Singaporean fined record $600,000 for unauthorised dormitory accomodation
According to a URA announcement on June 14, a 72-year-old Singaporean male, Tan Hock Keng, was convicted of three counts of converting exclusive homes to illegal dorm rental. On May 30, he was penalized a report $600,000, with the maximum penalty of $200,000 inflicted for each charge.
Following up on the MOM examinations, that took place in December 2017 and March 2018, URA’s investigations exposed that 15 overseas employees were staying in 1012B Upper Serangoon Road. One more 16 and 17 overseas people were discovered to be residing in 32H Lorong 22 Geylang and 32J Lorong 22 Geylang, respectively.
“Unauthorised dormitory housing not just detrimentally influences the residential appearance of the community, yet also negatively affects the residents, who might be from more susceptible group of people that are at risk to profiteering,” states Martin Tan, supervisor, Development Control Group, URA.
URA states that Tan confessed that he understood the tenancy guidelines yet opted to wage the illegal conversion of the facilities anyhow.
URA policies state that private residential properties can just house as much as 6 unrelated individuals.
He includes: “URA is going to remain to take strong enforcement acts facing perpetrators, involving property owners, renters, agents and anyone discovered to have actually flouted URA’s policies on the rent or subletting of personal houses”.
Additional investigations uncovered the fact that Tan had indeed been offering dormitory lodging at those facilities for about two years, and that he had actually transformed 8 other private homes to unauthorised dorm room rental between 2016 to 2018. The amount of occupants in each unit reached from seven to 23.
Enforcement police officers from the Ministry of Manpower had assessed private residential properties linked to Tan and found that the many dwellers staying there had drastically gone beyond URA’s occupancy cap regulations.
