Koon Seng Court

The En bloc landscape is dotted with twists and turns.
As it is a new law, each higher Court is making findings which lower tribunals do not even consider.

The Koon Seng Court case is startling in this respect (see our judgement section).
The Strata Title Board did not realise that the proceedings involved a mixed development of landed and apartments. (This was uncovered by the High Court judge)

The High Court did not realise that the lone objector actually only owned one half of a unit and therefore did not have any grounds to oppose the lower two tribunals AT ALL! (This was uncovered by the Court of Appeal).

(What a waste of time!!) The case took three years and thousands in legal fees. Meanwhile, the market turned and the price achieved for Koon Seng court does not buy a decent replacement for its sellers.

Our latest objector was from Koon Seng House, brave Mr Goh Teh Lee. Mr Goh, who defended himself, made an application to the STB to stop the sale due to procedural irregularities. He took his matter all the way up to the Court of Appeal only to have his matter thrown out on a point of law which neither of the two lower tribunals realised: as a joint tenant with his divorced wife, as one half of property owner, Mr Goh had no right to object to the sale.

Some of the points which Mr Goh tried to raise in the Court of Appeal (but which did not need to be heard because of his failed co-owner issue) were:

a) other owners were told they were signing an attendance form which was
later used as consent form for establishing the requisite 80% consent to lowering the price
b) two owners (of the majority) claimed they would never have agreed to a lower price
at all and only found out about the matter during Mr Goh's proceedings
c) if the owners had been told there was a fresh supplemental agreement (requiring a fresh
80% consent), some of them would have opposed the sale as they had a change of heart
d) there were purported amendments amounting to tampering of the forms issued to the STB
e) the sale committee appointed the property agent and lawyer for the deal on the same night the panel was formed
f) owners failed to apply for notional shares to facilitate the sale of the land portion of the sale

The Judge is the High Court after considering the matter, made the statement that his ruling should "give effect to Parliament intention."

And so, if the 80% is achieved, procedural matters have lesser consideration than facilitating en blocs.

But look at the above points: did this case deserve a hearing on the merits?
We will never really know.

Are you fighting a case of opposing an en bloc in your estate? We would love to hear from you!
Write in to us... askcheah@gmail.com