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Strata Titles Act 1985

Strata Titles Act 1985 provides provision for the subdivision of building or land of shared properties. It includes the procedure for the application of subdivision, registration, issuance of Strata Titles, management of the strata scheme after the issuance of Strata Titles and also management of Strata Titles Board. This Act is under the jurisdiction of the Department of Land and Mines, which is under Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment.

The Strata Titles Act comes into force on the 1st June 1985. Before its commencement, applications for individual title for parcels within a multi-storey building were done under the provision provided in the National Land Code 1965. Subsidiary Title were issued for these parcels.

The Strata Titles Act was created to overcome the weakness and insufficiency of the provision in the National Land Code regarding subdivision of building and also providesother reference related to subdivision and management of multi-storey building in various part, chapter and schedule in the National Land Code. However, the Strata Titles Act contain almost all the provisions in the National Land Code related to the subdivision of building. New elements and general improvement were also made on the application of the Strata Titles process and procedure and also the management of multi-storey building.

The Strata Titles Act has been amended four (4) times since its introduction that is on the 23rd February 1990 (Act A753), 2nd August 1996 (Act A951), 1st December 2001 (Act A1107) and 12th April 2007 (Act A1290).  In the latest amendments, subdivision for land to become land parcel, accessory parcel and common property were introduced. These amendments provide for the application towards new housing development concept known as the Gated Community Scheme. This housing scheme consists of properties such as bungalows, terrace house and semi-detached house that are held in one (1) lot with shared facilities such as club house, swimming pools and open field. It is a closed community with wall or gate around the housing area with limited entrance access.

What is Strata Titles?

Strata Titles is a form of ownership for buildings or block with multi-storey or multi-level of land parcel that were built on alienated land. The word ‘Strata’ refers to the subdivided unit.

Strata Titles were initially introduced in 1966 through the National Land Code 1965 to improve the law on ownership of multi-storey building. Before this, it is known as subsidiary title with reference to the building built on alienated land. In the 2007 amendment, the Strata Titles concept is widened to include for its application on land parcels on alienated land.

The Strata Titles Scheme consists of individual parcels and common property that are managed as ‘self-governance’ by the Management Corporation. Parcels whether apartment, condominium, town house, commercial complex or gated-community scheme were shown in the title as owned by the parcel owner.  Common property is defined as all on the alienated land except for the individual parcels and accessory parcels such as stair, roof, garden and others.

Continental Shelf Act 1966

Background

• According to Section 2 of the Continental Shelf Act 1966 (Revised 1972),“Continental Shelf” means the sea-bed and subsoil of the submarine areas that extend beyond the territorial sea throughout the natural prolongation of the land territory of Malaysia to the outer edge of the continental margin as determined in accordance with section 2B; or to a distance of two hundred nautical miles from the baselines from which the breadth of the territorial sea is measured in accordance with the Baselines of Maritime Zones Act 2006 where the outer edge of the continental margin does not extend up to that distance.
• Under Section 4 (4) of the Continental Shelf Act 1966, the power to grant the licence to exploit sands in the area within the continental shelf is under the jurisdiction of the Minister of Natural Resources and Environment. What is meant by the definition of the Continental Shelf area is an area which is situated outside the territorial waters of the States.
• Under Section 4 (2) of the Emergency (Essential Powers) Ordinance No. 7 of 1969 (Revised), gazetted as P.U. (A) 468/1969, for the meaning of Continental Shelf Act 1966, ‘territorial waters’ is defined as sea-waters adjacent to the coast not exceeding three nautical miles measured from the low water mark. This means that area outside three nautical miles measured from the low water mark are areas of the continental shelf and therefore, the Minister of Natural Resources and Environment is the Minister that is responsible of it, under the Ministerial Functions Act 1969 and is given the power under Section 4 (4) of the Continental Shelf Act  to grant the licence for sand mining in a particular area.
• It is therefore under the absolute discretion of the Minister as provided in the Section (4) (6) of the Continental Shelf Act to decide on the granting of  the licence and to grant any number of licences to the same person or company.
• Article 3 (2) and (3), Government Gazette P.U. (B) 365/1985, Notification on Continental Shelf (Appointment of Forms and Fee)fixed that any application of licence to explore, prospect, bore, mine or to carry on operations for the getting of minerals of any specified kind in any specified area of the continental shelf under Section 4 of the Continental Shelf Act, shall be lodge to and processed by the Federal Land Commissioner.

Small Estates (Distribution) Act 1955

Small Estates (Distribution) Act 1955 (previously known as Small Estates Ordinance 1955) is the main law that is used for the management of small estates. Since its commencement until now, several review and amendments have been done.

Overall this Act explains about the definition of small estates, jurisdiction power, work flow which starts from the petition for distribution of estate, hearing, order making to the appeal process at high court. Apart from this Act, there are other small estates distribution rules which outlines the procedural implementation and the usage of forms that are used in the small estates distribution matter.

In determining the distribution, Faraid Law is used when it involves the Muslims estate, while Distribution Act 1958 is used when it involves the Non-Muslims. The foundation of Faraid Law is based on the Quran and Hadith, among it are verse 11, 1, and 176 of Surah An Nisa.