PUBLIC AND PRIVATE SECTOR APARTMENTS (Replacement of window rivets)

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PUBLIC AND PRIVATE SECTOR APARTMENTS:

(Replacement of window rivets): 2.

Dr Amy Khor Lean Suan asked the Minister for National Development (a) whether he can provide an update on the latest known number of public and private sector apartments that are required to, but have yet to get the rivets of their windows replaced; (b) what measures the Ministry has taken or will take to ensure that the owners of these apartments comply with the requirement by the deadline set; and (c) what are the implications for flat owners if they are unable to comply by the deadline.

3.

Dr Lily Neo asked the Minister for National Development if he will consider postponing the 30th September 2005 cut-off date for retrofitting windows in view of the fact that many owners of HDB and private apartments may have difficulty in meeting this deadline.

The Minister for National Development (Mr Mah Bow Tan): Mr Deputy Speaker, Sir, may I have your permission to take Question Nos. 2 and 3 together as they are related?

Mr Deputy Speaker: Yes.

Mr Mah Bow Tan: Sir, first of all, let me explain why we carried out the window retrofitting exercise. Last year, the incidence of falling windows rose sharply, from 107 cases in 2003 to 133 cases in 2004. They were mainly caused by corroded aluminium rivets in casement windows. In a high-rise built-up environment like ours, falling windows pose a serious danger to the life and limb of our residents. To address this, we required all casement windows fitted with aluminium rivets to be replaced with stainless steel rivets. In view of the large number of windows involved, we gave a one-year grace period.

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In the last one year, BCA and HDB embarked on a major campaign to raise public awareness on the need to retrofit their windows. This was done through direct mail to HDB residents and to management corporations of private estates, press releases, newspaper and radio advertorials, constituency exhibitions and other forums. BCA and HDB trained additional window contractors and linked them up with home-owners. Town Councils and Management Corporations were also roped in to help coordinate the window retrofitting exercise in their estates.

The response from residents has been encouraging. To date, the vast majority, or about 94%, of households required to retrofit their windows have already done so. Dr Lily Neo asked whether the deadline for retrofitting would be extended when it expires on 30th September this year. My Ministry will not be extending the deadline. It is not in the interest of public safety to do so. The grace period of one year has been more than adequate. The vast majority has had no problem complying. The small minority who has not yet done so will be given additional help to do so. Dr Amy Khor asked for a breakdown of these residents. To-date, about 12,000 units have not yet fixed their windows. Of these, 4,000 are HDB units and 8,000 are private units. They constitute about 3% of 150,000 HDB flats with casement windows that need to be retrofitted and about 20% of private flats.

Dr Khor also asked what additional measures would be taken to help those who have not retrofitted their windows. HDB and BCA have increased the number of hotlines that home-owners can call to seek assistance, and deployed more staff to tend to queries. They have also appointed more window contractors to meet the increase in demand. Home-owners who need assistance can call the HDB or BCA hotline for help.

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BCA and HDB have also taken stern actions against errant contractors who tried to take advantage of the current situation. Errant contractors who are found to be involved in malpractices like over-charging, providing misleading information or rendering poor service, would be fined or debarred from HDB contracting works. So far, HDB has taken action against 49 contractors.

Dr Khor asked about the implications for flat owners who are unable to retrofit their window rivets by the deadline. With the stepped up efforts by HDB and BCA, I expect that virtually all home-owners will be able to meet the deadline. Those who still have problems retrofitting their windows should contact HDB or BCA for advice and assistance immediately. After the deadline, BCA will take action under the window retrofitting order against home-owners who do not have valid reasons for not fixing their affected windows.

May I remind all flat-owners that this exercise is to save lives. With the cooperation of everyone, I hope we will be able to make our housing estates safe for our families, our friends and ourselves.

Dr Amy Khor Lean Suan (Hong Kah): Sir, I would like to ask the Minister, since the deadline is barely two weeks away, what would the valid reasons be for home-owners who do not retrofit their windows by the deadline. Would financial difficulties be one of the valid reasons?

