Recently I placed 2% booking fee for a property. The seller is foreigner and trying to leave Malaysia for good. Both of us engaged our own lawyer on the spa draft. Going through 1 month+ discuss between both lawyers, both party can't agree on the spa clauses. The seller lawyer refused to agree on paying LHDN 7% when there is profit gain on the property sale.
Seller lawyer sent an email to forfeit the sale.
Currently the agency refuse to give me back my 2% booking fee. Giving different excuses when I chase him. Any way that I can claim back my 2% booking fee? Thank you

Below is the term that the seller lawyer didn't want to agree in the SPA. The seller doesn't allow us to retain 7% from the downpayment. The seller lawyer did sent an email saying they wanted to forfeit the purchase.
"
21B(1) RPGT Act clearly imposes statutory duty on the Purchaser to retain 7% from the Deposit and pay that amount to the Director General of Inland Revenue. The Purchaser is required by law to retain the retention sum, ot is not a matter whether your client agrees or disagrees unless section 13 of the RPGT Act is applicable here.
"
There were several discusses between seller & buyer lawyer for 3-4 weeks. The agent told us that owner refused to pay us back our booking fee because we were delayed on the SPA signing. The agent said that the agency released the booking fee to the seller already, so the agency can't pay us back our booking fee, which we found it unfair. The agency wasn't replying our enquiry also. Only the agent said he will help us chase back our booking fee.
We didn't instructed the agency to release our booking fee to the owner, the agency did it on their own will.

The seller didn't want to agree our lawyer draft on the SPA, that's why we unable to finalize the SPA & get it sign. We even prepared the downpayment.
Currently our hard earned money are stuck, no idea how to get it back.

Hi,

I am a foreigner (not Malaysian resident). The property I plan to purchase is a mixed development, strata title. My confusion is that the developer is putting the SPA selling price as 980k, the bank accessed the market price to be 740k (for loan purpose), and the agreed purchase price is 730k. The agent said 980k will be mentioned on the booking form and the SPA form. My questions are:

1. Why would the developer put such a high SPA selling price when the purchase price and market price are much lower than that? The developer does not plan to change the SPA selling price.

2. Because there is huge difference between the SPA price and market price, does that raise a red flag in terms of the property? Is there something wrong with the property, is no one buying the property? The property was constructed in 2015 and has been vacant since (for 7 years). The agent said the unit was initially allocated for bumi but is now released to non-bumi and foreigners which is why it was vacant so long.

3. The booking form I have been asked to sign indicates 980k as purchase price. And a separate calculation form showing the discounts and rebates showing 740k purchase price. Since my SPA form will not show the actual purchase price, is the calculation form considered a legal form for future purposes, if needed?

Being a foreigner I am not able to find much resources online, so any advice or help will be very much appreciated!

Thanks.

My friend signed her SPA and loan 4 months ago, and he was told that he would receive his key within 3 months.

Every time she calls the lawyer, the lawyer will tell him that they are in the process of stamping loan documents.

It is normal to take such long time to stamp loan documents?

#1. This property is in Melaka and the purchase price of 730k fulfills the minimum foreigner requirement of 500k. I was told that since it is purchased directly from developer they will put their own SPA price and terms where buyer cannot make any ammendments. Is that correct?

#2. I found this about bumi properties "...A purchaser should also keep in mind that a “released” Bumi Lot does not make it a non-Bumi Lot. Meaning that once the non-Bumi owner of the Bumi Lot chooses to sell to a non-Bumi, he will have to reapply for the Land Office’s consent for transfer of ownership...."
But I was told by the developer lawyer that the above only applies to landed properties. The property I am buying is a strata/non-landed property and I will be issued a strata title or Issue Document of Title. According to the lawyer, in Melaka, a strata title will not indicate bumi or non-bumi. Is that true? Does that mean I can sell to non-bumi in the future without any state consent?

Thank you souch for your advice.

Thank you so much for your valuable suggestions.

Follow-up questions.

What I understood from the developer lawyer is that the developer had to fulfill bumi quota ( may be 30%), and therefore, not necessarily mark specific units as bumi. So, the unit I plan to purchase was under the bumi quota but not marked as bumi. This is different from bumi lot where the developer has to mark specific units as bumi, thus, making it difficult to release in the future.

Did I understand it correctly? Or it does not make any sense.

