When informed by the developer that your strata title has been issued, do not delay the perfection of strata title until the point of disposal.
Here’s why:
- having an issued strata title registered in your name conclusively evidences your indefeasible ownership of the property
- allows you to fully exercise the rights over your property
Issues that may arise if an owner delays in perfecting the transfer of the strata title
- Delay in the sale
If the strata title has been issued by the developer and you have yet to perfect the title, you are unable to sell your property as the strata title will show that the developer is still the registered owner of the property. If your property is a freehold title, you may be able to obtain the developer’s consent to provide a ‘direct transfer’, to transfer the title directly from the developer to the new purchaser during the sale of your property.
On the other hand, if your property is a leasehold title, the developer will not consent to a direct transfer as state authority consent will be needed for the transfer. You may then need to proceed with the sale by way of ‘double transfer’, where it will take a longer time to complete the transaction and delay your receipt of the purchase price from the sale.
What if the property owner passes away without perfecting the strata??
The beneficiary will not be able to dispose the property right after the grant of probate is issued. The property has to be first transferred from the developer to the executor, and thereafter from the executor to the beneficiary, before the beneficiary may sell it.
- Loan rejection (by purchaser)
If the owner of a strata property has yet to perfect the strata title, and wishes to dispose the property, a potential purchaser may face difficulties in getting loan approval on the basis that banks are often reluctant to grant loans where strata titles either have not been issued or are issued but not yet perfected.
- Developer wound up or liquidated
Keep in mind that should the developer go into liquidation before the perfection of the strata title transfer, the owner will have to go through the trouble of locating the liquidator or the receiver of the property, and the owner may even have to pay an additional to the liquidator, for the application of the strata title and to perfect it.
- Management Corporation
To be involved in your management corporation which is formed by the owners of the development, including the right to attend to and vote at the annual general meeting, or to volunteer as a committee member, your strata title first needs to be perfected and your individual name registered in the strata title roll maintained by the management corporation.
- Additional storage charges
There could be imposition of additional storage charge on the property owner imposed by the developer for not perfecting the transfer of the strata title within the specific period as informed by the developer. Some developers may impose storage charges that range between RM 100 to RM 150 per month, for every month of failure or delay to effect the perfection of transfer.
