I believe my neighbour has flouted HDB’s rental regulations. What action does HDB take on unauthorised rental?

Unauthorised Rental is an Infringement of the Housing & Development Act

We conduct regular checks on flats that have been approved for renting out, to ensure that there are no irregularities such as overcrowding and further unauthorised rental by main tenants.

We take a serious view of flat owners who infringe the rental rules, and have imposed financial penalties on errant owners before. In some cases of serious infringement, we have recovered the flats from the owners.

Example: Financial penalty for renting out to unauthorised occupiers

Example: Compulsory acquisition of flat that was rented out during minimum occupation period

A married couple had obtained HDB’s approval to rent out their Executive flat to 3 tenants. While they had checked that the flat was occupied by their registered tenants, they were not aware that their tenants had further rented it out to 12 other unauthorised occupiers.When informed of the situation, the couple took immediate action against their tenants. A financial penalty was imposed on the couple, and they were reminded not to repeat the infringement and to exercise due diligence should they apply to rent out their flat again. The tenants who had illegally rented out the flat were debarred for 5 years from renting another HDB flat.

A flat owner had purchased a 2-room flat directly from HDB with his children. HDB carried out an investigation upon receiving feedback, and found that he had rented out his flat within the Minimum Occupation Period. The flat owner admitted that he did not live in the flat and had rented it out. In view of the serious infringement, we took action to compulsorily acquire the flat. The owner had alternative accommodation when the flat was acquired.

Report Misuse of Flat to HDB

HDB flats are primarily a home to live in, and there are rules in place to guard against misuse.

For example, flat owners who wish to rent out their flat or bedrooms must get HDB’s prior approval. A minimum of 6 months’ tenancy is required for both, to ensure that HDB flats are not used as transient accommodation.

The rental rules help to ensure a conducive and harmonious living environment for all residents. These are clearly published on the HDB InfoWEB. HDB will also remind flat owners to take heed of the rules when they submit their rental request.

There are some who are willing to take a chance despite the rules and checks. If you come across a suspected case of unauthorised rental or misuse of flats, you can highlight it to us at the HDB Toll-Free Hotline: 1800-555-6370. All information provided stays confidential.

Reporting of Illegal Parking

You can call our Enforcement Hotline at 1800-338-6622 to report illegal parking of vehicles at a car park or on a service road. 

Car park enforcement

The staff from our service providers are required to be in uniform when carrying out enforcement duties. Plain clothes enforcement officers may carry out targeted enforcement operations at illegal parking hotspots to ensure road safety for all motorists. 

If you wish to report noise pollution

If you are wondering how loud is too loud, these are the permissible noise limits for factories operating near homes, schools and hospitals:

	7am – 7pm	7pm – 11pm	11pm – 7am
Noise sensitive places, e.g. hospitals and schools	60 dBA	55 dBA	50 dBA
Residences	65 dBA	60 dBA	55 dBA
Source: Environmental Protection and Management (Boundary Noise Limits for Factory Premises) Regulations. Figures shown are average values measured over a 5-min period.

Here’s what the noise levels mean:

Noise level(dBA)	Example
40	Library
70	TV audio
80	Whistling kettle
110–120	Live rock music
130	Power drill
150	Jet engine taking off

Rules about HDB renovation noise

• General renovation should only be carried out between 9:00am and 6:00pm on weekdays and Saturdays. No renovations are allowed on Sundays and public holidays.
• Noisy renovations within the flat such as demolishing of walls, removing wall/ floor finishes, cutting of tiles and heavy and excessive drilling works, etc. can only be carried out between 9:00am and 5:00pm on weekdays. Noisy renovations are not allowed on Saturdays, Sundays, public holidays and eve of major public holidays (i.e. New Year’s Day, Chinese New Year, Deepavali, Hari Raya Puasa and Christmas Day).

To report

• Call HDB (Branch Service Line) at 1800 225 5432 (only available on weekdays, 8:00am to 5:00pm).

Rules about noise from construction sites*

• No work is allowed between 10.00 pm on Saturdays and 7.00 am on the following Monday (for construction projects within 150 m of residences and noise-sensitive places).
• On public holidays, no construction work is allowed between 10.00 pm on the eve, and 7.00 am on the day after the holiday.

* Only for sites established on and after 1 Sep 2011 and located within 150m away from residential premises. Please check the National Environment Agency (NEA) website for details.

To report

• Feedback via http://www.nea.gov.sg/corporate-functions/feedback
• Contact the NEA Call Centre at 1800-CALL-NEA (1800 225 5632)
• SMS to 74688 (SGOVT) following the format: NEA[space]Feedback[space]Name (optional)
• Make a report using NEA’s myENV mobile application (iOS App Store/Google Play)

If you wish to report water, used water and drainage matters

• Contact the PUB 24-hour Call Centre at 1800 284 6600
• Email to PUB_One@pub.gov.sg
• SMS to 70400 (Please include your name, contact number, type and location of problem)
• Fax to 6752 8015 (Please include your name, contact number, type, location and brief description of problem)

If you wish to report litter

Types of litter problems

• Bulky refuse left unattended in common areas
• Unattended and potentially dangerous items left on the parapet
• Activation of urine alarms in HDB lifts
• Cleanliness in public areas

To report

If you wish to report…	… you should contact:
Littering at HDB common areas	Town councils
Littering in other areas	National Environment Agency T: 1800-CALL NEA (1800-2255 632)
Cleanliness in public areas	Department of Public Cleanliness (NEA) T: 1800 600 3333 (hotline)  E: http://www.nea.gov.sg/corporate-functions/feedback
Unauthorised use of non-HDB properties	Urban Redevelopment Authority T: 6223 4811