My story

If you read my write-ups about this project and developer, it is not difficult to know that I am one of the very few purchasers who are optimistic about Bukit Ikhlas. Did Bukit Ikhlas give me any benefit for being optimistic? No, they don't.

I purchased the 3+1 unit back in December 2006, a month after I registered marriage with my wife, Abbie, and the wedding took place in March 2007. We were told that the house would be ready by end of 2007, we were happy to sign the S&P as we planned to move out of my parents' house after several months staying with them. By then, we could start our small family by adding a new member and more to come. We went for furniture shopping in mid of 2007, we paid 30% deposit to Haus, Lorenzo, Red Apple and several furniture shops for our new house furniture, we thought the house would be ready on time.

As time went by, December 2007 seemed to arrive earlier than we expected because we did not see much progress in the site. The actual showhouse had yet to be ready if I am not mistaken. Haus, Lorenzo and Red Apple called me several times to confirm the delivery of my furniture. I told them off saying that the house would be ready in no less than 6 months time. They said they would call me again after 6 months, I could do nothing but to agree with them.

What about my family planning? Undoubtedly we have to continue to 'suffer', to stay at my parents' place. Abbie doesn't have her own kitchen and study room, I still do not have an entertainment room, we do not have our own baby room too.

December 2008 has gone, December 2009 is a few months ahead. Looking at the timeframe, it has been about 3 years since I signed the S&P. The furniture shops had called me many times and I kept telling them that my house had not ready, I kept postponing the delivery. Lorenzo told me that the dining table that I ordered may get out of stock, but what can I do? Then they offered to allow me to choose from the available models by the time I am ready to collect it. Haus jokingly said that they would charge me 20% more for storage as my sofa was occupying their warehouse.

After two years of waiting for the house, I got really pissed off and frustrated, and I felt helpless too. I realized that frustration would not help any. I decided to change my plan at the end of 2008. My initial plan was to start family planning after I move in to Bayan Villa, but it seems possible to postpone my family planning any further, age won't stop and wait for the house to complete. Therefore I chose to start my family planning without having to get the house, we opt to move in together with our new-born baby by early of next year. By the way, my wife is pregnant now and she is expected to give birth of our baby by December 09, it could be a Christmas boy.

Many have asked me how I can be so optimistic about Bukit Ikhlas. Perhaps you would say I am born optimist, but I think my understanding about the project convinced me that this project would not be abandoned and we would definitely get our house, hopefully by end of 2009. I am not in the position to tell you when exactly we can get it, but after several meetings with the developer and correspodent parties, we could see that the handover date is not far from now though there are several issues to be sorted out.

What I have to say as a pissed-off purchaser

I exhanged comments with a purchaser called "Frustrated man" in Property Malaysia blog. This purchaser got really frustrated like many of you because of the delay.

I had just replied him on his latest comment. While replying him, I had a feeling to share my thoughts with you since there is not much update here due to pending approvals.

Frustrated Man said...
"Sam, looks like you are the only one who talk good about this project and developer. Probably you are not as frustrated as we were. Do you know what additional cost, additional time, finally additional frustration means? Do you know how frustrated to see some other projects completed earlier that this one even when they started later. I have waited for 4 years, 4-long-year! Maybe you are right at one point when you say this project is not abandoned, but is that a license for them to be late so much? If you read the starbiz last week, a project is late if the promised delivery date is 10% late and considered “sick” if it is late for 10 to 30%. So, how do you classify this one?"

I said...
"Frustrated Man, I am not the only one and not the last one who will not talk bad about this project and developer. I bought the property later than you, but I have been waiting for almost 3 years and still waiting for my dream house to be ready. I am not like what you say not frustrated, but if frustration could help to speed up the handover or soothe me, I will surely get as frustrated as you. All I want is to get the house as soon as possible. Looking at the brighter side, actually we have met and talked to the developer, we have met the relevant parties, we know everybody is working all they could on handing over the house to us as soon as possible. We do not want any further delay, so does the developer.

