THE certificate of fitness (CF) is an official document issued by the Local Authority to acknowledge that a certain building is safe and can be occupied.

According to the Uniform Building By-laws 1994 (UBBL), no one can occupy or be allowed to occupy any part of a building unless a CF or a temporary CF has been issued according to the Street, Drainage and Buildings Act.

If this is not adhered to, the person can be charged in court. The CF can be issued only after certain conditions as stipulated in the UBBL are followed. The CF will be issued after:

• the person submitting the plan, such as an architect, has acknowledged in writing or in the application form, that is, Form E, that he had supervised the construction of the building. To his knowledge, the building has been built according to provisions under the UBBL. He has agreed to take full responsibility for the parts related to them;
• officers of the Local Authority have inspected the building; and
• conditions imposed by the Local Authority when approving the building plans pertaining ti basic amenities such as access roads, landscape, parking space, drainage, water, electricity, elevators, fire hydrant, garbage disposal and other facilities have been prepared.

Usually these basic amenities are verified by the related technical agencies such as the Waterworks Department, Tenaga Nasional, Fire and Rescue Department, the Works Department and others.

Once a building has been completed, a certificate of fitness, or CF, must be issued by the local council before the buyer can move in. In this article, we look at who is responsible for obtaining the CF and how it is done.

In other words, the CF application can only be put forward by the person who submits the plan such as an architect or the developer who has supervised the building construction. The local council will only issue the CF after all the conditions stipulated have been met. This is to ensure that building is safe for occupancy by the buyer.

Changes were made to the UBBL in 1999. They are as follows:

• A CF is not needed for bungalows built separately but the architect needs to issue a certificate of completion and compliance.
• For other building, the CF is deemed issued although the relevant local council has not issued it within 14 days after the date the application or Form E has been received.

However, these amendments to the UBBL will only take effect after all states gazette the changes. House buyers who want to do renovation can only do so after the CF has been issued by the Local Authority.

Nevertheless, the buyer needs to obtain approval from the Local Authority first. The developer is responsible for the building for 18 months from the date of the Vacant Possesion or from the date the keys are given to the buyer. If there are some defects in the building such as leakage in the ceiling or water pipes during that period, the onus is on the developer to repair the damage.

Structural failures such as cracks are the responsibility of the life span of the building. House buyers facing these problems should report to the local councils with details and photographs to facilitate the investigations.

Under the UBBL, the Local Authority can order the original consulting engineers to furnish the plans of the report explaining the courses of the defects during the time stipulated. In the case of failure on the part of the consulting engineers to cooperate, the local council or the owner of the building can lodge a report to the Board of Engineers Malaysia for the necessary action