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HDB should be empowered to enter flats to investigate leak cases: Khaw

SINGAPORE – The government is looking at amending the legislation to empower the Housing and Development Board (HDB) to enter flats to carry out necessary investigations and repairs about leaks in the ceilings.

HDB flats as seen from Mt Faber. Photo: Wee Teck Hian

HDB flats as seen from Mt Faber. Photo: Wee Teck Hian

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SINGAPORE – The government is looking at amending the legislation to empower the Housing and Development Board (HDB) to enter flats to carry out necessary investigations and repairs about leaks in the ceilings.

National Development Minister Khaw Boon Wan wrote on his blog today (Dec 22) that some of such disputes can drag for weeks and months.

In fact, about 25 per cent of the complaints HDB receive concern ceiling leakages in HDB flats. For HDB estates, the responsibility for maintaining flats and addressing such leakages fall on both the upper and lower floor flats.

The HDB has a Goodwill Repair Assistance scheme to help residents with subsidised repair costs and 140, 000 households have benefitted from it since it’s rolled out in 2001. In the large majority of the cases, Mr Khaw said repair works such as waterproofing have to be done within the upper-floor units.

However, he pointed that there are some cases where the upper-floor residents have been uncooperative. “They refuse to allow entry by the HDB to the flat to investigate and carry out repairs,” he said. “This delays the repair unnecessarily and meanwhile, the lower-floor residents suffer the inconveniences”.

Each year, Mr Khaw said about 30 per cent or 2,800 ceiling leak cases take more than three months to resolve due to uncooperative neighbours. More help have to be given to residents who are inconvenienced by neighbours who refuse to cooperate, he said.

“Minimally, HDB should be given the power to enter the flat for the purpose of carrying out the necessary investigations and repairs,” said Mr Khaw. “ We will need to amend the legislation to empower the HDB to do so”.

The HDB said repair works involve replacing the waterproofing membrane at the upper floor unit.

From time to time, HDB faces challenges to secure the cooperation and understanding from owners of the upper floor units to enter their flats first for investigation and later for repairs. The HDB said it is a minority of cases, although the owners do not allow their officers to access into their flats, keep changing appointments or cannot be contacted.

However, about 70 per cent of cases were resolved within three months, shorter and more amicably when residents cooperate with each other through mutual understanding.

For cases which are protracted, HDB said it will try to persuade upper floor owners to cooperate and if need be involve the grassroots leaders in the mediation. However after repeated attempts, HDB said it will have no choice but to initiate legal action as a last resort. Last year, the HDB had to initiate legal action against 154 flat owners for this reason.

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