MELAKA: The MCA Civil Society Movement Coordination Bureau will help owners of a buy-to-lease scheme here to pursue legal action against a property developer for allegedly failing to pay rentals to them.

       Its chief Ng Kian Nam (pic) said the developer had sold about 500 units of the rooms at a leading hotel here to the owners since 2009, with prices ranging between RM180,000 and over RM200,000 each including strata titles issued to them.

       He said the owners were attracted by the high Guaranteed Rental Return (GPR) scheme of 6% annually based on the market price for a period of 15 years, where the GPR was payable on a quarterly basis of the year as stipulated in the tenancy agreement.

       Under such a scheme, the owner who had bought the property would have to lease it back to the developer in exchange for rental returns.

       However, Ng said the developer had failed to pay the owners since September 2018 despite the hotel generating high profits while business was good.

       "The developer refused to meet the owners despite numerous attempts made although the former owes between RM50,000 and RM100,000 to each of the purchasers including late interest charges," he said in the statement on Sunday (June 12).

       Ng said the bureau would also assist the group to claim any outstanding money, late interests, unfair deduction of renovation cost through legal means.

       He said a letter would also be written to the Housing and Local Government Ministry to blacklist the developer and initiate a criminal action against the company as well as its directors.

       "We shouldn't allow the developer, supposedly foreigners, to manipulate our real estate laws and take advantage of innocent purchasers," he added.