SIBU: Allowing purchasers of completed housing units to apply for utility connections before the issuance of Occupation Permit (OP) is a development that Assistant Housing Minister Datuk Abdul Karim Rahman Hamzah is happy with.
Previously, he said, utilities could only be applied after the OP was issued.
“I am glad to hear that the Ministry of Local Government and Community Development agree in principle to allow purchasers of new completed houses to apply for connection of utilities to these houses before the issuance of Occupation Permits or OP.
“I believe this can help reduce the time for the release of new houses to the purchases,” Abdul Karim, who is Asajaya assemblyman, told The Borneo Post yesterday.
Sarawak Housing and Real Estate Developers Association (Sheda) had also lauded this decision by the ministry.
Sheda president Joseph Wong Kee Liong reportedly said in a statement recently that the leeway given by the ministry was valid, provided that the affected developers furnish a letter of undertaking to the relevant local councils.
