Down with illegal home extensions
The Star, Thursday November 2, 2006
Down with illegal home extensions
ALTERATIONS and extensions to buildings without planning permission is widely practised, and even tolerated until an aggrieved neighbour blows their cover.
For these suffering neighbours, complaints to the local authority about illegal works that intrude into or damage the common boundary sometimes add more grief when no firm action is taken.
Two long-suffering residents along a stretch of double-storey terrace houses in Bayan Baru know only too well the heartache of living next door to a house undergoing invasive illegal alteration work.
Resident Rogayah Mohd, 41, claimed she spent some RM3,000 to rewire her house after illegal renovations next door unleashed an invasion of termites which damaged the wiring.
“While extending the porch area, the neighbour cut away the common gutter without informing us and this caused rain water to gush down the exposed end,” she said.
She said the neighbour also shifted the toilet next to one of her bedrooms that led to a seepage of water through the common wall.
Following her complaints, the neighbour later repainted Rogayah’s side of the bedroom to cover up water stains and repaired the exposed end of the gutter.
Another resident of an adjoining house said the council tore down the same neighbour’s extended porch about a year ago but extensions of rooms were left untouched.
She said the owner, who did not live in the house, had not removed the debris.
A resident in Bandar Baru Air Itam was exasperated that a neighbour had made an illegal building extension for a food catering business and it encouraged an infestation of rats.
Another resident at Fettes Park in Tanjung Tokong was at her wits’ end with a neighbour who extended his building too close to the perimeter fencing, thus robbing her family of privacy as she claimed the neighbour would peep into one of her bedrooms.
These complainants, some having even asked lawyers and politicians to look into their plight, are familiar faces appearing at the council’s Meet-the-people session every last Friday of the month.
State DAP Action Team chief Tham Weng Fatt said the council should not practise double standards by taking action only against the lower-income group while well-connected people were spared.
“All illegal extensions should be removed and the offenders taken to court,” said Tham.
State Local Government, Traffic Management, Information and Community Relations Committee chairman Datuk Dr Teng Hock Nan said once a complaint was received, checks would be done to ascertain whether the work is illegal.
“If it is, a notice to stop work is issued and by the end of one month, the owner must revert the building to its original state or apply to get approval,” he said.
If the owner failed to comply, he said the council could either tear down the extension work as provided for under the Local Government Act 1976 or to bring the offender to court under the Town and Country Planning Act 1976.
