Action against Errant Renovation Contractors
Ministry of Trade and IndustrySpeakers
Summary
This question concerns Er Dr Lee Bee Wah’s inquiry into the number of errant renovation contractors taken to Court and measures preventing them from forming new companies to continue unfair practices. Minister for Trade and Industry (Industry) S Iswaran noted that while the Consumers Association of Singapore receives 400 complaints annually, most are resolved through mediation, with 160 cases filed yearly with the Small Claims Tribunal. The Minister emphasized the CaseTrust-RCMA accreditation scheme's role in consumer protection and detailed 2016 amendments to the Consumer Protection (Fair Trading) Act. These amendments empower SPRING Singapore as an investigating agency and allow Courts to require errant retailers to publicise injunctions and disclose changes to their business entities. These regulations, effective by end 2016, enable the monitoring of contractors to ensure compliance and prevent them from continuing misdeeds under new companies.
Transcript
45 Er Dr Lee Bee Wah asked the Minister for Trade and Industry (Industry) (a) how many errant interior renovation contractors have been taken to Court over renovation disputes in the past three years; and (b) what regulations are in place to prevent errant contractors from setting up a new company to continue their misdeeds.
Mr S Iswaran: Renovation disputes may pertain to unfair practices. The Consumer Protection (Fair Trading) Act (CPFTA) protects consumers against unfair practices by retailers of goods and services, including renovation contractors. The Consumers Association of Singapore (CASE) received consumer feedback on about 400 renovation contractors annually from 2013 to September 2016, or about 6% of renovation businesses in Singapore. CASE successfully helped the majority of these consumers to resolve the disputes through negotiation and mediation. CASE did not file any injunction application with the Courts against renovation contractors over disputes related to unfair practices under CPFTA. Separately, about 160 consumer cases filed with the Small Claims Tribunal (SCT) each year were disputes on renovations.
CASE has worked with the Singapore Renovation Contractors and Material Suppliers Association (RCMA) on the CaseTrust-RCMA accreditation scheme. Renovation contractors who are CaseTrust-RCMA-accredited provide prepayment protection and offer consumers a CaseTrust standard renovation contract which provides consumers with cost transparency and accountability on deliverables.
The Ministry of Trade and Industry regularly reviews CPFTA to ensure that it remains relevant and offers appropriate protection for consumers. The CPFTA Bill was passed in Parliament on 13 September 2016. The amendments strengthen the measures that may be taken against errant retailers, including renovation contractors, who persist in unfair practices. These include appointing SPRING Singapore (SPRING) as the administering agency with investigation and enforcement powers, and additional measures that the Courts may impose on errant retailers, such as requiring them to publicise injunction orders and notify SPRING of changes to their employment status and business entities.
This enables SPRING to monitor businesses and individuals who are under injunction orders to ensure that they comply with the orders and SPRING will take timely action against them if they do not. The changes will come into effect by end 2016.