Inspections to Proactively Identify Rental Flats that Require Repairs or Maintenance

Ms Denise Phua Lay Peng asked the Minister for National Development whether an update can be provided on the implementation of HDB’s policy on conducting periodic inspections on a yearly basis to proactively identify rental flats which require repairs or maintenance.

Sir, HDB visits occupied rental flats annually to proactively identify those that require repairs or maintenance. However, when COVID-19 safe management measures (SMMs) were imposed, HDB had to suspend this practice and physical inspections were conducted in response to tenants' feedback.

As the SMMs were progressively lifted, HDB has been working to resume periodic inspections and is reviewing the approach to prioritise inspections based on the age of the flat and the profile of tenants. We will share more details on the revised approach when ready.

Tenants can continue to alert HDB to repair or maintenance issues. HDB will attend to these requests promptly and the cost of repairs is almost always borne fully by HDB.

Besides regular maintenance, rental flats undergo upgrading similar to sold flats, as part of programmes, such as the Lift Upgrading Programme and the Home Improvement Programme. In addition, there have been specific enhancement programmes for rental flats, such as the Lift Improvement and Facilities Enhancement for the elderly, called Project LIFE.

I thank the Minister of State. I first want to acknowledge the wonderful support that is given to my division and our GRC as well, from the HDB Branch Office and the HQ rental division. They are very conscientious people.

On my house visits, though, even before COVID-19, I noticed that the preventive maintenance for issues, such as spalling concrete, peeling paint on the door gates and so on, I do not think the preventive maintenance happens annually or regularly. There could be a difference in perception leading to a lot of reactive kind of complaints for us at the Meet-the-People sessions by our residents.

So, I wonder what the cause of this is. If, indeed, the constraint is resource or maybe such duties need to be outsourced, then could the resources be granted to the people on the ground?

Sir, I assure the Member that we do the proactive annual inspection. Wherever we can, we will help as much as possible. Nevertheless, those areas, for example, what the Member shared, the gate and also relating to maintenance and repairs of internal walls, fittings, fixtures, including doors and gates, these are where tenants are responsible for.

What we do for exceptional cases – for example, for elderly tenants – is we will work with community organisations, just like the grassroots organisation in the Member's area, to see how we can partner and work together with them and see how we can help these tenants.