| By Rosli Abidin
Yahya
The fledgling and falling
property values of properties in Brunei Darussalam had caused
some developers to abandon their projects.
However, such abandonment had
forced several landowners to sue their developers as a result of
them not fulfilling their contracts.
The landowners informed the
developers that they could not perform their contracts at
present because of the economic situation.
However, when the landowners
tried to break free from contracts and approached other
developers they could not do so as they were bound by the
contracts signed with the initial developers.
"We were bound by
contracts signed earlier with a developer. We cannot do anything
including constructing a new house on the land because the
contract we signed earlier prevents us from doing so," said
a landowner.
He said he had no alternative
but to sue the concerned developer who he said had breached the
contract signed earlier.
The landowner said he signed a
contract for the construction of 10 semi-detached houses in 1996
where the developer would hand them three houses and the other
seven would be sold to interested buyers by the developer.
However, the recent slump in
housing industry had caused the developer to temporarily abandon
the project.
"I am in the process of
suing the developer for non-performance of contracts. It is
stated in the contract that the project should commence six
months after the signing of the contract. The three houses were
supposed to be handed to me years ago," he said.
The landowner said he would be
suing the developer for the non-performance of contract for more
than 6 years.
"I have no alternative but
to sue the developer because I could not do anything on the
land," he said.
However, a few developers
carried on the projects as stipulated in the contracts where
they only built houses meant to be delivered to the landowners.
This is done to avoid being
sued by the landowners while they left the other lots vacant
until such time where it is viable for them to construct.
Another landowner also in
doldrums as his project had been abandoned for many years even
though it had been 80 per cent completed.
"The developer wound not
complete the project as they found interested buyers had
abandoned paying them," he said.
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