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That's exactly what my reaction is yesterday while I just arrive Labuan for a case. Not long after I walked into my client's office, my phone rang... NON STOP and I thought what's going on. It's this matter with Tenom Land office... my client is the purchaser of this piece of land held at Tenom and the owners consisted of 4 of them. My client is a very rich person and he is never cautious with the legal issues might arise in purchasing of lands and property. All in his mind would be to pay and get it if he wants it. Hence, he gave us instruction to proceed the matter to purchase this piece of land in Tenom about a month ago. He wanted to pay the owners in one lump sum even before his name is entered into the title deed. As his lawyer, of course I have to warn him on certain situation which might happen if we are not careful. Upon being advised, he therefore ask me to proceed with what is BEST for him. However, as it's TENOM land... We need to do all the transfer at Tenom land office. While we were doing our job, the owners has insisted that we pass to them all the documents and they go all the way to the Tenom land office to get it done. Somehow, my client agreed until I said NO to it and sent my colleague to go with them to the land office together with the owners. We lodged everything and our letter was tendered and acknowleged ... and promised us that once the title is registered in the purchaser's name, they will send it back to us by courier (which normally is the case for outstation cases).

Last week, one of the owner called us up and scolded us for not picking the title deed up. We arranged by all our efforts to collect it and/or asking them to send to us by courier. They have agreed but.... 2 days ago, I received my runner's call telling me that the title deed was taken by the owners....

Now... do you understand the situation? First... I have no idea how the land office can possibly pass the title deed to the owners... as we , the law firm who lodged that into the Tenom Land Office and how can athey pass it back to the owner? My first reaction is, what now if the owners run away with the title deed? Who should I blame to? Of course I am not at fault here. All I need is to act naive and issue the land office a letter asking about the status of the transfer and if they cannot produce a reasonable answer, I will lodge a police report and sue them. Secondly, I seriously wonder if it's a scum...

Anyway, thank God my client called me up yesterday and I was told they have received the title. As the title was not sent to me, I asked them to issue me a letter confirming that they have received the title and ask them to give me instruction to release the balance of the purchase price to the owners.

One of the owner called and scolded us for delaying their matters and now that they cannot receive the money on time, etc, etc.... and so, they are not happy, etc... and she start scolding through the phone until all those besides me including my client at Labuan heard them and ask me what happen. Oh well, obviously, I hang up the phone while she was still talking...

My first reaciton was not to issue them money within this week. Of course that thought left after a while and I started to sms my partner and ask her for her favour to sort things out for me, which she did ... and of course her tones sounds very much nicer and sweeter and the owners didn't make noise and they came to collect the cheques just a moment ago. My colleague told me they apologise to me for making too much noise yesterday... oh well, the moment I knew they are arriving, I left my office... to buy lunch. Didn't even want to see them at all.

Well, just to take precaution, I therefore sms my client to ask him to get a land search (xerox) done to check if the Land Registry Copy reflected the same ... and my client doesn't seems bother.. and called back said it is ok. He trusted the owners... Oh well... if that's the case, why do I bother, right?

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