The Ministry of National Development (MND) is considering giving the housing board more authority to enter a flat for the purpose of investigating and repairing leaks in ceilings.
This comes after several cases of lengthy disputes involving uncooperative neighbours have inconvenienced residents.
In a blog post today, National Development Minister Khaw Boon Wan said the responsibility for addressing such leakages falls on both the upper and lower floor flats. Most of the time, repair works such as waterproofing have to be done within the upper floor units, but some residents in those flats have been difficult.
“They refuse to allow entry by the HDB to the flat to investigate and carry out repairs. This delays the repair unnecessarily and meanwhile, the lower-floor residents suffer the inconveniences,” noted Mr Khaw.
He added: “Each year, about 30% (2,800 ceiling leak cases) take more than three months to resolve due to uncooperative neighbours. In some rare cases, the resolution of the ceiling leak problem could take more than a year. This is just not satisfactory.”
The Minister explained that HDB has a Goodwill Repair Assistance scheme to help subsidise the repair costs. Introduced in 2001, the scheme has benefitted 140,000 households.
About 25 percent of the complaints HDB currently receives concern ceiling leakages. Going forward, Mr Khaw said changes to the legislation will need to be made empowering HDB to enter flats to fix the leaks more promptly.
Romesh Navaratnarajah, Singapore Editor of PropertyGuru Group, wrote this story. To contact him about this or other stories email romesh@propertyguru.com.sg
