15 years and a RM1.15 million decision about a monsoon drain
Can DBKL build a monsoon drain on your land?
If I have a piece of land and DBKL builds a monsoon drain across my land, I would write to them and ask them not to use up a portion of my land. If they did not listen to me, then of course I would have to go to the courts to fight for my rights to use the land. the space they have taken up is lost because I cannot be building any property on top of the monsoon drain yeah. The below case demonstrated how an owner of a land won a legal case against DBKL for encroaching into his land to build a monsoon drain. Many interesting facts for the case in the article below:
Article in nst.com.my A 15-year legal saga came to an end for a 71-year-old man as the High Court awarded him RM1.15 million after ruling the City Hall (DBKL) had encroached his land to build a monsoon drain.
R. R. Meyyanathan has owned the 17,847 square feet (about four basketball courts) of land near Petaling since April 6, 2005, and intended to build a few bungalows on it.
The plaintiff (Meyyanathan) argued that a monsoon drain which had taken up 2,411 square feet of his land was constructed by the defendant (DBKL) without his permission, affecting his legal rights to enjoy his land.
Meanwhile, DBKL denied that it had trespassed on Meyyanathan’s land and the structure on the latter’s land was not a form of encroachment.
The defendant (DBKL) pleaded justification as it relied on its power to maintain, manage, build, and improve monsoon drains in the city, including the plaintiff’s land.
Judge Roz Mawar Rozain in her judgment last month said it can be concluded with great certainty that the location of the monsoon drain is within the plaintiff’s land, and he did not consent to this.
“This court concludes based on the evidence that on a balance of probabilities, the plaintiff had indeed purchased the land and that the monsoon drain was not there when he purchased it.
“There was no evidence of who had built this rubble pitching structure, but it was most certainly not the plaintiff.
“This court finds that the monsoon drain located in the plaintiff’s land is the defendant’s,” she said.
“The court awarded the plaintiff damages at the rate of RM200 per day from Jan 8, 2008, until the date of this judgment for damages. That would amount to RM200 multiplied by 5,757 days which amounts to RM1,151,400,” she said. Do read the full article here: Article in nst.com.my
Now I have learnt something new about rights of a land owner
We can now see that a landowner does have certain rights to the land which even if the said structure is for public interest, the land owner should still enjoy the rights to it and if this was taken away then a compensation based on the market value would be awarded. I wonder if there are more of these cases coming up since this is now a case which most land owners would have already read.
Orchard land, anyone?
I have always thought of buying a small plot of orchard land, build a small place and maybe go there during the weekends. My friends however told me that whatever I grow in this small orchard may have been all stolen by the time I go there every other weekend. Perhaps they are right. Perhaps it has to be a an organised orchard plots of land versus just my plot in the middle of nowhere. Well, that remains a thought.
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