Imagine a world where Housing Development Board (HDB) personnel are able to make unsolicited visits into your flat, whether you like it or not.
That's exactly what National Development Minister Khaw Boon Wan is working towards right now — empowering HDB with the license to enter flats without consent.
The reason behind his proposal is laid out in his latest post on his Housing Matters blog. Citing the common dispute among HDB neighbors that occurs when encountering leaks in ceilings, he suggests amending the legislation to allow HDB to enter flats for the purpose of carrying out the necessary investigations and repairs.
To be fair, disputes and complaints about ceiling leakages form a major chunk of HDB's concerns. The responsibility for addressing leakages fall on both the upper and lower floor flats — but some cases have been long unresolved due to uncooperative flat owners, who refuse entry by the HDB to the flat to investigate and carry out repairs. According to the minister, about 2,800 of such cases take more than three months to resolve every year, with some rare cases that take more than 12 months to resolve.
Although his suggested measure seems a tad drastic, Khaw sees it as a solution that'll work out for residents who are inconvenienced by unyielding neighbors.
Photo: Erwin Soo via Flickr
Imagine a world where Housing Development Board (HDB) personnel are able to make unsolicited visits into your flat, whether you like it or not.
That's exactly what National Development Minister Khaw Boon Wan is working towards right now — empowering HDB with the license to enter flats without consent.
The reason behind his proposal is laid out in his latest post on his Housing Matters blog. Citing the common dispute among HDB neighbors that occurs when encountering leaks in ceilings, he suggests amending the legislation to allow HDB to enter flats for the purpose of carrying out the necessary investigations and repairs.
To be fair, disputes and complaints about ceiling leakages form a major chunk of HDB's concerns. The responsibility for addressing leakages fall on both the upper and lower floor flats — but some cases have been long unresolved due to uncooperative flat owners, who refuse entry by the HDB to the flat to investigate and carry out repairs. According to the minister, about 2,800 of such cases take more than three months to resolve every year, with some rare cases that take more than 12 months to resolve.
Although his suggested measure seems a tad drastic, Khaw sees it as a solution that'll work out for residents who are inconvenienced by unyielding neighbors.
Photo: Erwin Soo via Flickr