JOHOR BARU: THE Johor Baru City Council (MBJB) will seize the belongings of 14,000 residential and commercial property owners who had failed to settle their assessment fees for years.
Johor Baru mayor Abdul Rahman Mohamed Dewam said 1,202 notices had been served to the defaulters so far.
Some of the payments are due for eight years.
The local council is looking at collecting arrears worth RM37 million.
“The defaulters are mainly those who own residential and commercial properties in the city. There are also several factory and heavy industry operators involved,” said Rahman during the council’s monthly meeting
recently.
Rahman said MBJB is allowed to take such action under Section 148, Act 171 of the Local Government Act 1976, which gives the council power to seize materials or belongings from property owners under its jurisdiction who fail to settle their outstanding arrears.
He also said those who own lands but did not erect any building on it are not exempted from paying the assessment rate.
“Some defaulters think that they could get away from paying council arrears as they did not erect any building or structure on their lands, which is not the case,” he said, adding that the MBJB could get a court order to auction off the lands.
Rahman said the arrears involved are important as MBJB needs the funds to execute proper town planning developments, which include providing basic infrastructure such as roads and drainage.
He also said the council is in the midst of ironing out plans to refurbish dilapidated low-cost flats around the city, namely in Tampoi Utama, Taman Rinting, Bandar Baru Uda and Taman Cempaka.
He added that the council had recently been awarded RM5 million under the 1Malaysia Maintenance Fund to do restoration and repair works on these flats.
“We hope with the allocations, MBJB could provide a more conducive living condition for the flat dwellers and ensure its maintenance are done consistently,” said
Rahman.