I really really really hate lawyers….
While I have only dealt with one firm, that has been more than enough to cement my absolute dislike and distrust of lawyers.
The balance of my ‘profit’ in selling off my house had been sitting in THEIR bank, gathering them FREE INTEREST, for months. Why? “Oh, I was told you were overseas, so we wait until you come back lah before we can pay out the balance.”
Three weeks later, it’s still sitting in their coffers…
To give him (let’s call him Rahar) a *bit* of credit, Rahar could not issue the $$ to me until the Real Property Gains Tax had been settled with LHDN… The thing is, I wanted to exercise my once-in-a-lifetime waiver of this tax, and Rahar had submitted the necessary paperwork. I’m guessing that LHDN took a look at the amount due, and decided that I didn’t know what I was talking about (which was true… I had no idea how much the tax was gonna be maaah), and sent ME an order to pay the tax, without any c.c to Rahar.
So, one of my first calls when I got back to KL earlier this month was to Rahar to ask if everything was settled, and didn’t he owe ME some money? According to Rahar, he had called LHDN many times to ask about the status of my case, but never got any reply (huh?? Hmmmmmm…). He seemed quite surprised when I told him I had received the pay order from LHDN, asked me to fax it to him so he could follow-up with LHDN. Along with the fax I told him to go ahead and pay the tax, andI’d keep my exemption for another time.
A week later, it took me having to call him again before I got him to say that he would go ahead and issue the cheque and make payment to LHDN.
About two weeks later I called to find out what was going on: “Oh, I memang nak ask the dispatch boy to go pick up the receipt tomorrow.” I was like “takkan it takes so long for LHDN to issue a receipt?!”, and he was all about kena tunggu cheque clear dulu… uhuh… for two weeks??!! and yeah I bet it really was a coincidence that I called the day before he was gonna get the receipt..
Anyway, so that was Monday. If Tuesday was when the receipt was gonna be picked up, Tuesday would ALSO be the day they start processing the cheque to be made out to me. So I told Rahar I’d be in the KLCC area on Tues and Wednesday, please make sure it’s ready by then for me to pick up.
No word from him… so I called on Wednesday, but he was away for the afternoon. Left a message saying I wanted to pick up my cheque the next day (Thursday).
No call back at all... (are you even surprised?)
So this morning, I called… can you guess what he said? “Yes, the cheque baru ready semalam, but you said you were only going to be in KL on Tuesday or Wednesday...”
Oh my goddddddd!! What is so difficult about calling me once the cheque is ready, just to inform me? Then I can say whether I will drop by and pick it up, or ask them to courier it to me! Geramnyeeeeeeeee!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
So, Ladies & Gentlemen, at around 3pm today, the cheque should be in my hands… and I will be zipping off to deposit into my bank immediately! Unfortunately there is no way the cheque is going to clear by tomorrow, and it's a long weekend what with May Day and all, so I am still going to rugi quite a few days’ interest until the $$ finally gets where it should be! Nevermind... otherwise the $$ would stay even longer in their account generating free interest for them!! Thieves, that's what they are: thieves!
There isn’t much use complaining about it, is there?
After all, this is the same firm that accepted handover of the keys of this house, masa I was buying the house dulu, WITHOUT inspection of the premises as stipulated in the Sale & Purchase Agreement! So when I finally did get to the house, I found the kitchen window was open and cats had used the sink for their toilet!!!! And my complaint was pretty much brushed aside; all they were concerned with was paying the owners a.s.a.p., nothing to do with the integrity of the house being handed over.
This is one of those situations where my blood goes upstairs but realistically all I can do is vent here. :(
On a slightly positive note, I must say that there are two lawyer-type people within my ex-employer – one who has functioned as a mentor and sounding board; the other who is a living example of still being a unique individual within the usually stifling corporate world – who are exempt from my otherwise blanket curse on lawyers!
Have a good (long) weekend everybody!
