Singaporean fined record $600,000 for unauthorised dormitory accomodation
Acting on the MOM inspections, that took place in December 2017 and March 2018, URA’s inspections revealed that 15 international people were living in 1012B Upper Serangoon Road. One more 16 and 17 overseas people were found to be living in 32H Lorong 22 Geylang and 32J Lorong 22 Geylang, specifically.
URA policies state that exclusive houses can only house as much as 6 unconnected individuals.
“Unauthorised residence hall housing not just detrimentally impacts the residential character of the neighbourhood, yet also negatively impacts the dwellers, who might be from even more susceptible group of people that are susceptible to exploitation,” states Martin Tan, head, Development Control Group, URA.
According to a URA news release on June 14, a 72-year-old Singaporean male, Tan Hock Keng, was convicted of three counts of turning personal residential properties to unauthorised dorm accommodation. On May 30, he was penalized a record $600,000, with the highest damages of $200,000 enforced for every fee.
Enforcement police officers from the Ministry of Manpower had checked private houses associated to Tan and discovered that the many tenants residing there had actually substantially exceeded URA’s tenancy cap rules.
Further investigations discovered the truth that Tan had been supplying dorm room rental at those properties for about 2 years, which he had changed 8 other private residential properties to illegal dorm rental in between 2016 to 2018. The number of dwellers in each unit ranged from 7 to 23.
He includes: “URA will definitely remain to take powerful enforcement acts in opposition to perpetrators, involving property owners, renters, representatives and anybody found to have actually flouted URA’s laws on the rent or subletting of exclusive houses”.
URA claims that Tan confessed that he understood the occupancy regulations however chose to proceed with the unauthorised transformation of the facilities anyhow.
