INGENIEUR JAN-MAR 2017 Vol 69 2017 | Page 53

FEATURE

History of the Development of the Uniform Building By-Laws 1984

By Ir. Fong Tian Yong
The author acknowledges the contributions of the late Dato’ Kington Loo and Ir. Chiam Teong Tee for their dedication and perseverance on the tedious effort of completing the UBBL.

FEATURE

When the idea of self-regulation for the delivery of buildings was mentioned for the first time in 1997, I was then the Director of the Building Control Unit under the Ministry of Housing and Local Government( MOHLG). The Government then had exhausted ways to convince local authorities to speed up the handing over of the buildings after completion of construction. Circular after circular was issued to advise local authorities on the do’ s and don’ ts to expedite the issuance of Certificate of Fitness of Occupation( CFO), such as not to impose additional conditions once the Building Plan was approved, and that the CFO had to be processed within 14 days from date of submission of application through Form E. However, it was to no avail and complaints from the building industry continued.

The MOHLG then decided to allow the Submitting Person for Building Plans of singly-built detached houses to issue an equivalent of a CFO instead of the local authority. I was asked to use a different term from‘ CFO’ to differentiate the two. I immediately called up the late Dato’ Kington Loo, a renowned architect who was the key person behind the drafting of the Uniform Building By- Laws( UBBL). Without hesitation, he suggested the term“ Certificate of Completion and Compliance”( CCC). The term was duly used in UBBL when it was amended in 1999 whereby the Submitting Person of Building Plan has the choice to issue a CCC for a singly-built detached house or to apply to the local authority to issue a CFO.
This piece of legislature created some uncertainty among the architects who were unsure of the system and authority given to them to issue CCCs. The majority of them still preferred to submit Form E to local authorities for the issuance of a CFO. Only a handful of architects, particularly those from Penang state started to issue CCCs for such buildings.
Subsequent to this pilot trial, the MOHLG was planning to extend the practice of CCCs as selfregulation to different categories of buildings phase by phase, starting with factories first. However, the Government in 2005 decided to extend the practice of CCCs to all categories of buildings due to complaints, particularly from investors involved in factory development for manufacturing purposes.
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