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It was reported in today’s Sin Chew Newspaper saying Certificate of Fitness for Occupation (CFO) has not been issued to the house involved in the brutal killing at Jalan RTM, Sibu.

The president of developers association Lau Ga King said without CFO developers could still proceed to obtain water and electricity supply for the house.

Mr. Lau also said it is required under council’s law and regulation that terrace house and semi detached house must have 9 inches thick of fire-wall (equivalent to 2 pieces brick size) up to the roof to prevent spread of fire and those with ulterior motive to climb over to next doors via space between roof and ceiling.

With these information, council should be able to come up with the following plan:

1) Council’s architect must check on the quality of finished houses (for any sinking or cracks on the building) as well as checking fire-wall as mentioned above up to the roof before issuing certificate of fitness for occupation. The developers of the housing project must sign a letter of indemnity to take full responsibility of any defects discovered and any harm incurred owing to the defects/poor workmanship of the houses in the next 3 years. Photos should be taken by architect to prove that proper inspection has been carried out before issuing CFO and these photos must be properly filed with the relevant documents for future reference.

2) Certificate of Fitness for Occupation must be obtained before water and electricity supply could be approved to prevent house owners taking the risk of living in ‘defective’ houses.

3) For existing houses that do not have the proper fire-wall council should contact developers to have it completed as soon as possible.