00:00The High Court has ruled that buyers of strata properties at court-ordered auctions are not
00:05liable for unpaid maintenance fees and sinking fund arrears left by previous owners. Judicial
00:12Commissioner Mo Kok Wai said the law does not impose the financial failures of strangers
00:16on innocent purchasers. Mo said imposing undisclosed liabilities on auction buyers would undermine
00:24confidence in court-supervised sales, which are meant to provide certainty and finality.
00:30The case involved a suit brought by the management cooperation of Mergan Avenue 1 against Rajinder Singh,
00:36the purchaser of an office unit through an online auction held by the High Court in January 2024.
00:42The previous owner, a company defaulted on its bank loan and was wound up. It left a substantial
00:48amount in unpaid maintenance and related charges. The management cooperation demanded that Rajinder
00:55pay more than RM182,000 in arrears, saying he was a successor in title under the Strata Management Act
01:022013. Mo, however, disagreed, holding that Rajinder did not fall within the definition because he
01:08acquired the unit through a judicial sale, not a voluntary transfer. He said burdening buyers with
01:15the debt of the previous owner would be unfair, especially in the absence of a contract between
01:20them. Mo said the Act was meant to bring order to communal living, not to ensnare innocent third
01:26parties in the financial wreckage of others. The court dismissed the management's corporation's case
01:32and awarded RM10,000 in cost to Rajinder. Amardeep Gill, FMT.
