Frequency of Maintenance Works and Audits for HDB Rental Flats

Ms Denise Phua Lay Peng asked the Minister for National Development how frequently are audits and maintenance works conducted for HDB rental flats.

Pre-COVID-19, for occupied rental flats, the Housing and Development Board (HDB) visited these flats annually to identify those that require repairs or maintenance. This practice was however disrupted when COVID-19 safe management measures were imposed and HDB conducted physical inspections in response to tenants’ feedback instead.

Post-COVID-19, HDB has been working to resume proactive inspection and maintenance but in a more efficient and sustainable way, such as by bundling and outsourcing inspection alongside other related works. Tenants can continue to alert HDB should they require repair or maintenance assistance and HDB will attend to these requests.

We will share more next year about audits and maintenance works for HDB rental flats.

I thank the Senior Minister of State. I am not sure if there were actually proactive preventive maintenance, even before COVID-19, but I will trust the Senior Minister of State for her answer. But first, I want to express my gratitude to HDB's rental headquarters department at Sims Drive for being really supportive to all my appeals so far. But as I – and I think other Members of Parliament as well – conduct house-to-house visits, I often see rental flats in conditions that are concerning: jammed gates, spoiled windows, bad peeling paint, and so on. And I wonder if there can be some urgency and to provide also more resources to the HDB rental team so that they can expedite their plans to provide more proactive, preventive maintenance for these rental flats.

I thank the Member for her supplementary questions and for also sharing her concerns for rental flat tenants staying in her area. She mentioned that in her rounds, she has observed that there were instances where there were jammed gates and windows, and also some paint peeling issues.

I would like to share that in the rental agreement with HDB, our tenants are actually responsible for the maintenance and repair of their flats, as set out in the tenancy agreement. But that said, HDB often assists with repairs of functional defects, and this would include areas such as spalling concrete, ceiling leaks and cracks, water seepage, popping tiles. We can definitely look into the instances where she had mentioned about jammed doors and gates, because this would impede their functionality.

When it comes to painting, however, this falls into the category of aesthetics in nature, and it could also be very manpower intensive. Because sometimes, the painting works are not just about the external walls or the gates, but sometimes it also involves interior painting as well. Where such situations arise, we will have to work with the tenant for the tenant to move out and for the belongings to be taken out, for us to undertake the full repainting works. In these instances, HDB will try to work with community partners to see how to help tenants during this process.