Since young, one of my ambitions (u see, i have few ambitions as contingency) was to become a lawyer by profession, just like Tom Cruise in the Firm. Reasons are self-explanatory i guess if you look at him in this photo.

Mitch McDeere- As a rookie attorney with a lawnmower-sounding name, Cruise got in over his head at a firm that treated the law as an afterthought.

However,due to unforeseen circumstances I didn’t make it for some pathetic reasons. Never mind that i didn’t make it as I learnt more about this profession last week.

Few weeks back, i got a call from Koh Kim Leng law firm asking me if I have the time to stop by @ their office as the lawyer in charge of my house loan would like to pass me the complete documents regarding my 1st house which i bought almost 6 yrs ago as he already tendered his resignation and leaving soon. I thanked him for his kind intention, then made the arrangement in last week to meet him up for the said purpose.

In Malaysia, when we buy any  property, we got to engage a Conveyancing lawyer to help us to prepare the necessary documents for the transfer of real property, such as deeds and mortgages. And the fees charged by them is usually quite exorbitant in the range of few thousands RM$. This fee, besides paying legal fees to the solicitor, will have to pay to the Collector of Stamp Duties, stamp duty on the Sale and Purchase Agreement; the Memorandum of Transfer; and the facility or Loan Agreement with the Bank and the Memorandum of Charge. Just simply plenty of documents if you have done this before. To exaggerate the complications entailed, the S&P doc    ( 4 copies altogether) need to be signed on every single page. The unfortunate thing is not all aforementioned docs are ready at one point,some could take months pending for approvals given by the land office or the bank.

To make matter worse, couple of months ago, i applied for a refinancing package to another bank and this had added further docs attached to this property. It is due to this refinancing exercise, Mr. Tan Kim Yong, the lawyer has traced back my case and found that I do not possess all docs till today, after 6 long years.

In my earlier perception, i am always inclined to think that professional people like lawyer, doctor & accountant are not only exclusive in their knowledge  but also having a higher sense of responsibility, integrity & capability. Maybe i should explain what do i mean by this.

Once you engaged a lawyer to do the conveyancing, you are bound to expect the lawyer will take care of your documents,file properly for you and explain to you in details eventually once everything (the S&P, Memorandum of Transfer,Memorandum of Charge & other necessary docs) are ready or approved. BUT to my surprise, it didn’t work our this way at least from this firm. The very 1st lawyer who handled my case had left the law firm without ensuring my case/filings is properly executed. Few years back, i remembered that this well suited talkkok assured me he will do that once everything is back from the land office but as the years past, i was not even called or mailed anything from this law firm.

Upon reaching there and after introduction, Mr.Tan professionally sorted out which docs are useful for future use (e.g. selling off the house) & did the filing for me before handing over to me. A few inches thick documents only contains 7 important docs at the end.I suppose this is part of the lawyer fee that we paid for. He even took the efforts to explain the chronological events leading to the files existence,starting from the very first  S&P,then bank loan agreement/facility,land title transfer,home title transfer from MBMB…etc. If he never did this to me, those taking over his cases will not do the same to me for the many yrs to come. To my horror, i also came to know that under Malaysia law, every law firm can dispose of all documents after storing for more than 7 yrs . Next year will be the 7th yr for my case!

This is the file to be scrapped after 7 yrs if not claimed by the owner.

Mr. Tan cited a case which one of his clients had failed in selling off his house to a prospective buyer just because the docs were missing and required weeks to be traced back. Retrieving these missing docs will also cost you unnecessary levy charge from the bank or government agency.

In a nutshell, if you think every lawyer is taught to be responsible for their clients,you better think twice!

Update on 24 Mar @ 1032: Professionalism does not guarantee Accountability & Trustworthiness

Have you not done the above, better to check out before the firm send for scrap! Don’t just ask for discount from the lawyer but what services you are getting.

If you think Tan KY is a good one, you can try him out. He is starting his own law firm next month. This is him:

At least, now i know not every lawyer is just like Tom Cruise thus i said at the very beginning it does not matter if I am not one today.