I WAS gratified to know that the Court of Appeal dismissed an application for the collective sale of Horizon Towers.

As a non-signatory to a collective who fought for two long years against having his home sold at a price below the market rate, I can empathise only too well with other non-signatories in similar situations.

Despite assurances by the authorities that minority interests in collective sales should be safeguarded, there are gaps in the law.

I applaud the minority owners and Senior Counsel K.S. Rajah and his team, who persevered despite the odds.

The most credit should go to the Court of Appeal, which relooked the case despite earlier rulings by the High Court and the Strata Titles Board.

I have a few suggestions on how the law on collective sales could be improved:

• Once the 80 per cent majority is achieved, collective-sale committees (CSCs) do not always seek the views of the signatories who appointed them.
• Make it mandatory for CSCs to report on a regular basis and penalise those which fail to do so.
• Require CSCs to seek a fresh mandate from signatories for actions such as giving an extension to buyers.
• Prosecute CSCs who fail to deliver on their promises or who conspire or collude with agents, buyers and other interested parties bent on achieving a collective sale at any cost.
• Give signatories to collective- sale agreements the right to appear and be heard before the Strata Titles Board and the courts.

• They should also be allowed to oppose an application for a collective sale.

The laws on collective sales were mooted with a view to rejuvenating the beautiful garden city that is Singapore and to provide for Singaporeans' housing needs.

A popular misconception is that all buyers of developments in collective sales are developers.

This is not always true. Speculators also join in the fray, especially when they are aided by agents who suppress offers from genuine developers.

They seek to buy a property below market rate and sell it later for a profit at market price.

Such profits are made at the expense of homeowners who are not only uprooted, but who would have problems finding replacement homes without making a significant loss.

Mr Vijay Kumar Rai

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