A row of houses in Lorong Gambang Damai 29 has been unoccupied for two years after several units were affected by a landslide incident on Jan 5, 2021, believed due to soil movement.

Gambang Damai (Desa Hijauan) Residents’ Association chairman Norazen Md Dadi said about 20 houses were affected by the incident but only six damaged houses have received replacement housing units from the developer.

He said the status of the other residents’ houses was still up in the air and they wanted certainty on the safety of the semi-detached houses, which were bought for more than RM258,000 in 2016.

“Residents were asked to vacate their houses on the day of the incident for safety reasons and to date, some residents are renting other houses because they are worried about the condition of the house.

“We need to know whether the house can be occupied or not. We are open to talks with the parties involved and hope the state government will intervene to resolve this issue,” he told reporters in the residential area here yesterday.

A house owner, Md Nasri Yusuff, 44, said the residents had to bear a high monthly commitment as they had to pay for the rent as well as loan payments apart from the assessment tax.

“I hope the authorities will take appropriate action as we have been renting elsewhere for almost three years now. The moratorium granted earlier was for one year and after that, we are forced to pay for two houses,” he said.

Sharing a similar sentiment is 39-year-old Roslina Ahmad Said who hoped to get a replacement house equivalent to the price of her house in Gambang Damai, which she bought for nearly RM300,000.

“I am just hoping for proper compensation because I still have to make the monthly loan payments for my house which is RM1,400 while the rental house costs RM500,” she said.

Checks by Bernama found that the affected houses had not yet been cleared, and the empty houses were filled with rubbish and bushes.

Meanwhile, Paya Besar Member of Parliament Datuk Mohd Shahar Abdullah, when contacted, said he had raised the matter to the state government by informing the state Local Government, Housing, Environment and Green Technology committee chairman Datuk Seri Johari Harun for appropriate actions.

Source: BERNAMA News Agency