Thank.

hi

I sold an apartment under secondary market and its coming to 14months , and its still not completed the whole transaction mainly
due to the buyer's lawyer being super slow and may i say incompetency as most of the work done by clerk - not sure supervised or not..
Also have to perfect title first ya..so some delay is expected..

Anyway long story short

the buyer's lawyer (am not represented) refused to give a detailed computation with supporting docs to confirm the late payment interest
payable as all she said was, there is none payable even though the 90 day completion date ends in May 2022, and expected me to just take her word for it!

(ya ya..got such lawyer one)..

So i got my own lawyer to deal with the buyer's lawyer in order to calculate the final apportionment expenses but she still refused to
give detailed breakdown and supporting docs so my lawyer can see where was the delay and whose fault it was so that we can come to an
agreement to the final amount due from Buyer..

So my question is

1) what are my options now to compel the buyer's lawyer to forward the necessary docs to my lawyer?

2) she is now saying this delay in completion is all my fault because i keep delay handing over the keys..and will charge me interest for that..

3) if file a complaint to BC, how long will it take?

thanks in advance..

Hi, I have a situation involving my house that I hope you guys can offer me some advice on.

First, the short version. There is a house that's under the name of my brother and myself. He wants to sell but I don't. A compromise can't be met. So I'm worried that he'll go to a judge to order a partition.

Now a middle-long version. I'll try to keep as much of the he-say/I-say aspect out of this. Obviously, this is from my point of view/recollection. But at the least, I want to explain WHY I don't want to sell.

It's not that I'm unwilling to sell. I don't WANT to sell but I'm WILLING to sell. Bear in mind, I've lived in this house since around 2012(?) and pay the quit rent/assessment. I am 42 years old and a bachelor with no children. My brother has his own place and children.

My grandmother passed her single story bungalow in Ipoh, down to my brother and myself. My father had power of attorney and we've basically treated the house as his. In 2020, he came down with cancer and passed away pretty suddenly. Turns out, power of attorney didn't give him the power to transfer the house wholly to me and by then, he was too sick to order my brother to transfer to me, before he passed away. In his will, my father passed everything to me as he already gave my brother some other properties years ago. But of course, he couldn't pass ownership of the house wholly to me.

After my father passed away, my brother verbally agreed that however much we sell the house for, I would get 200K so I can shift to a low cost house and we would split the remainder 50/50. I even gave him an advance of 50K.

I would like to sell for at least 1.2 million. I realize that's tough in today's economy but I'm willing to hold. Worst case, I would gladly will my share to my brother or his children.

However, suddenly, he wants 300K NOW. So he wants to sell the house for 700K and says that I only requested 100K to cover a new house for myself. Even in Ipoh, a low cost house is around 200-250K nowadays. After fees and assorted costs, I would probably be left with just around 100K if we sell at that price.

I tried to say that we would profit more if we hold on for a few years. I said okay, if he can find a buyer for the price I want, I'll do it, but he doesn't even want to try. I even offered to buy him out, but I'm just a B40 with less than 2500 salary, so I said I would give him my savings + slowly pay him over time, but he wants 300K NOW.

He wants me to refinance the house but I cannot afford to basically take on a 300K+ debt to the bank. I'm already living from salary to salary right now. Even if the bank agrees to refinance, it means I'll have to suffer until retirement, at which point, I'll basically be bankrupted/ruined because of this.

I've been stressed about this for months. I've actually lost sleep because of this. I have never in all my life, gambled before but I've been buying the lottery since last month.

So what I'm most worried now is whether he could get a court order to sell? What are the grounds for a partition? Is there any way I can protect myself? This is a buyer's market. If the court orders us to sell, I'm going to get screwed. If I sell at the price he wants, I'll get screwed.

Thanks for at least letting me vent.

Sorry, I didn't see your earlier posts on partitions. I'm glad to hear that.

I actually have one possible non-legal recourse. Which is to approach my relatives and ask that they buy him out. It would mean I'll definitely have to sell the house eventually in order to repay them.

The good/bad news is that they're already quite senior, and may not want to help by dipping into their retirement funds for what is realistically, an "investment" that they are unlikely to personally benefit from, as who knows how long it'll take me to sell and how many years they have left?

Anyway, that's just me venting. Thank you for your knowledge drop.

is it safe to pay earnest fee through online bank directly into the agency account