What do you think the developer will get at the end of the day if they are taking so long to get the project completed? What do they gain? They gain nothing but they have to compensate more. What I can see is that the developer is working very hard to get this project done asap, I don’t see any reason why we should talk bad about them when the blame is not on them. By the way, I am not from the developer, I am a purchaser. Because of the delay, all my family plans got affected and I have all the reasons to get frustrated with but I don’t see it is helping any."

Bayan Villa Committee

Some purchasers are suggesting a temporary committee to be formed, so that we have an official group of people to liaise with the developer and the relevant parties, also to discuss / negotiate on issues such as the maintenance fees and so on.

I think this idea is good, but we must get more purchasers' concern and involvement, to enlarge the group. Otherwise, it will be useless. What say you?

Update: New Access Road (July 14, 2009)

Mr David of Bukit Ikhlas and Mr Ismail of MPSJ had bot responded to us on the submission of the access road report. Basically IKRAM has no objection to the report, but still pending comments from the main member of the OSC panel and JKR.

According to Mr Ismail, there is a meeting with the techincal department to be held on July 20, 2009 at 2:30pm.

I spoke to David recently. He said the construction of the pre-approved access road to Sun Garden is under way though Sun Garden had not agreed to pull down the brick wall. Bukit Ikhlas had met with YB Ean Yong on this issue, and YB had agreed to help us to get this issue sorted out, according to David.

Related News:
1. New Access Road Report Submission
2. Update: New Access Road

Bayan Villa Maintenance Fee and Bukit Ikhlas Clubhouse

The clubhouse is not part of the SPA, so the maintenance of the clubhouse shall not be included into the Bayan Villa common maintenance. The clubhouse is built next to Bayan Villa, but it is separated from the Bayan Villa townhouse.

The developer is going to build the clubhouse as planned, and the owners of Bayan Villa are given privilege to join the clubhouse as members without any charge. The members are required to pay approximately RM50 monthly for the clubhouse maintenance, which is separated from the Bayan Villa common area maintenance.

Some argued the common area maintenance fee is too high as it does not cover the clubhouse maintenance. The common area maintenance fee will be at RM0.15 per sq ft as stated, without covering the clubhouse maintenance.

As what David commented, once Joint Management Body (JMB) is establish, a committee is appointed to run Bayan Villa. The committee, represented by elected buyers + developer will have to decide on fees to be collected in order to maintain the common areas. He added, once the strata title is issued, a Management Corporation (MC) is set up, and the developer will be out of the picture. The MC committee will decide on issues concerning Bayan Villa.

Basically, how much we have to pay monthly for maintenance is decided by us. Of course, the more we pay, the better we can have our neighbourhood maintained. The well-maintained and the poorly-maintained are actually depending on how much money we pay monthly for the maintenance of the neighbourhood, especially something like Bayan Villa, which was endowed with beautiful landscapes, water features, CCTV, security, etc.

As for the clubhouse, Kenneth of Bukit Ikhlas mentioned that he would love to include the clubhouse into Bayan Villa project and maintained by the maintenance fees collected, but he couldn't do it as it was separated by the previous developer. Kenneth bought over this project from the previous developer to save Bayan Villa, to avoid Bayan Villa to become another abandon project in Selangor.

He stressed that he was looking at possibility of selling membership to neighbouring projects like Jia. This move was to collect sufficient fund for the clubhouse in order to ensure the facilities in it were all well-maintained.

Kenneth added that after the MC had been formed, and a vote was taken by the owners to take the clubhouse in, he would gladly sell the clubhouse to Bukit Ikhlas home owners for a token sum.

Update: MEX (Maju Expressway)

There was a meeting called by MPSJ, and the developers within 5km radius were invited for feedback. According to David's understanding that if MPSJ can raise sufficient fund, then Selangor state government would want to build it before the federal government.

