HOUSE RENOVATION CONTROL IN KLANG VALLEY: A BASELINE DOCUMENTATION OF LOCAL AUTHORITY PRACTICES AND ENFORCEMENT MECHANISMS

Abstract

House renovation is an established and culturally recognized practice in Malaysian urban areas, yet unauthorized renovation activity remains widespread despite mandatory approval requirements under the Street, Drainage and Building Act 1974 (Act 133) and Uniform Building By-Laws (Amendment) 2021. The implementation of building control at the local authority level has been identified as a primary compliance determinant, but systematic documentation of the current practices across local authorities remains limited. This paper documents house renovation regulatory practices across eight city and municipal councils in Klang Valley through semi-structured interviews with Building Control Department staff. Three operational dimensions were examined: clarity and accessibility of renovation guidelines and checklists; monitoring, complaint management, and enforcement mechanisms; and data collection for tracking illegal renovation activity. Findings reveal material variation across all three dimensions, including differences in checklist comprehensiveness, monitoring frequency, complaint management formalization, and illegal renovation tracking methodology. Two councils maintain no terrace house inventory records, and no uniform tracking methodology exists across the study authorities. These findings provide baseline documentation of the current institutional practices, informing evidence-based policy harmonization aligned with the regulatory reform priorities of the Thirteenth Malaysia Plan (2026-2030).