Arifin Zakaria JCA (delivering judgment of the court):

BACKGROUND

[1]This is an appeal by the first and second appellants (the third and fourth defendants in the court below) against the decision of the learned High Court judge in allowing the plaintiff's claim. We dismissed the appeal, but we reduced the award of damages from RM208,587 to RM172,673. We now give our reasons for our decision.

THE UNDISPUTED FACTS

[2]By a sale and purchase agreement dated the 6 September 1985 ('the SPA'), the respondent/plaintiff agreed to purchase from the first defendant the property referred to as Ground Floor, Lot A, Wisma Shing Yin ('the subject property') at the agreed price of RM170,000. The subject property is erected on the land comprised in the land title known as Country Lease No 215328055 ('the said land'). At the time of the sale transaction, no subsidiary title had been issued in respect of the subject property.

[3]The respondent came to know about the subject property through an advertisement put up by the first defendant in a local newspaper. To finance the purchase, the respondent obtained a loan of RM102,000 from S Y Jie Credit Sdn Bhd ('the credit company'). A loan agreement was entere