Written Answer by Ministry of National Development on ensuring that HDB rental flats are maintained properly prior to handing over to new tenants

May 11, 2021

Mr Chua Kheng Wee Louis: To ask the Minister for National Development how does HDB ensure that its rental flats are maintained properly by tenants and whether all flats are ‘spruced up’ and reinstated to ensure that the flat is in a habitable condition prior to handing over to new tenants.

Answer:

For tenanted flats, HDB conducts periodic inspections on a yearly basis to proactively identify flats which require repairs or maintenance. Tenants may also provide feedback to HDB on areas requiring repairs or maintenance. 

For rental flats that have been returned to HDB, HDB will carry out sprucing works, such as cleaning and painting the flat, installing new locks, and repairing or replacing any defective fittings. The flats are inspected after the works have been completed, before they are let out again.  

For flats which remain vacant for some time after sprucing, HDB checks them every six months to ensure that they remain in a suitable condition for letting out to new tenants.

There was a recent incident where a rental flat tenant posted on social media about the condition of the rental flat allocated to her. The incident was due to an error where a HDB staff mistakenly thought that all the sprucing works had been completed for the affected unit. Upon discovery of the mistake, HDB immediately allocated a replacement rental flat to the affected tenant, and assisted her to move the next day. HDB has since tightened our processes to prevent another similar incident from happening.