Singaporean fined record $600,000 for unauthorised dormitory accomodation
According to a URA announcement on June 14, a 72-year-old Singaporean man, Tan Hock Keng, was founded guilty of three counts of converting private properties to unauthorised dorm rental. On May 30, he was fined a record $600,000, with the maximum penalty of $200,000 inflicted for each fee.
He adds: “URA will continue to take strong enforcement actions facing perpetrators, involving owner, lessees, agents and any individual found to have actually flouted URA’s policies on the rent or subletting of exclusive homes”.
Enforcement officers from the Ministry of Manpower had actually inspected private homes connected to Tan and located that the many occupants living there had actually drastically surpassed URA’s occupancy cap rules.
More examinations uncovered the reality that Tan had indeed been offering dormitory lodging at those facilities for around two years, which he had actually transformed eight other private homes to illegal dorm room accommodation between 2016 to 2018. The amount of residents in each unit differed from 7 to 23.
URA states that Tan confessed that he recognized the tenancy policies yet made a decision to wage the unauthorised transformation of the facilities anyhow.
Following up on the MOM assessments, which happened in December 2017 and March 2018, URA’s searches exposed that 15 overseas employees were residing in 1012B Upper Serangoon Roadway. An additional 16 and 17 foreign employees were identified to be residing in 32H Lorong 22 Geylang and 32J Lorong 22 Geylang, specifically.
“Unauthorised dormitory housing not only adversely impacts the residence character of the neighbourhood, but also negatively impacts the occupants, who may be from even more prone groups that are vulnerable to exploitation,” claims Martin Tan, director, Development Control Group, URA.
URA laws stipulate that exclusive residential properties can only house approximately six unrelated individuals.
