21 flats compulsorily acquired by HDB for failure to meet MOP
21 flats were compulsorily acquired by HDB between 2017 and 2022 from owners not actually occupying the flats during the HDB Minimum Occupation Period (MOP).
HDB has taken action against 53 owners for not physically occupying their purchased subsidied public housing flats, with 21 owners giving up the flats.
How long are HDB MOP
The owners of HDB flats were required to physically occupy their flats during the Minimum Occupancy Period (MOP), usually a five year period. These included those who are under SERS purchases.
Prime Location Public Housing (PLH) are new public housing built in prime, central locations like the city centre and the PLH flats will have a MOP of 10 years.
HDB flats sold under Fresh Start housing grant has an long MOP of 20 years.
HDB Rules of MOP Period
During thie MOP period, many rules are in place including the need to physically occupy the flats and not being allowed to rent out the whole unit. Even if you are approved to rent out the whole unit, the period of renting out will be added to the MOP period.
Renting out just rooms are allowed while you are physically also occupying the MOP flat but there are also strict rules to govern those rentals.
This was to ensure that HDB subsided flats would be reserved for households with genuine housing needs.
Between 2017 and 2022, 258 BTO flats and 168 Resale flats had been returned to HDB, mostly due to changes in owner circumstances, such as divorce or death.
Recently, public concerns have arisen about “errant owners”, or owners who attempted to sell or rent their flats without having physically occupied their flats for the whole MOP.
With HDB prices at all time high, and many not able to get BTO flats, it is no wonder that anger are all over such mis-use of public subsided housing.
How are HDB MOP rule breakers found out
HDB detected such errant owners through regular inspections, feedback from the public and property agents, as well as other tools such as data analytics.
Although the latest anger in Singapore over such errant owners came from property portal’s listings such as the one above.
HDB conducts 500 inspections a month, and has inspected 35,000 homes since 2017.
HDB also investigated feedback from the public and property agents, such as when flats are listed for resale in bare or “brand new condition”. HDB has received 4,700 such feedback between 2017 and 2022.
This was in addition to HDB inspecting all flats involved in resale transactions. Flats in suspicious conditions would be flagged during these inspections by HDB valuers and inspectors.
Penalties for violation of MOP Rules
Those in breach of MOP rules might be issued a written warning, fined up to $50,000, or HDB might compulsorily acquire their flat.
Those whose HDB flats are compulsorily acquired for MOP violations will also face further punishments such as being debarred from future flat purchases or taking over subsidised flats.
