Soil Erosions at Housing Areas in Malaysia: A Land Law Perspective

• Main Author: Md Dahlan, Nuarrual Hilal
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: LexisNexis® 2023
• Subjects: K Law (General)
• Online Access: https://repo.uum.edu.my/id/eprint/29808/1/MLJ%2003%2000%202023%20137-179.pdf; https://repo.uum.edu.my/id/eprint/29808/

Many landslides occurring in housing areas in Malaysia have intrigued and shocked the Malaysian public. These disasters have caused colossal damage to property and loss of life. It is a trite fact that, in Malaysia, soil problems have negatively impacted the residents’ life and property. The most significant soil problem disaster in Malaysia was the collapse of Highland Towers in 1993. This disaster caused pecuniary and non-pecuniary losses to the residents of the buildings. The question is, what can be learnt so far from these land-related catastrophes? The main objective of this writing is to analyse the legal provisions in land law that bear on soil problems in housing areas. This writing aims to explore the weaknesses in the land law and its implementation in order to provide preventive and curative legal measures against soil problems and their consequences in housing development areas. This writing proposes a new perspective on land legal ideas for governing soil fitness in housing development areas. Qualitative social and legal research methodologies were used to study the facts and issues. The subjects of this research involve many housing development areas that face soil problems in Malaysia. It follows that the outcomes of this writing and the proposed legal reforms relating to land law in housing areas can be improved to face the soil problems and sufficiently protect the rights of the house residents.