Perfection of Transfer

Perfection of Transfer is a process to register a property title under the name of a property purchaser. This scenario exists as at the time of the property purchase transaction, the Individual or Strata Title of the property has not yet been issued by the Land Office. This means that when an Individual Title or Strata Title has been issued at a later date, a Perfection of Transfer process is required to complete the ownership transfer procedure from the vendor to the purchaser.

In order for us to understand this further, let’s dive into this topic further. In this article we will discuss on;

1. Why do you have to do perfection of transfer

2. How will you know if your property’s individual title has been issued and is ready for a perfection of transfer

3. How much it will cost to do a perfection of transfer

4. Who do you have to appoint to do perfection of transfer

5. What do you have to prepare for perfection of transfer

6. Who has to sign the memorandum of transfer

1. Why do you have to do perfection of transfer

In a situation where you have bought a property from a developer but the land title to your property has not yet been issued, the only way for you to prove your ownership is only by way of the Sales and Purchase Agreement that you have signed as well as the Deed of Assignment. 

Unless and until an individual land title is issued for the said land and property that you have purchased, your only proof of ownership and recourse should anything goes wrong is only based on the agreement that you have signed between you and the developer as well as the Housing Development (Control And Licensing) Act 1966 law.

What this basically means is that you will not have the full protection of the law under the Malaysian National Land Code 1965 since you are not the owner of the Master Title but only the beneficial owner of a particular area of the land in the Master Title own by the Developer.

You may however have a chance to achieve the indefeasibility to the interest and benefit of the property and land that you have purchased from the developer when the individual title has been issued.

You can do so by pursuing and completing a perfection of transfer process of the land title. When this is completed, your name will be registered in the land title as the proprietor and owner of the land giving you full protection of law under the National Land Code 1965. At this juncture, your interest in the land title is indefeasible as an owner.

2. How will you know if that your individual title has been issued and ready for perfection of transfer

Whenever the individual title has been issued for a particular unit, the developer or the property management will contact to inform you of the said issuance.

If the property management is not aware or there isn’t any updates on your property with regards to the land title, you may also call the developer to ask on the individual title issuance process or whether the developer had already applied for the issuance of the individual land title.

3. How much it will cost to do a perfection of transfer

In order to do a perfection of transfer process, you will need to appoint a lawyer to prepare and submit the documents to the related government authorities. You will also need to bear the taxes and fees imposed by the relevant government authorities. Here are the breakdown of the costs;

a. Lawyer fee for Perfection of Transfer

When you appoint a lawyer to assist you for this process , there are some fees and costs that you have to bear in order for you to get your title to be registered at the land office. The fee for perfecting a title is based on item 3(a) of the Sixth Schedule of the Solicitors Remuneration Order (SRO) 2005. The table below shows how the fees are calculated :-

Property Value

Scale of Fee

First RM500,000

1%

Next RM500,000

0.8%

Next RM2,000,000

0.7%

Next RM2,000,000

0.6%

Next RM2,500,000

0.5%

The Excess of RM7,500,000

0.5%

It should also be noted that under Order 3(1)(k) of the SRO 2005, the fee under “miscellaneous fees” should not exceed RM100. This however does not include the 6% Sales and Services Tax imposed.

In addition, according to the SRO 2005, the scale of legal fees payable for the completion of Perfection of Transfer is 50% of mandatory legal fees.

b. Government taxes and fees costs for Perfection of Transfer

Among costs that you will need to bear in relation to Government taxes and fees are;Memorandum of Transfer registration fee at the land office;

1. Land Search fee at the land office; and

2. Memorandum of Transfer stamp duty;

4. Who do you have to appoint to do perfection of transfer

The registering title into the purchaser’s name involves preparing the Memorandum of Transfer (Form 14A/MOT). At this point, you will need to appoint a lawyer to act on your behalf to communicate with developer’s solicitor as well as to transact with the various government agencies.

Should you need a lawyer for perfection of transfer purposes, click here.

5. What do you have to prepare for a perfection of transfer

These are the documents that the purchaser needs to prepare :-

• Copy of identity card (IC) of the Purchaser

• Copy of Deed of Assignment (DOA)

• Copy of Sale and Purchase Agreement

• Latest assessment receipt

• Quit rent receipt

6. Who will sign the memorandum of transfer for perfection of transfer

The Memorandum of Transfer or the “MOT” for short is an instrument used to transfer and register name on the title from the developer to the purchaser. The Memorandum of Transfer must be signed by the purchaser and the person registered on the current individual land title. This condition has been set under the Paragraph 11 of the Tenth Schedule of the National Land Code 1965. 

Second, the purchaser’s identification card must be photocopied, and legal fees are payable at this juncture.

Next, when the purchaser has signed the MOT, the MOT will be sent to the developer in order for them to sign. The developer will send the MOT to the purchaser’s lawyer for the next process which is to adjudicate the MOT to calculate the stamp duty. Once stamp duty paid, only then the title can be registered to the purchaser’s name at the land office.