainder property in just three months - because it was stated clearly in the will and they got an efficient lawyer

i got the will from the deceased..and it seems straight forward to me..but i don't see the court order yet so i cannot say it will be a fast one

This post has been edited by jasonlim: Jun 22 2010, 10:19 PM

3months is the normal time frame if there is a will stating who is the rightfull owner of the property, but in jason lim case, he is a buyer of a property that is not stated in the will.

so the husband will have to obtain the property as stated in the will and sell it to jason lim.

this process can take up to 1year min to 2 years.

as for jason lim, we are sad that you are in such a difficult situation.
how much is the 3%? u have paid

Correct me if i am wrong, How can you sign a letter of offer with a dead man? if the said vendor does not yet have ownership of the property, he has no rights to offer the house for sell in the 1st place? So shouldn't that render the offer letter void?

I'm not not a lawyer.. but seem to me if someone is trying to sell what he does not have yet..isn't that fraud?