www.shaproperty.com

IT IS still raining windows in some places in Singapore, after a deadline expired last September for flat owners to retrofit casement windows to make them safer.

Since then, there have been 24 cases of casement windows falling - 19 from HDB flats and five from private homes. In one case, a person suffered minor injuries.

Under stringent new laws imposed two years ago, home owners face a maximum penalty of up to $10,000 in fines or a year in jail.

Twenty-three property owners have been fined up to $1,000 each, while two - an HDB flat owner and a commercial tenant - will be hauled to court for falling windows, said the Building and Construction Authority (BCA) yesterday.

A BCA spokesman said the two owners are not simply being fined because they did not have 'valid reasons' for not maintaining their windows properly.

Seven other cases are still being investigated.

The Government announced in 2004 that all high-rise homes with casement windows - those opening outwards - that are held in place by aluminium rivets and are more than five years old, had to be retrofitted.

More than 187,000 affected households were given until the end of September last year to fit new stainless steel rivets, or face punishment.

Though there have been two dozen cases of falling windows since then, the BCA said this translates to one a week, down from an average of three a week before the deadline was imposed.

Only 2 per cent of affected home owners have yet to comply.

'We will be starting a new round of random inspections of HDB flats and private apartments in the coming months, to make sure those who need to retrofit their windows have done so,' the BCA spokesman said.

In a previous round of inspections in January and February this year, a few errant owners were given warnings and have since made the required changes.

The retrofitting exercise generated widespread confusion and frustration among home owners last year. Many delayed fixing their windows until the last minute, causing a rush in the two months before the deadline.

Others complained of unscrupulous contractors jacking up their prices and misleading some owners into retrofitting their windows, even though they did not need to do so.

The Consumers Association of Singapore received more than 200 complaints last year. The HDB punished 60 contractors, imposing $1,000 fines or sending warning letters.

This year, 9,000 HDB home owners whose properties have hit the five-year-old threshold will need to fix their windows, while another 5,000 private units will need to be retrofitted by 2009, the BCA said.

For more information on retrofitting, call the BCA hotline on 6325-8677.

darylloo@sph.com.sg