Selangor govt to appeal against court decision in LBCN Development case

SHAH ALAM: The Selangor government is filing an appeal against a High Court decision to grant compensation to Alam Perdana housing developer, LBCN Development Sdn Bhd (LBCN), for acquisition of its land in Ijok to be based on the value of the land for integrated development.

Mentri Besar Tan Sri Abdul Khalid Ibrahim said in a statement that the State Legal Adviser had been instructed to file the appeal.

He said this was because the state government felt that the compensation for LCBN which had been agreed upon previously was adequate as it was based on an evaluation by the Valuation and Property Services Department for agriculture land with potential for development.

The state government, he said, could not compensate LBCN based on a fully developed status because the company had violated regulations and conditions set by the local government authority and provisions in the National Land Code 1965.

"LBCN has admitted its failure to pay the land premium, failure to convert the land status from agriculture to development and conducting development project illegally without the approval of the authority.

"Based on these facts, the company is not eligible to receive compensation more than what has been previously agreed to be paid by the state government," he added.

The Alam Perdana Township project involved development of low cost and terrace houses which had been abandoned since 2002, and as a result of that, the state government had to acquire the land because the settlers had surrendered the land to the developer to be developed, but the house buyers had yet to receive their houses.

Although the project was approved by the then state government, the status of the land from agriculture to development had not been changed due to the failure of the developer to pay premium for the land conversion.

The Selangor government took over the project from Syarikat Perumahan Negara Bhd (SPNB) and spent RM200mil to build the houses, repayment of bank loan and to provide other infrastructure.

The Shah Alam High Court ordered the compensation of the land owned by LBCN which was acquired by the state government to be valued based on integrated development. - Bernama