A low-income family is seeking the intervention of Bank Negara after claiming that their house was auctioned off by a bank during the COVID-19 pandemic - over arrears of RM975.

To make things worse, the new purchaser of the house had even cut off the electricity and water supply to the house to force the family out, reported Malaysiakini.

The victim, 38-year-old tailor M Moganah, also alleged that the bank had increased the interest rate for her housing loan without due notification during the moratorium period given by the government during the pandemic.

Moganah bought the house in 2001 with her mother, P Letchumy, 60, in 2001, for RM31,500. The loan tenure was 20 years and the family had paid monthly dues of RM268 from 2001 until March 2021, without fail.

"However, in July 2018, the bank increased the interest amount without due notification to Letchumy.

"While the family continued to pay the older amount of RM268 monthly via auto debit, the difference in amount after the hiked up interest accrued to RM975," Parti Sosialis Malaysia (PSM) deputy president S Arutchelvan, who accompanied the family to hand over a memorandum to a Bank Negara official yesterday, told the media.

According to him, the family was not even informed that their property was being auctioned off during the moratorium.

They reportedly only found out when they found an eviction notice pasted by the new owner, on the front door of their house, in October 2020.

"They are a B40 family who have promptly paid their dues for almost two decades. And now they have had their property snatched away over an arrears of RM975, which is clearly not their fault," Arul added.

According to the report further, the family is now forced to put up elsewhere as the new house owner had cut off the electricity and water supply to the house, in order to force them out.

Yesterday's memorandum was the second time the family had sought help from Bank Negara. The first time was in October last year, after they were served the eviction notice by the new house buyer.

Malaysiakini has withheld the name of the bank, pending a reply from them on the issue.


Source: Malaysiakini
Photo source: Malaysiakini