I would also like, in this regard, to ask the Minister how many home-owners have approached HDB for help regarding the retrofitting of their windows due to financial difficulties. What help or advice has the HDB given to these residents? Has any home-owner been assisted by the HDB and allowed to pay the retrofitting cost, say, by instalments as the Minister had, during the Committee of Supply

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debate last year, said that home-owners in financial difficulties could approach the HDB Branch Office for assistance and some consideration could be made to allow them to pay by instalments?

Mr Mah Bow Tan: Sir, the number of residents who have approached HDB for financial assistance directly is not significant. There are a few cases which have come to the HDB directly, others have come to the MPs. In my own meet-the-people session, I have several cases also. In all these cases where the HDB assesses there is genuine financial difficulty, HDB will direct them to the relevant community organisation. Where such assistance is not available, it will also be prepared to do the retrofitting exercise and collect the payment on an instalment basis. It has also come to my notice that some contractors have, for the very poor cases, been carrying out this retrofitting exercise either on a complimentary basis or on an instalment basis. So there are several avenues available for such financial cases to be assisted. But I must stress that these are, by and large, in a minority. I think the number of cases that have come to our attention has not been significant. Where they have genuine difficulties, they have been given assistance of one form or another. I do not think this is the main issue.

Dr Lily Neo (Jalan Besar): Sir, may I ask the Minister how he intends to enforce this ruling on the change of window rivets? Is he going to have random checks on private apartments and HDB flats? Would he be lenient to those with good reasons for not being able to meet the target deadline?

May I also ask the Minister how is he addressing the complaints about some HDB-recommended contractors who over-

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service beyond requirements, some who overcharge, and some disappear after collecting the deposits? How many of such complaints has his Ministry received?

Mr Mah Bow Tan: There have been complaints about errant contractors and they are the culprits who either overcharge or run away with the money. Each and every complaint is investigated and, so far, HDB has taken action against 49 contractors. However, a lot of the complaints have been found to be due to misunderstanding on the part of the contractors as well as the home-owners. For example, some of the contractors, having inspected the windows, found that the windows needed repairs other than changing of the rivets. In those cases, they recommended additional works to be done and of course these additional works cost money. Because there was a misunderstanding as to what needed to be done, home-owners may have thought that they were being overcharged. All those misunderstandings have been clarified to the satisfaction of both parties. So I do not think we need to worry about that. But I do admit that there are contractors who have tried to take advantage of the situation.

I also know of contractors, through their own volition, who have given either free service or allowed instalment payments. Where there are cases of contractors taking advantage of the situation and where we can prove it, we will either fine them or debar them from the contractors registry system under HDB. If there are any complaints of this nature, residents can always call up the hotline and they will be investigated.

The first question pertains to enforcement. BCA can either enforce it through the window retrofitting order or the Building Maintenance Act. But that is

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not the point. The more serious point is that we want everybody to have a sense of urgency to change or check their windows and to make sure they do not fall down. It is not possible for BCA to go round checking every single house which has not complied. If they want to do it at the end of the period, they will reserve the option to do so. But what is more serious, and this is where I would like to urge all home-owners to be aware, is that when a window falls down after that date, they can be subject to severe penalties. Although there were one or two cases in the past where the windows had fallen down, after investigations, BCA and HDB had not taken action against the owners. But after 30th September, if such an incident happens, depending on the investigations, home-owners may be subject to far more severe penalties.

My advice is, first of all, get your windows fixed and, even after that, check your windows regularly. If there is anything that is not quite right, please approach either a window contractor, the HDB or management corporation, for assistance.

Mdm Cynthia Phua (Aljunied): Sir, I just want to clarify with the Minister whether the 4,000 home-owners who have not retrofitted their windows are from the list of HDB known cases, ie, HDB's subsidised cases. I will give him an example. Aljunied Town Council has been monitoring the cases and it has also been helping the residents. In total, Aljunied Town Council has actually helped 9,000 cases to change their windows. This is on top of the 4,300 HDB cases that have been done by the Hougang Branch Office. The number of cases that have not changed their window rivets, which need to be changed, may not be the number that the Minister has stated so.

In addition, because of a complaint, I have actually gone down to visit two

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blocks of flats. There are two categories of residents: one is those who are in financial difficulty and the other category is those who do not know how to call the agency. There are about 10 to 20 of these cases in each block. How is the Minister going to help these cases?

