In Parliament yesterday (13 Jul), Minister of State for National Development Desmond Lee, who is the son of former PAP cabinet minister Lee Yock Suan, told the House that the quality of BTO flats undertaken by HDB has actually improved.
He cited the CONQUAS score which measures the quality of buildings, showing that the quality of BTO flats has improved 13% from a score of 79 in 2003 to 89 in 2014.
The quality of the flats has not been compromised despite a ramping up of BTO projects over the last 4 years, Mr Lee claimed. “It (quality) continues to rise and is comparable to that in private developments,” he said.
He said that the majority of complaints with regard to the defects in new BTO flats are about “surface imperfections” such as hairline cracks on walls, scratches on timber floor, or uneven tile joints.
“Such imperfections are mostly within acceptable industry norms and these are also common in private developments. They can and should be rectified quickly by the contractors, and do not affect the structural integrity or safety of the building.”
Mr Lee argued that sometimes, it’s due to “differences in the understanding of what constitutes a defect”.
“For example, some owners have given feedback on colour inconsistencies for floors with timber finishes. As timber is a natural product, it is not possible to achieve a perfectly homogenous look,” he said.
Mr Lee assured the House that HDB has “zero tolerance” for defects which may compromise structural or safety standards.
“Flooding” at Punggol Waterway Terraces BTO flats
Just when Mr Lee tried to assure the House that BTO flats from HDB are of “high quality”, residents at the new Punggol Waterway Terraces BTO flats posted comments today (14 Jul) on their resident Facebook group, Punggol Waterway Terraces I [Link], complaining about rain water seeping into their flats from last night’s heavy downpour. Not only that, lift alarm was triggered waking everyone up.
Resident, Johnny Chiang of Blk 308A wrote the following letter to their PAP MP Janil Puthucheary highlighting the problems the residents are facing with their BTO flats:
Sir, I trust that everything is good and well on your side. It is with a heavy heart I Pen this issue on behalf of 3000+ residents because very obviously – Everything is NOT going well for the residents of Waterway Terraces 1.
Apart from the previous issues including the 4 pipes placed awkwardly etc which we did not get much resolution from.
Last night’s heavy downpour had caused several issues for many of us.
At approx 2 am rain started pouring in and it seeped into the homes of many of our residents.
This was accompanied by the ringing of lift alarm which woke most residents up. The Fire brigade were activated by our residents because we had to ensure if it was a no duff situation then help was rendered.
Yes I agree that when mother nature decides to make her point, there isnt much anybody can do. But it also sets many of us wondering why many of our homes came with so much flaws.
BSC has not been the best source of resolutions.
I tag you here on social media on considerations for your administrators, because if we were to all write in, you would receive tons of the same email.
For one, I do not believe in 200 emails to make a point across and sincerely seek your understanding on our intentions and voices together with much frustrations.
I now invite all the affected residents to post their images and videos of the happenings last night and request that your good self, Our Honourable MP respond with your opinions.
Yours sincerely
Johnny Chiang
On behalf of my neighbours of blk 308A
And residents affected by the issues
Other residents also joined in the discussion in their Facebook group:
Fabian Lau: Alarm nt happen once already..twice since move in..first one is alarm twice..2am and 3am..last night just lighting and tio alarm..what alarm is that,if 100% move in i dont know what resident will say..this alarm really got problem and linked with wwt2…as for quality wise..the balcony door lock is not good will open itself when u lock other side ever though u lock both side..but i just close one eye..bsc is useless and just bear with it ..i guess all window is not heavy rain proof..just that few unit last night due to wind direction kanna..if next time wind direction change another side..new set of resident complain the window problem..water sit in etc …
Jason Li: Home means the last stronghold for us. No matter how it looks, protecting us from wind and rain is the most basic functionality
Jo Lene: Johnny Chiang thanks for voicing out for us. I have not move into my unit yet but I’m starting to worry about the “not rain proof” Windows n balcony doors… I saw videos n photos of the rain this morning, it was really scary that the rain can just sip in like that…
Zeoane Goh: house living room n service bay slightly flooded. Cleaned up till 230am! :0 Rain was super big and big wind. Water seeped into living room thru the roller door at balcony.
Xue Fang: Our living room, common rooms and master bed room were all affected as well…. can you imagine waking up with rain droplets on your face? Seriously, what premium price we paid to deserve this? Fire alarm goes off in the middle of the night and lasted for a while while we clean up the mess…. what a nightmare!
Eric Loh: Pissed off with the lvl of work and still dare to say in news everything is up to standard in news. What the hell is hdb doing. I doing to support my buddy Johnny Chiang but honestly i don’t think janil puthhcheary will bother. I have come to a point which i have given up hope on all this people which so call said they will “help us”. Dont find reasons for ur mistake, find a solution please. No one in wwt1 which paid 300 over thousand excluding intereste will be happy about it.
Candee Tan: Have anyone consider taking this to the media??
Benny Ong: If we go on holidays, and another storm comes along while we’re away with electrical appliances on the floor, the house is at Super high risk of catching fire!
Jenny Yang: OMG, I just happily got my keys last week, but now I am so disapointed. Stupid project, should ask them to compensate us for instaling windows at our balcony. Hi Johnny, appreciate your precious voices, hope they will do something about it. Thank you so much.
Li Elle: water bubbling at the rails of 2 common bedrooms connected balcony, sip into our timber wood slightly too.
At 13:52pm today (14 Jul), MP Puthucheary finally responded. He said he had contacted HDB and the town council:
This is not the first time news of defects in Punggol Waterway Terraces surface. Last month, sociopolitical site The Online Citizen reported [Link] a BTO flat owner of Punggol Waterway Terraces, Adrian Chong, complained that the contractors who were supposed to fix the reported defects in his flat, ended up creating even more defects.
Mr Chong noted that his parquet flooring got worse after the contractors tried to rectify some defects. A defective pipe was left unchanged. New defects kept appearing each day as the contractors tried to resolve old problems.
“There are some defects which pictures won’t be able to tell much, like loosening of the rubber tracks for the sliding doors at the balcony and service yards.” said Mr Chong.
“Considering the amount we paid for the flat, we did not expect to see such bad defects or bad workmanship. Water pressure of the tap, shower head and toilet flushing were also weak. Timber skirting around the house were also painted with white paint making it looked so cheapskate,” lamented Mr Chong on the quality of the furnishings.
The defects were submitted to the building service centre set up by the building contractor, and Mr Chong was given an appointment to have a joint inspection with the supervisor to highlight and go through the defects.
However, Mr Chong faced difficulties in getting the contractors to do a decent job without incurring new defects as they tried to rectify existing ones.
“As working personnel, we do not have the luxury of time to keep going down to the unit to rectify the defects and monitor them. They (the contractors) delayed our renovation plans as we cannot start our renovation without having them to rectify the existing defects first.”
He added that as a flat owner, the minimum expectations are to provide his family a unit that is free from defects and good enough to live in comfortably.
This is especially so considering the fact that at Punggol Waterway Terraces, a 3-room flat ranges from $186,000 to $237,000 while a 5-room flat costs between $374,000 and $458,000.
Other netizens wonder why older HDB flats did not seem to have so many problems.
In any case, it’s not known what MP Puthucheary, HDB or the Pasir Ris-Punggol Town Council will do about the flooding issue. Pass the buck down to the foreign workers to fix?
Source: www.tremeritus.com
