Man loses home due to Gombak land office negligence

By admin-s On Nov 19, 2014

(TMI) – Land titles are not safe anymore and land owners will pay the price for negligence by the land office.

A man who had his land acquired without his knowledge today lost all legal recourse to get justice when the Federal Court yesterday refused to grant leave for his appeal.

Ishmael Lim Abdullah, 53, will now have to vacate the 5,000 sqm land in Templer’s Park which he had been occupying for 40 years and get a miserly compensation of just RM6,000 – the amount that the government deposited to the courts in 1974 to acquire the property for a military school.

In a unanimous decision, the five-man panel – Tan Sri Ahmad Maarop, Tan Sri Hassan Lah, Datuk Zainun Ali, Datuk Seri Abu Samah Nordin and Datuk Ramly Ali – said Ishmael’s application did not make the threshold for leave to be granted.

The court also awarded cost of RM5,000 each to respondents the Federal Land Commissioner and the Gombak Land Office which failed to register the acquisition in the first place.

The ruling sends alarm bells to all land owners as it means land titles are not safe anymore and land owners will pay the price for negligence by the land office.

In Ishmael’s case, as the acquisition was not registered by the Gombak Land Office, his father did not realise he was buying encumbered property from a Singaporean in 1975. Even when the title was passed to Lim in 1992, the acquisition was not registered.

Lim was hoping that he would be paid compensation equivalent to the current market value of RM1.5 million.

But, as the appeal was dismissed, this means the offer in 1974 still stands.

This also means Ishmael who has spent close to RM100,000 in legal bills will only get RM6,000.

The Federal Court did not address the issue of the military college now moved to Putrajaya, hence the original intention for the acquisition is not valid.

There are fears that the land where Ishmael used to run a nursery will now be converted for commercial reasons.

Ishmael’s lawyer Trevor George De Silva pleaded that his client had been paying his quit rent diligently.

Prior to the appeal, the lower courts had heard that Singaporean Lim Cheng Kim did not know that the land had been acquired when she sold the land to Ishmael’s father.

When buying the land, Ishmael’s father made checks with the land office then which indicated it was without any encumbrances. Ishmael inherited the land in 1992 and the transfers were done at the Gombak Land Office.

He even charged the property to a bank for a loan in 1993.