Letter to editor
I REFER to the drastic steps taken by Seremban City Council (MBS) to remove all doors of low-cost flat units that are saddled with excessive arrears in the Lobak district of Negri Sembilan.
The council contended that such measure is targeted at dwellers who owed rental of RM15,000 and more.
These are drastic steps if we go by the rental fees of RM150/month which would simply mean that that arrears RM15,000 amounts to 100 months of arrears or more than eight years of debt.
As the tenancy period for most properties should be for a maximum three-year period subject to renewal, it is therefore baffling why there is a neglect in enforcing this all-door removal policy earlier.
Editor’s Note: It is understood that the action of door removal is part of an enforcement measure to encourage errant tenants to come forward to settle their arrears.
At the same time, such measure is also intended to warn other tenants not to take their responsibility in paying their rental according to their agreed upon tenancy agreement lightly.
The other problem is that there have been many cases when the original tenant has rented the house to sub-tenants with a higher rental price and profiting from this.
Henceforth, we would be punishing the sub-tenant and not the original tenant by the sheer act of removing doors of the affected units.
As such, we would propose that MBS should instead immediately cancel the rental agreement with the original tenants by making the sub-tenants as the new legitimate tenant.
By so doing, this will ensure that genuine poorer tenant would benefit from the council’s action while the errant original tenants can be legally punished later.
PSM welcomes cheap council homes. Since the Madani government has stated that it will ensure the success of hardcore poverty eradication, each state is expected to have actual data or list of real hardcore poor families.
As such, the onus is on state government and local councils to ensure these families do not become victims of their door removal door policy. – March 11, 2025
S. Arutchelvan is the Parti Sosialis Malaysia (PSM) deputy chairman.
The views expressed are solely of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Focus Malaysia.
