Developer sued over land use

JAKARTA (JP): A housing developer is facing two lawsuits in a land dispute in Meruya Udik, West Jakarta, where it constructed a housing complex.

The first lawsuit is to be filed by its customers, while the other will be filed by the West Jakarta Mayoralty.

More than forty customers have complained that they have paid PT Tiwa Muda Contractor for their houses but have not received valid certificates for their properties.

PT Tiwa Muda constructed 164 houses for employees of PT Unilever. They bought the houses under a credit plan through state-owned bank BTN. Now 42 of them have paid their debts, but the West Jakarta agrarian office has not issued Tiwa Muda the certificates because the West Jakarta Mayoralty claims that some of the land (around 1.1 hectares) used by the developer is its property.

Executives of the developer say that it has paid its land compensation to the mayoralty.

To settle the dispute, PT Tiwa Muda and the West Jakarta Mayoralty have held a series of meetings. At the Aug. 15 deadline set by the mayoralty, however, both sides had yet to come to terms.

A West Jakarta mayoralty official said that it is ready to file a lawsuit against the developer. "I have agreed to bring the land dispute to court," said Solihin, a West Jakarta Mayor Assistant in charge of administrative affairs.

The customers have also announced their readiness to file a lawsuit against the developer. "We are ready to go to court," said Sukayat, a representative of the residents.(29)