Punish owners who leave houses unoccupied call
KOTA KINABALU: The public complaints bureau of Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) has urged the government to enact a new law to punish owners who left their houses unoccupied for a long time.
According to the bureau, Dexter Lim, they have received several complaints that some owners have left their houses unoccupied and not taken care, causing massive growth of bush grasses, and attracted pests like rats, ants, mosquitos, flies and others.
“Most of these pests have intruded the houses of the neighbours bringing them a lot of troubles and worries.
“After receiving the complaints, we went to investigate and found out that some houses have actually been abandoned for more than 10 years.
“In other words, for the past 10 years these houses were left unoccupied and not even cleaned up, seriously affecting cleanliness in the surroundings.
“When these abandoned houses are dirty and covered with bush grasses, it will eventually become the habitats of rats and snakes. These pests will go into the neighbourhood houses, causing threats to the neighbours, especially children. This is very unfair to the neighbours,” said Lim.
Hence, the LDP bureau has contacted the related authorities, Kota Kinabalu City Hall, Penampang District Council and Putatan District Council.
According to the relevant authorities, they have no rights and authority to trespass these private properties to clean them up.
“We can only try our best to contact these house owners through various channels. But some owners cannot be reached, therefore we could not do anything as we shall not act against the laws.”
Lim urged the government to pass new laws to punish these irresponsible owners in order to be fair to the innocent neighbours.
“Some countries for example Australia have laws to restrict owners leaving their properties unoccupied for not more than a period of time, or else they will get penalised,” he said.
Lim advised those who are facing public issues or wish to make complaints on their district authorities, to provide their names, identification number, contact number and house address. These basic information is needed by LDP public complaint bureau to assist them to solve their issues in a more efficient manner. The public may contact: Tel: 088-413288, fax: 088-413288, email: info@ldp.org.my