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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