Dead Men Don’t Sell Houses: The Vistana Heights Counterclaim Exposed
This post is for educational purposes.
For new readers of this blog: my son Faisal is the rightful owner of Unit S9 at Vistana Heights, Ira Manis. After more than five years of repeated, formal demands for accountability directed at the developer, the engineer, the architect and every relevant authority — including DBKK, LPPB, the Sabah State Integrity and Governance Division, and the Ministry of Housing — he has been left with no choice but to commence legal action against those responsible for the scheme.
In a striking and deeply concerning development, the developer, the engineer, the architect and LPPB have responded by dragging me into the proceedings through a counterclaim. Their grievance? That I stated the current market value of houses at Vistana Heights stands at RM2.3 million, a figure grounded in actual sub-sale transactions concluded in late 2024 and early 2025.
The affidavit they have filed in response is revealing. It dismisses the RM2.3 million figure as “highly misleading and without any evidentiary basis,” then purports to rely on selected sub-sale prices within Taman Puncak Vistana Phase 1 as of November 2025. Those figures do not withstand scrutiny.
Unit S3 is cited as having been sold for RM1,380,000. This figure is untenable. A superior unit with a better view was purchased by the plaintiff himself in 2014 for RM1,500,000. The suggestion that a comparable unit could have commanded substantially less years later is not merely implausible; it is inconsistent with the very market history they are attempting to rely upon.
Even more damning is the entry for Unit S7. It names Lee Choon Ken @ Robert Lee as the purchaser in a 2022 transaction. Mr Lee passed away in February 2015. A deceased person cannot lawfully buy or sell property in Sabah. Upon death, the estate is frozen until a personal representative or executor is formally appointed and obtains legal authority to act. The recorded price of RM1,270,000 is therefore not merely suspicious — it is impossible on its face.
Unit S10, immediately adjacent to Faisal’s unit, provides further contradiction. Its previous owner, Chong Chooi Theng, repeatedly confirmed to me during visits to the development that she purchased the property in 2013 for RM1,300,000 and sold it in 2024/2025. I assisted her with her Liquidated Ascertained Damages (LAD) claim in 2021. The affidavit filed by Messrs Ronny Cham & Co in July 2021, sworn by Mrs Tai Fung Ming (the developer’s wife), expressly records that Chong Chooi Theng acquired the unit in 2013 for RM1,300,000.
One of the enclosures, signed by Datuk Yeo Boon Hai, further states:
“Recomendasi seperti dinyatakan dalam kelulusan bagi laporan geoteknikal dan geologikal hendak lah di-patuhi.”
(The recommendations contained in the approved geotechnical and geological reports must be complied with.)
The above geotechnical report is referred to in the 2018 development plan approved by Datuk Yeo Boon Hai, which was checked by Mr. Stanley Chong and prepared by Mr.Rayner Ricky Sedomon.
To be continued…
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