| THERE are well-to-do cheats out there who are abusing the HDB's rental flat system for personal profit. How? By subletting their one-room flats illegally for $500 a month - while they themselves pay just the standard $30 monthly rent to the HDB. These cheats don't really need their flats, and they're depriving other Singaporean families who genuinely need low-cost rental homes from getting them. This abuse prompted National Development Minister Mah Bow Tan to announce in Parliament that the HDB will now review its subsidised rental policies. (See other report.)  | | Filed Picture | 'It's very widespread and it's been going on for many years,' said social worker Anthony Teo, 53, reacting to the news. 'So, good that HDB is now playing catch-up to these illegal renters,' he told The New Paper. Mr Teo, the programme coordinator for the Thong Kheng Seniors Activity Centre in Bukit Merah View, has been overseeing some 300 units of one-room rental flats for the elderly for the past seven years. He told The New Paper the abuse happens because of a 'loophole' in the system. Tenants, who must earn less than $800 a month to qualify, usually sign two-year leases with HDB. But by the time the lease is up for renewal, many of the elderly ones may have died. 'But because no one checks, their grandson or young relatives will quietly take over the lease and rent it out to foreign workers for hundreds of dollars! So they just stay in their own homes and collect rent,' he said. SPOT CHECKS Mr Teo commended HDB officers for conducting more spot checks these days and says he has known of at least four or five such illegal sub-renting cases since 2003 in one Bukit Merah block alone. 'Shame on the cheats,' he said. An 87-year-old tenant of a one-room flat added: 'It's so selfish that people are out to make money from HDB's compassion in giving them a cheap place to stay. It's just not right.' He said he's heard of such cases among his neighbours over the years, but would just 'keep quiet'. The deputy chairman of the National Development GPC and Ang Mo Kio GRC MP, Ms Lee Bee Wah, on the other hand, was shocked. 'This is not entrepreneurship. This is abuse,' she told The New Paper. 'The Government should take back the flats from them. There are always long queues for rental flats and not enough supply - especially for those really in need, including poor families with children.' Previously, the MP explained, the HDB was conscious not to seem 'too harsh' when deciding whether to rent subsidised flats to prospective tenants. But there's no point being 'nice', she said, if people take advantage of it. Then there's also a second group of 'abusers' - those whose incomes have grown way beyond the $800 monthly limit but still insist on holding on to cheap rental flats. In Parliament, Mr Mah cited a two-room rental household whose income leapt from $700 a month in 1986 to $5,000 today. 'We are happy for them. But we also need to make sure that those who are ready for home ownership do not overstay... (and) deprive more needy households of a rental flat,' he said. Such cases also make Mr Teo's blood boil. 'The lease agreement should clearly say when you earn above $800, you should move out. 'If not, you get someone who claims he's an odd-job labourer earning $700 a month, but somehow drives a nice car. 'And he's still allowed to rent.' Conversely, GPC chief for National Development Charles Chong pointed out, many cash-strapped families who sell their flats and want to downgrade to a rental unit can't even get one. The bottom line, Mr Mah said in Parliament: If you can afford to buy, don't rent.
But if you are in genuine need... If you really need a subsidised flat can rejoice. The HDB will be building 1,000 more one- and two-room rental flats in both new and mature estates. It will also convert some of its former three- and four-room rental blocks in Boon Lay and Woodlands into 1,000 extra one- and two-room units to add to its current stock of 40,000 rental flats. But be warned. Rather than charge similar rents of $30 a month for one-roomers and $60 a month for two-roomers, future rental rates will be pegged to household income. Those who had previously bought and sold HDB flats will also be charged more. 'I want to stress that the aim of this exercise is not to recover cost, but to avoid the abuse of Government subsidies which are meant for the lower-income,' said Mr Mah. He said four-fifths of tenants, including all those who earn below $800 a month, won't be affected. | 
