Couple to keep house after auction nightmare

PETALING JAYA: An amicable solution was reached by a bank and a couple who have had to live with the nightmare of having their house auctioned off for the past three years.

The 42-year-old wife, who wants to be known only as Nor said for the past three years, they have been living in uncertainty.

Due to defaults on their bank loan repayment, the house in Subang 2 near Shah Alam had been put up for auction and to compound matters, her husband, who had lost his job, was also declared bankrupt.

The Muslim Consumers Association of Malaysia (PPIM) has come to their aid since then and has now successfully intervened with the bank to ease the couple’s burden.

Affin Bank Sdn Bhd, which provided the loan, has agreed to annul their bankruptcy status and let them keep the house for now, till a payment structure can be sorted out.

“Now I am happy, but I am still waiting for black and white from the bank,” said Nor.

The couple’s saga went viral on social media when a good samaritan who had won the bid for the house at an auction decided to forgo his deposit of RM44,500 when he realised that Nor’s family was still living there.

Lee Hui Sen also wrote a letter to the family advising them on how they could make payments to keep the house.

Nor also revealed that the bank had made five attempts to auction off their house since 2014 but all had failed. Lee had won the fourth auction. PPIM president Datuk Nadzim Johan said that the fifth auction since Lee’s kind act had been cancelled by the bank following negotiations with PPIM.

“The bank has agreed to provide a loan so that the house payments can be made and we are now waiting for Affin to annul their bankruptcy status,” he said.

Nor and her husband live at the house with their two children and they run their own business.