A conceptual study on landlord and tenant law in peninsular Malaysia: a focus on private residential tenancy

Unlike other jurisdictions such as the UK, Australia, New Zealand and Canada, Malaysia does not have legislation that deals specifically with landlords and tenants. Thus, a tenancy agreement can be concluded either orally or in writing. As such the rights and obligations of both parties are dependin...

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Main Author:	Sufian, Azlinor
Format:	Article
Language:	English
Published:	Thompson Reuters 2012
Subjects:	K Law (General)
Online Access:	http://irep.iium.edu.my/34616/ http://irep.iium.edu.my/34616/ http://irep.iium.edu.my/34616/2/INTRESTJournal.pdf

id	iium-34616
recordtype	eprints
spelling	iium-346162014-10-29T11:58:57Z http://irep.iium.edu.my/34616/ A conceptual study on landlord and tenant law in peninsular Malaysia: a focus on private residential tenancy Sufian, Azlinor K Law (General) Unlike other jurisdictions such as the UK, Australia, New Zealand and Canada, Malaysia does not have legislation that deals specifically with landlords and tenants. Thus, a tenancy agreement can be concluded either orally or in writing. As such the rights and obligations of both parties are depending on the terms and conditions of the contract entered by them. The problem would arise if both a landlord and tenant are not equal in footing in terms of bargaining power. Hence their rights either as a landlord or tenant may not be well protected. Obviously there is no specific law dealing with rent control and other related matters that lead to tenancy disputes. These include issues on security and rental deposit, quality and safety of the rented houses, termination, eviction and a mechanism for dispute settlement. While provisions on tenancies and leases can be found in the National Land Code 1965, Contracts Act 1950, Distress Act 1951 and Specific Relief Act 1950, the existing legislation remains rather vague and deals with the issue in piecemeal. The question thus arises whether a comprehensive law in a single statute is really needed to regulate landlords and tenants in Peninsular Malaysia? Adopting the qualitative research methodology, this conceptual paper will focus on the relationship between landlord and tenant in private residential tenancy. It is the aims of this paper to identify key legal issues in landlord and tenant relationship in this sector and to examine the adequacy of existing legal framework. The reported cases on landlord and tenant may become evidences as to the need of a specific landlord and tenant law in Peninsular Malaysia, in particular for private residential tenancy. The best practices from Scotland are taken as reference, whenever necessary. The findings of the research found that based on laws and practices in these two jurisdictions, it is very significant to have specific law to regulate the relationship between landlord and tenant in private residential tenancy in order to protect the interest of all parties involved. Keywords: Landlord and tenant, housing, contract, common law, private residential tenancy. Thompson Reuters 2012-06 Article PeerReviewed application/pdf en http://irep.iium.edu.my/34616/2/INTRESTJournal.pdf Sufian, Azlinor (2012) A conceptual study on landlord and tenant law in peninsular Malaysia: a focus on private residential tenancy. International Journal of Real Estate Studies , 7 (1). pp. 13-23. ISSN 1832-8505 http://intrest.utm.my/?p=media.publication.detail&pubID=54
repository_type	Digital Repository
institution_category	Local University
institution	International Islamic University Malaysia
building	IIUM Repository
collection	Online Access
language	English
topic	K Law (General)
spellingShingle	K Law (General) Sufian, Azlinor A conceptual study on landlord and tenant law in peninsular Malaysia: a focus on private residential tenancy
description	Unlike other jurisdictions such as the UK, Australia, New Zealand and Canada, Malaysia does not have legislation that deals specifically with landlords and tenants. Thus, a tenancy agreement can be concluded either orally or in writing. As such the rights and obligations of both parties are depending on the terms and conditions of the contract entered by them. The problem would arise if both a landlord and tenant are not equal in footing in terms of bargaining power. Hence their rights either as a landlord or tenant may not be well protected. Obviously there is no specific law dealing with rent control and other related matters that lead to tenancy disputes. These include issues on security and rental deposit, quality and safety of the rented houses, termination, eviction and a mechanism for dispute settlement. While provisions on tenancies and leases can be found in the National Land Code 1965, Contracts Act 1950, Distress Act 1951 and Specific Relief Act 1950, the existing legislation remains rather vague and deals with the issue in piecemeal. The question thus arises whether a comprehensive law in a single statute is really needed to regulate landlords and tenants in Peninsular Malaysia? Adopting the qualitative research methodology, this conceptual paper will focus on the relationship between landlord and tenant in private residential tenancy. It is the aims of this paper to identify key legal issues in landlord and tenant relationship in this sector and to examine the adequacy of existing legal framework. The reported cases on landlord and tenant may become evidences as to the need of a specific landlord and tenant law in Peninsular Malaysia, in particular for private residential tenancy. The best practices from Scotland are taken as reference, whenever necessary. The findings of the research found that based on laws and practices in these two jurisdictions, it is very significant to have specific law to regulate the relationship between landlord and tenant in private residential tenancy in order to protect the interest of all parties involved. Keywords: Landlord and tenant, housing, contract, common law, private residential tenancy.
format	Article
author	Sufian, Azlinor
author_facet	Sufian, Azlinor
author_sort	Sufian, Azlinor
title	A conceptual study on landlord and tenant law in peninsular Malaysia: a focus on private residential tenancy
title_short	A conceptual study on landlord and tenant law in peninsular Malaysia: a focus on private residential tenancy
title_full	A conceptual study on landlord and tenant law in peninsular Malaysia: a focus on private residential tenancy
title_fullStr	A conceptual study on landlord and tenant law in peninsular Malaysia: a focus on private residential tenancy
title_full_unstemmed	A conceptual study on landlord and tenant law in peninsular Malaysia: a focus on private residential tenancy
title_sort	conceptual study on landlord and tenant law in peninsular malaysia: a focus on private residential tenancy
publisher	Thompson Reuters
publishDate	2012
url	http://irep.iium.edu.my/34616/ http://irep.iium.edu.my/34616/ http://irep.iium.edu.my/34616/2/INTRESTJournal.pdf
first_indexed	2023-09-18T20:49:50Z
last_indexed	2023-09-18T20:49:50Z
_version_	1777409920159711232

A conceptual study on landlord and tenant law in peninsular Malaysia: a focus on private residential tenancy

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