While I have only dealt with one firm, that has been more than enough to cement my absolute dislike and distrust of lawyers.
The balance of my ‘profit’ in selling off my house had been sitting in THEIR bank, gathering them FREE INTEREST, for months. Why? “Oh, I was told you were overseas, so we wait until you come back lah before we can pay out the balance.”
Three weeks later, it’s still sitting in their coffers…
To give him (let’s call him Rahar) a *bit* of credit, Rahar could not issue the $$ to me until the Real Property Gains Tax had been settled with LHDN… The thing is, I wanted to exercise my once-in-a-lifetime waiver of this tax, and Rahar had submitted the necessary paperwork. I’m guessing that LHDN took a look at the amount due, and decided that I didn’t know what I was talking about (which was true… I had no idea how much the tax was gonna be maaah), and sent ME an order to pay the tax, without any c.c to Rahar.
So, one of my first calls when I got back to KL earlier this month was to Rahar to ask if everything was settled, and didn’t he owe ME some money? According to Rahar, he had called LHDN many times to ask about the status of my case, but never got any reply (huh?? Hmmmmmm…). He seemed quite surprised when I told him I had received the pay order from LHDN, asked me to fax it to him so he could follow-up with LHDN. Along with the fax I told him to go ahead and pay the tax, andI’d keep my exemption for another time.
A week later, it took me having to call him again before I got him to say that he would go ahead and issue the cheque and make payment to LHDN.
About two weeks later I called to find out what was going on: “Oh, I memang nak ask the dispatch boy to go pick up the receipt tomorrow.” I was like “takkan it takes so long for LHDN to issue a receipt?!”, and he was all about kena tunggu cheque clear dulu… uhuh… for two weeks??!! and yeah I bet it really was a coincidence that I called the day before he was gonna get the receipt..
Anyway, so that was Monday. If Tuesday was when the receipt was gonna be picked up, Tuesday would ALSO be the day they start processing the cheque to be made out to me. So I told Rahar I’d be in the KLCC area on Tues and Wednesday, please make sure it’s ready by then for me to pick up.
No word from him… so I called on Wednesday, but he was away for the afternoon. Left a message saying I wanted to pick up my cheque the next day (Thursday).
No call back at all... (are you even surprised?)
So this morning, I called… can you guess what he said? “Yes, the cheque baru ready semalam, but you said you were only going to be in KL on Tuesday or Wednesday...”
Oh my goddddddd!! What is so difficult about calling me once the cheque is ready, just to inform me? Then I can say whether I will drop by and pick it up, or ask them to courier it to me! Geramnyeeeeeeeee!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
So, Ladies & Gentlemen, at around 3pm today, the cheque should be in my hands… and I will be zipping off to deposit into my bank immediately! Unfortunately there is no way the cheque is going to clear by tomorrow, and it's a long weekend what with May Day and all, so I am still going to rugi quite a few days’ interest until the $$ finally gets where it should be! Nevermind... otherwise the $$ would stay even longer in their account generating free interest for them!! Thieves, that's what they are: thieves!
There isn’t much use complaining about it, is there?
After all, this is the same firm that accepted handover of the keys of this house, masa I was buying the house dulu, WITHOUT inspection of the premises as stipulated in the Sale & Purchase Agreement! So when I finally did get to the house, I found the kitchen window was open and cats had used the sink for their toilet!!!! And my complaint was pretty much brushed aside; all they were concerned with was paying the owners a.s.a.p., nothing to do with the integrity of the house being handed over.
This is one of those situations where my blood goes upstairs but realistically all I can do is vent here. :(
On a slightly positive note, I must say that there are two lawyer-type people within my ex-employer – one who has functioned as a mentor and sounding board; the other who is a living example of still being a unique individual within the usually stifling corporate world – who are exempt from my otherwise blanket curse on lawyers!
Have a good (long) weekend everybody!
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