Sabah’s Housing Developers Rejoice – The COVID Enactment

We published an article end of last year – https://csylegal.com/covid-19-act-the-sabah-perspective-housing-development/ setting out the details of the COVID Act, focusing on sections involving housing development. We noted in our previous article that Part 11 of the COVID Act are not applicable to the housing developers in Sabah, owing to the fact that Sabah has its own housing development enactment and rules.

It is therefore a rejoice and massive relief for the housing developers in Sabah when the Temporary Measures for Reducing the Impact of Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) Enactment 2020 (No. 5 of 2020) was finally gazetted and came into effect on 14th January 2021 (“Sabah COVID Enactment”).

Part III of the Sabah COVID Enactment sets out the temporary relieves and measures for housing development in Sabah, which are similar to those in the COVID Act (applicable in Peninsular Malaysia) and summarised as follow:

Applicable to housing developments whereby Schedules G & H were entered into before 18th March 2020;
The Developer shall not impose any late payment charges on purchasers who fail to pay instalment for the period from 18th March 2020 to 31st December 2020. This period may be extended up to 31st March 2021 by the Minister of Local Government and Housing (“the Minister”) upon application by the purchasers;
The period of 18th March to 31st December 2020 is excluded from the calculation of: (a) defects liability period, and (b) time for the developer to carry out repair works to rectify the defects.
The period of 18th March to 31st December 2020 is excluded from the calculation of : (a) the time for delivery of vacant possession, and (b) the liquidated damages for failure to deliver vacant possession. The Minister may upon his satisfaction that additional time is required, to extend this period up to 31st March 2021 upon application by the Developer.

If you think this Sabah COVID Enactment may have an impact on your business, please contact your usual contacts in CSY. We are happy to assist you.