Mr Mah Bow Tan: I think the Member is doing a very good job in going round to help the residents. I am quite assured that I do not have to do anything much. Having said that, if there is any help that is needed over and above what she is doing, she can always approach the HDB Branch Office and they will render every assistance possible. Those in financial difficulties, we will find a way to help them. But the difficulty is in determining what constitute genuine financial difficulties. If they stay in a 5-room flat and they have a 52-inch plasma TV in the living room, I do not think we are going to help them. But we will look at it on a case-by-case basis.

As for the numbers, there are two categories. The first category would be those under the goodwill repair scheme. These were the ones where the windows were originally fitted by HDB, and based on HDB's records, have not been changed since then. Under the goodwill repair scheme, HDB will co-pay part of the cost and

will arrange for the retrofitting to be done. The other category will be those who have changed their original windows when they renovated their flats.

For both these cases, HDB will be monitoring the numbers. In the first instance, for the goodwill repair scheme, I think there are slightly more than a thousand cases left, and HDB has assured me that they will be able to complete it before 30th September. The other cases are the cases including those mentioned by the Member for Aljunied. For these cases, we will have to take special steps to try and get them to retrofit before the deadline.

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One of the common complaints is that the contractors are all busy and, therefore, they cannot meet the deadline. There are over 600 contractors registered by BCA. There are another 24 which are term contractors specifically designated by HDB. There are other term contractors which have been appointed by Town Councils. The total capacity of all these contractors is more than 20,000 windows a month. This is more than adequate to meet the demand of those who have not yet submitted their requests for retrofitting. It is only those who are either not aware or those who have real financial difficulties. I think these are the cases that are left and for them, as I said, HDB is prepared to work with the Town Councils to identify cases and to see what assistance can be rendered to them, including advising them on what needs to be done.

Mr Deputy Speaker: Mdm Khor, one last question from you?

Dr Amy Khor Lean Suan: Sir, whilst the number of cases that may need financial assistance may not be very big, but in order to make a one-off financial assistance package more transparent to the residents, could the Ministry consider having some means test or income qualifying criteria, say, $1,500 or $450 per capita, and then get a contractor to undertake the retrofitting and allow them to pay by instalments? It is something akin to the LUP scheme where we have actually given financial assistance for needy residents. This will make it more transparent and a lot easier for the different constituencies to deal with residents who need financial assistance.

The other question that I would like to ask the Minister is with regard to people who are not able to get contractors to retrofit the windows by the deadline. Could the Ministry coordinate and release names of contractors who are able to

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render the service and meet the deadline, because the feedback from residents is that they have made umpteen calls to many contractors and most, if not all, actually said that they could not meet the deadline and can only do it after September?

Mr Mah Bow Tan: Sir, I will look into the Member's suggestion about the financial assistance scheme, but please rest assured that those who need financial help will be able to find them somehow or other, including from the branch office.

As regards residents not being able to get contractors to meet the deadline, I have indicated that there is a list of 600 contractors. If Members look at the HDB's website, they will be able to see that each zone has easily got 20-30 or more contractors whose order books are still not full and who are able to take new jobs. It is only a matter of taking the trouble to look for them. But even after all this, if they still have difficulty, they can call up the HDB hotline. Or if they go to the Town Council office, they have got a whole list of other names that they can call. So it is not a matter of contractors not being available. It is a matter of trying. I think this is really something that we need to instil in our residents as well - a sense of urgency.

This accident is something that can happen. We do not want it to happen, but it can happen and it can happen to any household. And if it does happen, the consequences can be very serious. We are very fortunate that so far nobody has been seriously hurt or even killed. But imagine a full window falling down from 10-20 storeys and hitting somebody. For us to quibble about not getting contractors without making the effort, I think it does not do justice to the serious consequences of such a thing happening. So I would urge everybody to please make the effort. If they are really not able to

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pay, we will find a way to help them. And for those who really do not know what is happening, there are enough people on the ground going around who are able to help them and provide information to them.

So I think there is no excuse - other than for these two groups - for anybody to say that there are not enough contractors around or that they are not able to do it on time. We have given them 12 months. For the last 11 months, all the contractors have been doing work on a steady basis, and most home-owners have complied. So for the rest who still have not done it, please make the effort.