Are they trying to get credit before the next election? If yes, it is not something bad to us. We will definitely support those who can help us up, right? We can begin to realise the potential of appreciation of Bayan Villa when the MEX interchange is open, perhaps from the current RM300k to RM600k in 3 years time, who know? Let's keep our fingers crossed.

Related News:
1. Meeting - To discuss on opening of an interchange to Maju Expressway

Update: New Access Road

According to Mr Ismail of MPSJ, the proposals had been submitted to JKR and TNB for their comments. He would be meeting the developer, JKR and TNB somewhere in July. Mr Ismail also said that he had mentioned about this in the recent OSC meeting. He also informed JKR officer about the report submission. Mr Pooi of MPSJ also followed up this matter closely.

According to David of Bukit Ikhlas, they had a meeting with IKRAM recently, but he did not mention the outcome of it. He added that there were no objection pending comments from JKR, they would be initiating contact with JKR soon.

Related News:
1. New Access Road Report Submission

Photo update by Purchaser Au

I have to thank Au for allowing me to share these photos on this blog. Picture description by Au too.


Our future road within SunGarden connecting from Bukit Ikhlas to Jln BS 6-8


Overlooking SunGarden perimeter wall from Jln BS 6-8


The perimeter wall disconnecting SunGarden internal road from Jln BS 6-8


New access road location to be between the banners and the cars parked next to TNB pylon


Undeveloped hillslopes next to Bukit Ikhlas (behind SunGarden)


Houses in SunGarden


Our new access road location


SunGarden perimeter wall blocking the connection of our access road from behind JiaResidence


TNB cables laid - only 1 road yet to be completed, JLn BS 2-5 fronting Court 15, 17 & 19

Meeting - To discuss on opening of an interchange to Maju Expressway

David called me to inform me that MPSJ will be having a meeting tomorrow with the developers near by, to discuss on the opening of an interchange to Maju Expressway (MEX) (formerly known as Kuala Lumpur - Putrajaya Expressway). David of Bukit Ikhlas will be attending the meeting, representing Bukit Ikhlas Development Sdn Bhd.

Hopefully they could bring us good news, where the interchange will be built in the near future for our convenience.

Update by David of Bukit Ikhlas - June 23, 2009

1. Pengarah Ismail has submitted the relevant report to the statutory authorities, TNB, JKR, IKRAM etc...
2. CCTV to start this week.
3. Suction Tank at Jabatan Pertanian, across Tmn Uni Indah in progress.
4. Access Road - behind Sri Pinang, piliing work completed, roadwork to commence. Foundation work started near retention pond.
5. TNB started coring work from Commercial ctr through (underneath road ) to old guard house area
6. Optional Packages - meeting with Architect this Thursday.
7. Units - both internal & external - ongoing touch up rectification.

Wei Yong's Q & A summary

On behalf of purchaser Wei Yong:

Q. How confirmed are they to deliver the project by this year?
A. This time they are very positive that the project can be delivered latest by end of the year. If the approved access road blocked at the Sun Garden can be reopened, it might be earlier then that.

Q. Why is the landscaping still at progress even though the project should be expected to be completed soon.
A. The landscaping is actually quite fast to complete because the hardscape is there already. The developer do not wish to put up all the trees so soon because they will need extra resource to look after the trees before the completion.

Q. How is the compensation be paid?
A. It will be in cash and the terms is as per SPA.

Q. Who will manage the property when it is completed?
A. The developer might be the management for the first year and the residence of BV will have to form some sort of owners committee and bring in the management to manage the property after that.

Q. How the Club House works?
A. The clubhouse will consist of the common facilities such as swimming pool, badminton court, etc. Currently it is not decided if the clubhouse shuld be opened to the public or only to the BV because if only open to BV residence, if the participation is low, the cost to maintain the facility will be a problem.

In addition, Wei Yong also said that the dinner meeting on June 16 was very helpful especially to help convince us that they were trying their best to complete the project.

