Dear Owners,
At the sideline of our Annual General Meeting held on July 20th 2014, an owner brought up the subject of interfloor leakage to me. He inquired how this problem could be resolved because the “absent owner” of the unit above him is residing in Australia and had asked his tenant to be responsible to make good any defect caused by him.
CTMC’s stand on this matter and all other matters relating to liability is clear. Even if the owner delegates the task of making good on defects to a third party, the owner of the unit is ultimately and is still fully responsible for his unit.
I am a Housing & Development Board (HDB) flat dweller in Singapore. In this UPDATE, I like to share with you how Singapore’s HDB and Building Maintenance and Strata Management Act (BMSMA) resolve this interfloor leakage issue.
Hopefully, the information can be of help to parties in this situation in Country Towers
INTERFLOOR LEAKAGE – HDB & BMSMA (Singapore)
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HDB [Housing & Development Board] (Singapore)
According to HDB resident handbook, the upper and lower floor flat owners shall be jointly responsible for the repair. They shall jointly engage a contractor to repair the ceiling leakage and share the repair costs. In another words, repair cost shall split on 50:50 basis between the 2 parties.
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Private Non-Landed Properties (Singapore)
Based on Section 101(8) of the Building Maintenance and Strata Management Act (BMSMA) which is available on internet, the upper floor unit is presumed liable for the leakage unless he can prove to the contrary. In another words, repair cost shall be borne solely (100%) by the upper floor unit unless proven otherwise.
Before 2005, for non-landed properties in Singapore, the repair cost was split 50:50 just like HDB’s way of resolving the issue. However, there were cases whereby the upper floor unit owner pushed up repair cost by adding non-related repairs such as changing wash basin, toilet bowl etc. For this reason, the Singapore’s Strata Title Board (STB) laid out the new ruling in 2005 which required the upper floor owner to bear 100% of the cost instead of sharing.
INTERFLOOR LEAKAGE – Country Towers Condominium
As far as Country Towers Condominium is concerned, the management is following Singapore BMSMA’s formula i.e. 100% borne by the upper floor owner unless proven otherwise.
CTMC encourage owners involved to co-operate with each other and settle the issue amicably and sensibly. We would be most glad if owners of both upper and lower units adopt the sensible approach of getting together to work out a fair solution to the problem.
It is certainly not worth the while for owners to have such an issue brought to the Johor Strata Title Board for settlement, because litigation is costly and, secondly, it takes up a lot of time.