Recourse for Residents Faced With Long-term Water Seepage Problems in HDB Flats

17 Ms Carrie Tan asked the Minister for National Development (a) what recourse is provided for residents suffering from unsolvable long-term water seepage disamenities in their HDB flats; and (b) whether the Ministry will consider some form of compensation or buy the flats back at market price from residents whose water seepage cases remain unresolved after a certain number of years and who may not be able to sell the flat to other buyers.

The Senior Minister of State for National Development (Mr Tan Kiat How) (for the Minister for National Development): Mr Speaker, water seepage in the Housing and Development Board (HDB) flats could come from various sources such as from the external wall or from the flat above. This is due to wear and tear of joints at the external walls, or waterproofing of the ceiling or floors over time.

As the external walls of HDB blocks are common property, Town Councils are responsible for investigating and repairing external wall leaks reported to them. For leaks in the ceiling or floor slabs between two flats, it is the responsibility of lower and upper floor flat owners to collectively resolve the situation.

For challenging and complex cases, that usually involve multiple sources of leaks, Town Councils or residents may approach HDB for advice.

As water seepage issues can be resolved once the sources of leaks have been identified and repair works are duly carried out, there are no plans for HDB to offer compensation or to buy back the flats.

Mr Speaker: Ms Carrie Tan.

Ms Carrie Tan (Nee Soon): I thank the Senior Minister of State for the answer. However, we have several units and these are residents with very exceptional cases where the water seepage disamenity has been unsolved for many years. And with the recent rain and the continuous rain, it is causes a daily disamenity and disrupts their lives, in some cases, even causing fall risks amongst family members. With the ageing population, this is going to be more common – and of course – climate changes that is causing more rain.

Is the Ministry looking into improving or finding doing research, to improve either the quality of the material used in our buildings or the method of constructing our buildings, to ensure that going forward, such exceptional weather conditions will not create such a conundrum, and I think, an actual risk to residents who are staying in the flats.

And for those who are already facing this situation, will the Ministry consider some alternatives, such as an interim temporary housing solution until the problem has been solved. And I would like to emphasise that for these cases, it is not due to any lack of effort either by the Town Councils or the HDB departments involved, but it is just really difficult to trace and technically difficult to solve.

Mr Tan Kiat How: Mr Speaker, I thank the Member for her supplementary question. Firstly, I must assure the Member that we empathise with the situation of those flat unit owners. For those few flats that the Member mentioned, we are in close contact with the flat owners, as well as the Town Councils to look at some of the issues. Some of these cases are for older flats, more than a few decades old, there will be wear and tear and there could be multiple sources of the water seepage which could be from external facade, or could be from the floor slabs or ceilings or could be due to other reasons.

And for those cases, we have been working very closely with the Town Councils, as well as the flat owner to carry out tests, to identify the sources of leaks, to recommend methods and procedures to try to rectify the situation. And my assurance to the Member is that HDB will continue to work very closely with the Town Councils and the flat owners to rectify and resolve those issues. So, I give my assurance to the Member that we will continue working on those.

Her other question is around the research into material, these are areas that HDB has been investing in for a number of years – over more than a decade of research into materials – into how we can resolve some of these common issues that we see in HDB blocks.

Mr Speaker: Mr Gan Thian Poh.

Mr Gan Thiam Poh (Ang Mo Kio): I thank the Senior Minister of State for the reply. I just want to ask: since the law has been changed to compel the owners of the above units who refuse to cooperate to work together to help repair the ceiling leakage issue, so far, how many cases has been taken to Court for enforcement?

Mr Tan Kiat How: Mr Speaker, the Member Mr Gan ask about – if my understanding is correct – the ceiling leaks, where under the HDB lease, the maintenance of party structure, the joint responsibility of both the upper and lower floor flat owners. And when there is a leak, due to wear and tear, both parties would have to rectify the leak and share the repair cost.

Nonetheless, HDB, through the Goodwill Repair Assistance (GRA) scheme try to provide some help to both the flat owners at the upper floor and the lower floor. The main objective of the GRA scheme is to assist flat owners particularly for ceiling leaks where some upper and lower floor flat owners face difficulty in reaching an agreement in getting a contractor to carry out repairs. The GRA scheme was implemented administratively since April 2001, and HDB arranges for repair works and co-pays 50% of the cost, and the other remaining 50% will be co-shared between the upper floor and the lower floor flat owners, kept at $300 per repair location.

I do not have details about the cases where enforcement investigation has undertaken, and to the Member's question about when such cases have gone further than having a conversation, if the Member would like, he can file a separate Parliamentary Question on that.

Mr Speaker: Assoc Prof Jamus Lim.

Assoc Prof Jamus Jerome Lim (Sengkang): My question actually builds on the hon Members' questions here. I wonder if the Senior Minister of State would be willing to elaborate on the tolerable timeline with which these kind of disputes are accepted before they are ultimately resolved. The reason why I ask is because it is often the case that, especially, when the leak emanates from the upper floor, it does not really affect one neighbour but it affects the downstairs neighbour, and this often leads to a lot of foot-dragging, in terms of their willingness to proceed with their cost-sharing.

Mr Tan Kiat How: Mr Speaker, to Member Assoc Prof Jamus' question about tolerable timeframe, from HDB's point of view and I think many of us – as Members of Parliament and advisors – face these complaints or feedback from residents. We want to resolve those issues as quickly as possible, understanding that it causes disamenities and inconveniences to residents, especially in the lower floor. But many of these cases requires both parties to come together. HDB can play a role to facilitate, to bring conversations together, but there may be real challenges in getting both parties to meet and talk.

For those issues, I urge all parties to come to an amicable resolution, that is what the GRA scheme is meant to help, to incentivise the resolution of the conclusion with HDB coming forward to pay 50% of the costs. So, I do encourage all Members of Parliament and advisors to speak to your residents, engage them, and if need be, please rope in the Town Councils and approach HDB. We will look at it on a case-by-case basis and try to help as much as we can.