Access to Bayan Villa

1. The access that we are using now.

2. The proposed access road. I am not sure the exact location, but it is somewhere there.

3. The missing approved access road.

New Access Road Report Submission

Pengarah of Jabatan Perancangan Bandar, Mr Ismail replied Mr Au's email on June 17. In the email, Mr Ismail said the developer had already submitted 5 copies of report and his side was in the process of forwarding the report to JKR, Jabatan Kejuruteraan MPSJ, and TNB. He added that they would conduct a meeting after that.

June 16 Meeting

Dear all,

Below is a list of purchasers who will be attending the meeting:

(1) Sam@Sootho & partner (2)
(3) Wei Yong & partner (4)
(5) Cheah & partner (6)
(7) Lei & brother (8)
(9) Au & partner (10)
(11) Terence & Reene (12)
(13) Jeremy Liau
(14) Calvin leong
(15) Latiff

*Max 15 persons.

By the way, the announcement made here is not good enough to reach you because you do not check it regularily. That's the reason why I am requesting your contact details so that I can text or call you personally to give you the first hand news and announcement, if there is any.

Regards,

Sam
http://bayan-villa.blogspot.com

Conclusion of the meeting on June 14

We did not have a secretary to record the meeting but I can conclude what we have discussed.

Basically the meeting is for us to sit down with the correspondent authorities, to discuss on the issues ahead and the solutions too. The developer have done their very best to make the issues transparent to us, and the local council and Pengarah Jabatan Perancangan Bandar MPSJ have assured us that they are working closely with the developer to make sure all the works are carried out without any problem, to reduce any possible delay during CF application.

The Pengarah, Mr Ismail even asked us to call him or email him directly, to ask him about any submission of plan by the developer and the status of the submission. I would say this comes as something very positive to the purchasers because the local authorities and council are really helping us and the developer.

In my opinion, Bukit Ikhlas developer is a also victim of the delay. They took over the project as the previous owner had difficulty to complete it. In such scenario, the possible outcome would have been the whole project to be abandoned and handed over to the federal government, where the completion is forever, and it will be a real nightmare to the purchasers. Fortunately, the current developer took over the project and are overcoming the obstacles in order to complete the project.

Additionally, the developer reps stated that the only obstacle left now is the access road where a study has been carried out by the professionals, and the proposal of the possible access roads will be submitted to the Pengarah in a couple days. They said multiple meetings with MPSJ had been taken place to get this issue resolved. This has been confirmed and agreed by the Pengarah.

Updated Attendant list - Bukit Ikhlas related issues meeting (June 14, 2009 - 12:30pm)

This is the list of those who have confirmed to attend the meeting on Sunday:

- Mr David (Bukit Ikhlas)
- Mr David's colleague (Bukit Ikhlas)
- Mr Ismail (Pengarah Jabatan Perancangan Bandar, MPSJ)
- Mr Pooi (MPSJ Councillor)
- Sam@Sootho (Purchaser)
- Lei (Purchaser)
- Au (Purchaser)
- Au's sister-in-law (Purchaser)
- Wei Yong (Purchaser)
- Cha Foo (Purchaser)
- Cheah (Purchaser)

Seriously we need more purchasers to attend the meeting, to show our concern, to let all parties to know that how badly we are in needing our dream house.

Besides,I have thought of a couple questions to throw in the meeting, something like:

'What else do Bukit Ikhlas need to do and add so that the purchasers can get the CF and move in by end of year 2009?'

Hopefully we can get some tips from the correspondent authorities, and we can offer the 'tips' to Bukit Ikhlas on June 16 meeting.

Bukit Ikhlas location - Satelite map

Bukit Ikhlas view from Taman Universiti Indah

I have taken a few shots from the new development site of Taman Universiti Indah.

From Kenneth to the purchasers

Refer to Wei Yong's concerns raised in the previous post, Kenneth from Bukit Ikhlas, has immediately answered us with something informative and constructive and are concerning all other purchasers too. I am not going to copy and paste Kenneth's post entirely because I have not got Kenneth's consent to do so. I will report accordingly.

