Property Auction #4: I've bought a house at an auction fair by the bank, but they cancel the deal 2 months later! Can they do that?

This was the question posted to us by one of our client who bought a single storey terrace house at Taman Desa Jaya, during a property auction fair conducted by the bank. For those of you who have read my previous articles on property auction before, you all knew this is what we called a Laca case, i.e. properties without individual titles issued.

After two months signing the contract of sale, and he has signed the loan agreement,and he has started doing the renovation (i would not advise this though) he suddenly got a call from the bank saying that the case need to be withdrawn. Apparently, the lawyer who's incharged of this property for the bank has made a blunder, i.e. this should be a non-laca case, simply because the individual titles has already being issued and registered under previous owner. As a result, the "correct" and "legal" way of disposing this property has to be done through Highcourt , and not by the bank themself. Therefore, the bank has to withdraw this case and re-auction the property through highcourt procedure.

So, in the end of the day, not only this purchaser will lose all his legal fees, he's also going to lose his renovation.

Two lessons we've learnt from this case:
(1) Never start renovating the house before the completion of the conveyancing procedure of your property
(2) When you want to bid for a laca property, and you already knew the titles have been issued, please do a land title search on it. If you find the previous owner's name has already being registered , then voice your doubt to the auctioneer, because this should be a non-laca case instead of a laca ones.