ASIAONE : Housing agent sublet flat illegally three times

Housing agent sublet flat illegally three times

HDB will now acquire his flat as they step up enforcement against illegal sub-letting. -AsiaOne

Fri, Mar 12, 2010
AsiaOne

In 2007, Mr Poh Boon Kay, a registered real estate agent with five other properties, bought his 4-room Bukit Batok flat at $150,000 without any loans, listing his wife, Mdm Khoo Kim Cheng as occupier.

However, in November 2009, the Housing and Development Board (HDB) discovered that Mr Poh was actually subletting the flat - without HDB's prior approval - to 3 Burmese couples (six adults and one child) at a monthly rent of $1,900. Mr Poh and his family were not residing in the flat.

Two weeks later, HDB informed him that unless the unauthorised sub-tenants are evicted, HDB would take compulsory acquisition action. As the subtenants continued to stay in the flat, a Notice of Board's Intention to compulsorily acquire the flat was served on December 23. On the same day, he said the sub-tenants had signed an undertaking that they would vacate the flat by the end of December.

Mr Poh appealed the next day, claiming that he rented out the flat to the sub-tenants while they worked out their finances in order to buy the flat from him.

When interviewed, he and his wife claimed they did not know that they needed to seek prior approval from HDB before subletting the flat, or that they needed to fulfill the Minimum Occupation Period (MOP) of three years before they are eligible to do so.

Two other cases of illegal sub-letting

HDB subsequently discovered that Mr Poh is related to two more cases of unauthorised sub-letting.

In the second case, he acted as the housing agent for his 91-year-old aunt, whose flat was sublet without HDB's approval to Burmese monks at a monthly rent of $1,400 since July last year. They had used it as a meditation centre, with monthly rents paid out to Mr Poh.

The third case involved his daughter's Telok Blangah flat which was again sublet without HDB's consent to subtenants for $900 a month.

According to a statement released by the HDB, "With these further instances of unauthorised subletting related to Mr. Poh, his claims that he is "unaware" of HDB rules cannot be substantiated. Furthermore, these regulations are publicly available from many sources such as HDB's InfoWeb or service hotline. There is clear evidence that Mr Poh, a housing agent by profession, has been intentionally abusing HDB flats for monetary gains."

HDB has now taken legal action to compulsorily acquire Mr Poh's flat. It plans to take the same action towards his aunt's and daughter's flats as well.

HDB ramps up enforcement against unauthorised subletting

In its statement, HDB said it 'would like to emphasize the severity of unauthorised subletting'.

It said it would take action in those who commit this infringement, from penalties that ranged from fines of $1,000 to $21,000, to repossession of flat. 56 owners have received these penalties from January 2008 to December 2009.

Flat owners who wish to sublet their whole flat must obtain approval from HDB and fulfil the Minimum Occupation Period (MOP). The current MOP for the subletting of flats is as follows:

Flats bought directly from HDB: 5 years
Resale flats purchased with CPF Housing Grant: 5 years
Resale flats purchased without CPF Housing Grant: 3 years
They must also comply with HDB's terms and conditions. For instance, the maximum number of subtenants allowed. 1-Room and 2-Room flats are allowed a maximum of four persons, 3-room flats can have 6 persons, while 4-Room and bigger flat types can have 9 persons in total.

Residents are encouraged to call our dedicated hotline at 1800-5556370 [Monday to Friday - 8am to 5pm] to report any suspected cases.