In Kenneth's answer, he stated that currently MPSJ wants them to explore the possibility of adding new access road after JKR took away one of the 2 approved access roads. JKR said that the access road near the current road that is being used to access the site is too close to the traffic lights, so JKR did not allow Bukit Ikhlas to build that road, according to Kenneth. Kenneth said that MPSJ wanted them to explore options to replace that road as they feared that the Sun Garden road could not support the traffic when the whole project is completed.

Kenneth said that they were more than happy to build a second access road and even a third one, and MPSJ just have to approve it.

He said, the Sun Garden road would take 8 weeks to complete, and Bukit Ikhlas wanted to start work on it a lot earlier, but certain parties were trying to get MPSJ to deny that road to them, but this was after they understood that it was the only access that they had left. Kenneth did not mention which parties were involved. Kenneth added that the purchasers can clarify with Mr Ismail of MPSJ and Mr Ismail had approved the road.

Kenneth continued, only Bukit Ikhlas will be involved in building the road and they had awarded contract and work had started on Sun Garden access eventhough technically the road had not been approved yet. Kenneth wanted the purchasers to ask Mr Ismail and the local councillor if that road was already approved in DO (Development Order). Kenneth said that they had been to multiple meetings with MPSJ over this issue. Kenneth stressed that Mr Ismail, the Pengarah Perancangan Bandar of MPSJ had approved the road.

According to Kenneth, the only requirement for them was to explore the possibility of a second access which they had done and were in the midst of submitting it to MPSJ. He said the pumphouse / suction tank was being built now and the construction would be completed as soon as possible.

One of Wei Yong's concerns is on the TNB cables were not installed. Kenneth answered that the cables were laid by TNB contractors, and TNB had delayed in their own organisation though they had been asked by Bukit Ikhlas to lay the cables a long time ago. Kenneth said that Bukit Ikhlas's main contractor could not wait for TNB to lay the cables before laying the tarmac as it would delay their handover of the project to Bukit Ikhlas and consequently they would incur a large penalty. Therefore the tarmac was down and TNB was tearing up after that to lay the cables. Bukit Ikhlas would incur additional cost as they would have to resurface the whole roads, else the road would never be even if they were going to resurface the dug up areas but not the whole roads.

Kenneth said that they were negotiating with the authorities and they were come to a conclusion. He said he has asked Mr David and a Bukit Ikhlas employee to attend the meeting on his (Bukit Ikhlas) behalf just in case any clarification was needed. Kenneath apologized for the delay, they were trying to complete the project in time and within the law.

Additionally, Kenneth said that he was more than happy to have meetings once a month or even fortnightly with a couple purchasers, appointed as liaisons between Bukit Ikhlas and the purchasers, to discuss the progress of the project so that all others purchases could be updated after that.

Finally, Kenneth had asked us to attend the meeting on Sunday and also the one on Tuesday, and they were happy to be held accountable for what they had done and were trying to do so.

Wei Yong's concerns

Wei Yong has come up with a few concerns which I think all other purchasers would have wanted to know the answer:

1. Why is there a sudden requirements to add new road, why this wasn't mentioned
when the project started?

2. What is the expected timeline for BI to complete the new roads?

3. Who will be involved in the building of the road? Is it going to be BI alone or another group of contractors that will be deployed. If new contractor, does that means it will goes through another round of project tendering again?

4. Is there anything else that BI still need to do other then the additional roads? We don't want to get new surprises again in the next 3 months when there is suddenly new requirements needs to be meet.

Wei Yong also stated that he had gone to the show room recently and noticed that all the TNB cables were still sitting near the hill there. He was wondering why those had not been installed to all the units if the expected delivery was actually June 2009.

Thankfully, Kenneth from Bukit Ikhlas has answered Wei Yong's questions but we need to clarify it in the meeting on Sunday. I will post up Kenneth's reply to Wei Yong after this entry.