A legal perspective on landlord and tenant relationship: A focus on private rented housing sector in Peninsular Malaysia

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: Conference or Workshop Item
Language:English
Published: 2012
Subjects:
Online Access:http://irep.iium.edu.my/34624/
http://irep.iium.edu.my/34624/13/34624%20A%20legal%20perspective%20on%20landlord%20and%20tenant%20relationship.pdf
id iium-34624
recordtype eprints
spelling iium-346242018-08-14T01:45:54Z http://irep.iium.edu.my/34624/ A legal perspective on landlord and tenant relationship: A focus on private rented housing sector in Peninsular Malaysia Sufian, Azlinor K Law (General) KPG Malaysia 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 paper will focus on the relationship between landlord and tenant in private rented housing sector. 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 rented housing. The best practice from Scotland is taken as reference, whenever necessary. 2012 Conference or Workshop Item NonPeerReviewed application/pdf en http://irep.iium.edu.my/34624/13/34624%20A%20legal%20perspective%20on%20landlord%20and%20tenant%20relationship.pdf Sufian, Azlinor (2012) A legal perspective on landlord and tenant relationship: A focus on private rented housing sector in Peninsular Malaysia. In: International Real Estate Conference 2012 (INTEREC 2012), 9th-11th June 2012, Kuala Lumpur. (Unpublished)
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)
KPG Malaysia
spellingShingle K Law (General)
KPG Malaysia
Sufian, Azlinor
A legal perspective on landlord and tenant relationship: A focus on private rented housing sector in Peninsular Malaysia
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 paper will focus on the relationship between landlord and tenant in private rented housing sector. 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 rented housing. The best practice from Scotland is taken as reference, whenever necessary.
format Conference or Workshop Item
author Sufian, Azlinor
author_facet Sufian, Azlinor
author_sort Sufian, Azlinor
title A legal perspective on landlord and tenant relationship: A focus on private rented housing sector in Peninsular Malaysia
title_short A legal perspective on landlord and tenant relationship: A focus on private rented housing sector in Peninsular Malaysia
title_full A legal perspective on landlord and tenant relationship: A focus on private rented housing sector in Peninsular Malaysia
title_fullStr A legal perspective on landlord and tenant relationship: A focus on private rented housing sector in Peninsular Malaysia
title_full_unstemmed A legal perspective on landlord and tenant relationship: A focus on private rented housing sector in Peninsular Malaysia
title_sort legal perspective on landlord and tenant relationship: a focus on private rented housing sector in peninsular malaysia
publishDate 2012
url http://irep.iium.edu.my/34624/
http://irep.iium.edu.my/34624/13/34624%20A%20legal%20perspective%20on%20landlord%20and%20tenant%20relationship.pdf
first_indexed 2023-09-18T20:49:51Z
last_indexed 2023-09-18T20:49:51Z
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