Singaporean fined record $600,000 for unauthorised dormitory accomodation
URA regulations specify that exclusive houses can only house up to six unrelated persons.
“Unauthorised dormitory accommodation not just adversely affects the residence appearance of the neighbourhood, but also negatively affects the dwellers, that might be from more prone group of people that are vulnerable to exploitation,” says Martin Tan, director, Development Control Group, URA.
Following up on the MOM assessments, which happened in December 2017 and March 2018, URA’s searches exposed that 15 international workers were living in 1012B Upper Serangoon Roadway. Another 16 and 17 international people were identified to be living in 32H Lorong 22 Geylang and 32J Lorong 22 Geylang, respectively.
Blossoms By The Park condo floor plan
URA says that Tan admitted that he knew the tenancy policies however decided to wage the unauthorised transformation of the premises anyway.
Enforcement officers from the Ministry of Manpower had checked private homes connected to Tan and found that the number of dwellers staying there had extensively surpassed URA’s occupancy cap rules.
Further investigations unearthed the reality that Tan had indeed been offering dorm room accommodation at those properties for approximately 2 years, which he had actually changed 8 other private residential properties to unauthorised dormitory rental in between 2016 to 2018. The quantity of tenants in each unit differed from seven to 23.
According to a URA press release on June 14, a 72-year-old Singaporean guy, Tan Hock Keng, was convicted of 3 counts of turning private residential properties to unauthorised dormitory rental. On May 30, he was penalized a record $600,000, with the highest fine of $200,000 inflicted for each and every charge.
He adds: “URA will definitely remain to get solid enforcement acts facing criminals, involving land owner, tenants, agents and any person identified to have flouted URA’s guidelines on the rental or subletting of private residential properties”.
