Malaysia Real Estate

[daniellimst]

Dear All,

I have purchased a property cost RM500k with a loan amount of RM400k.

Below is the quotation from the Lawyer for MOT transfer.

Would appreciate each of your helps to go thru either the fee is acceptable or highly. Thank you very much


Legal Fee RM900.00
Service Tax (5%) RM45.00
Transportation and miscellaneous disbursements RM55.00
Sub-total: RM1000

Search fee RM30.00
Stamp Duty: Adjudication RM10.00
Stamp Duty: Transfer (estimate - subject to adjudication) RM 8298.00

Registration Fee (transfer) RM300.00
Sub-total: RM8638.00

Total: RM9,638.00

[Ritz Crackers]

You transfer estimate for a RM500k property...

Stamp duty for RM500k is calculated as such:
first RM100k x 1% = RM1,000
next RM400k x 2% = RM8,000

Total= RM9,000

Legal fee is calculated as such:
First RM150k x 1% = RM1,500
next RM350k x 0.7% = RM2,450

Total: RM3,950

but since this is only for MoT, the fee is not to exceed RM3,950 with a minimum fee of RM300.

That is to say, the lawyer has the discretion to charge from a minimum of RM300 to a max of RM3,950!!!

_________________

私は弱い時にこそ強いからです
Garden of Ritz

[matsalo]

I'm still unsure about this MoT business about when it really is due, etc. I bought a house costing 1,674,000 and the dev's lawyer (the one we signed the S &P with called to say we now owe them a whopping 44,200!

The problem is the house isn't even built yet.. well, maybe just the foundation but they said now in PJ, everthing moves fast, and the individual title is already issued they claimed. It's been less than 5 mo. since the S&P was signed...

The clerk claimed that since they're the developer's lawyer therefore they've already absorbed the legal fees, so this is just stamp duty transfer fees. But it still seems too much! I am waiting to speak with the actual lawyer who is outstation at the moment...

Well, if it's just stamp duty and based on my understanding, and please correct me if I'm wrong, the calculation I came up with was this (the formula I got from somewhere in this forum):

First 100K (1%) - 1,000
Subsequent (1,674,000 less 100000 = 1574000) - 31,480

TOTAL = 32,480

So why 44,200 (since legal fees the clerk claimed their lawyers to have already absorbed) and not 32,480? There's almost a 12K difference!

Perhaps I'm missing something here and there are other gov't duties involved that I am not aware of. Or the calculations have changed?

Can anybody please help shed some light? It'll be a while before the actual lawyer can be contacted so I need to arm myself with as much info as possible. Thanks.

[YYS]

Hi Matsola,

You had used a wrong formula to calculate the stamp duty. The correct formula should be:

1st 100K = 1%
100K - 400K = 2%
balance thereafter = 3%

So for your case, the stamp duty should be:

100K - RM1000
300K - RM6000
balance - RM37,200.

[YYS]

Hi All,

So for house buyers, remember to take into consideration of stamp duties involved in the transaction as the developer will usually juat absord the legal fees.

Stamp duty for transfer is as per the formula above and for loan documentation, it's a flat rate of 0.5% of the loan amount.

[Ritz Crackers]

[YYS]

Thanks Ritz Crackers for correcting.

[matsalo]

YYS, RC... thanks for your help, Guys.

*slaps head with fist* I should have done my homework first. Another lawyer friend said if I trawled through the malaysianbar.org site there will be examples of calculations for loan, stamp duty and MoT fees too.

And now to korek the additional 12K...

[YYS]

Hi matsalo,

sorry for giving wrong information, i need to do my homework as well.. :) Since there's lawyer appointed, could always seek clarifications from them as you're entitled to this rights.

[tkc]

if the stamp duty for title transfer is so high, can we just break down the S&P into 2 agreements, e.g. one is for purchasing the property for $500K and another agreement is for purchasing the fittings in the property for $1,174,000 ? This way, we can just pay the stamp duty for $500K?
It's not quite fair to pay a huge amount of stamp duty for a renovation cost put up by the previous owner, might as well buy a basic unit and we do our own extension and renovation.

[YYS]

Hi tkc,

Actually the stamp duty office will have their own valuation for the value of the property (so called market value) and then charge the stamp duty accordingly. So basically the stamp duty is not decided by the transaction price stated in teh SPA but accordingly to the market value of the property.