Dreams of house renovation dashed by contractor's alleged scam

The Star

Five homeowners in Rawang, Selangor claimed that they were duped by a contractor who they said disappeared after receiving a total of RM127,800 from them for their renovation work.  WATCH MORE: https://thestartv.com/c/news SUBSCRIBE: https://cutt.ly/TheStar LIKE: https://fb.com/TheStarOnline

Transcript

00:00 Five homeowners in Rawang claimed that they were duped by a contractor who did not finish

00:05 their renovation job after receiving payments of 127 and 800 ringgit from them.

00:12 In a press conference on Thursday, MCA Public Services and Complaints Department head Datuk

00:16 Sri Michael Chong said the victims were attracted by banners hung along roadsides and houses

00:22 promoting the contractor.

00:24 "During negotiation, he agreed to do the work and the money is paid on percentage.

00:37 Many of them pay percentage.

00:39 Depend.

00:40 He was asked to pay the money because he wanted to get approval from the land office, a local

00:50 council.

00:51 Now, the victim, what they found out was when they went to the land office, they were surprised,

00:58 no such application.

00:59 Then on top of that, when they tried to contact them, the contractor, at first he said, 'Oh,

01:08 very sick.

01:09 They cannot get him anymore.'

01:11 He said the contractor's workers told the victims that they themselves had not been

01:15 paid by the contractor and they demanded the victims to pay them before work could continue.

01:21 The victims said the construction materials had not been given to the workers and this

01:25 had resulted in renovation work coming to a halt.

01:28 One of the victims said he had paid over 17,800 ringgit to the contractor who avoided meeting

01:34 him.

01:35 "When everything is discussed, I also did ask him about the permit itself, what are

01:41 the process and how long it should take before the work actually starts.

01:45 So he told me to deposit another 40 per cent in order to get the materials to be delivered

01:52 to my house.

01:53 So after I deposited, he asked me when is the suitable time to organise the materials

02:00 being sent to my house.

02:02 So I told him that it was on Tuesday, it is okay to send it.

02:05 Once it was on Tuesday, I went there at 8am as we negotiated.

02:14 He didn't show up himself and I tried calling him, I was unable to get him."

02:19 The other victims said they suffered similar fates.

02:23 One paid 57,600 ringgit, two others lost 18,000 ringgit and 13,000 ringgit respectively, while

02:31 another house owner said he paid 21,400 ringgit.

02:36 The victims said they had lodged police reports against the contractor.

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02:45 [BLANK_AUDIO]

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