THE dust raised over the demolition of an unsafe building near the MRT Circle Line has finally settled as the last of the displaced owners who held out for more compensation threw in the towel.
Mr Michael Ng, co-owner of a residential unit in Hock Kee House, said he had decided to drop his claim on the advice of his lawyer, Mr Peter Ong.
'I felt I'd a slim chance of winning, and the cost of fighting to the end could be fantastically high,' said Mr Ng who, with a partner, had bought one of the building's 28 units for $490,000 in 1997 through their company, Challenger Investment.
They had received $269,000 in compensation but wanted about $45,000 more to cover the balance of the bank loan taken to buy the property. But, said Mr Ng, 'I remain unsatisfied'. The withdrawal of this last outstanding case brings an end to a saga that started last August, when the occupants of Hock Kee House - which also includes seven commercial units - were given four weeks to move out as the building had to be torn down because of the MRT Circle Line works.
It stood just two car lengths away from the site. As the building was not constructed on piling, it could collapse when deep excavation resumed for the MRT line.
Owners and tenants chafed at having to uproot from a community in which many of them had lived and worked for four decades. They were also disturbed by the short notice and questioned the amount of compensation offered.
The deadline was later extended by three weeks. Each shophouse owner received between $900,000 and $1 million, while the residents were offered between $250,000 and $365,000 each.
But many, though they understood they had to move, felt they deserved more cash.
One resident took his case to an appeals board and won an extra $10,000 from the authorities last December. Following this decision, the Singapore Land Authority increased the compensation to the other home owners by an average of 1.5 per cent to 5.5 per cent each.
For the owners and tenants of Hock Kee, life after the loss of their homes and business premises has been a mixed bag.
A property consultant who advised Hock Kee owners and helped them negotiate their compensation felt the shop owners got a better deal than the residents.
'The gap between the valuation of the residences and that of the shop units is too wide,' said Ms Angela Lee, the managing director of Lianco International Property.
She helped owners like Mr Tan Boon Piow, 68, who had rented out his Hock Kee shop to a karaoke pub, buy a two-storey Bedok Reservoir shophouse for about $700,000 with his roughly $1 million compensation.
The monthly rent he collects from his tailor tenant is about $1,500 lower than the amount he had received at Hock Kee, but he said his new unit was 'not bad'.
'No loss... but no win either,' he said of the relocation.
Some of the Hock Kee residents now live in flats in Eunos, which they bought from the Housing Board after receiving a waiver because of their 'extenuating circumstances'. They were exempt from the mandatory 30-month waiting period before former owners of private homes can buy flats from the HDB. One displaced resident, a 52-year-old teacher who wanted to be known only as Madam Chong, told The Straits Times that her mother and brother were 'satisfied' with their new four-room HDB flat.
'The location is not bad, it's near the MRT station. But it's much smaller than the old unit,' she said in Mandarin.
But her 80-year-old mother had complained that she was lonely, as she hardly saw her old neighbours, who are 'scattered' across several blocks in Eunos.
'My mother said she bumped into them only at the coffee shop or market. Back in Hock Kee, when you went downstairs, she knew everyone.
'Now, everyone she meets is a stranger,' she said.
joolin@sph.com.sg
COST OF FIGHTING CASE TOO HIGH
'I felt I'd a slim chance of winning, and the cost of fighting to the end could be fantastically high.'
MR MICHAEL NG, co-owner of a residential unit in Hock Kee House, on dropping his claim for more compensation on the advice of his lawyer
