Tribunal president J Shamesh made the award after finding that developer Hillstrand Development Sdn Bhd had failed to rectify defects appearing in the claimants’ homes at Maple Residence in Cyberjaya within 60 days of his earlier direction.

Earlier, Shamesh went through reports issued by a technical committee in the local government development ministry and by a building inspector engaged by the buyers.

He also perused a report from the architect of the project.

“I allow the claims made by the purchasers for defective work and poor workmanship encompassing major leakage from the rooftop, broken windows, doors and cracks in the wall,” he said.

About 195 purchasers had bought houses for prices ranging between RM800,000 and RM1.4 million from the developer and gained vacant possession in December 2021.

One of the claimants, Logendrah Rao Muniandy, said the affected residents had asked the developer to rectify shortcomings that appeared during the defect liability period.

“They sent their contractors, but the repairs were not carried out to our satisfaction as the problems persisted,” he told FMT.

Logendrah, a pilot by profession, said they filed their complaint to the tribunal just two days before the expiry of the defect liability period in May last year.

At the first hearing, Shamesh gave the developer 60 days to carry out the repair works.