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Published September 21, 2007

House okays changes to en bloc sale rules

By UMA SHANKARI

PARLIAMENT yesterday approved changes to the Land Titles (Strata) Bill, which spells out proper procedure for en bloc sales.

The changes will now become law sometime next month after it has been cleared by the President's office.

During the second reading of the Bill in Parliament yesterday, Deputy Prime Minister and Law Minister S Jayakumar said that the changes are meant to provide more safeguards and transparency for all owners - and not intended to make it harder to reach a collective sale agreement.

'We have to craft the amendments in a way that strikes a balance between trying to make the process more transparent and fair with suitable safeguards, while at the same time not making it unduly unmanageable or too onerous to bring about an en bloc sale,' Prof Jayakumar said.

He was responding to Members of Parliament (MPs) who wanted more safeguards added to the Bill.

For example, one suggestion was to make it mandatory for developers to offer sellers a replacement unit within the same estate as their old property.

Prof Jayakumar explained that the government will not implement more safeguards this time round as he does not want to 'micro-manage' the en bloc process.

However, the Ministry of Law will not 'close shop' and forget about the issue, he said: 'This review by my Ministry and the Strata Titles Board and the Singapore Land Authority will be an ongoing one.'

For now, in line with several MPs' suggestions, the Ministry of Law will see if a best practices guide for en bloc sales can be developed.

For now, the passing of the bill means that the en bloc process will change somewhat.

For example, a lawyer will have to be present when an owner signs the collective sales agreement.

Owners can also change their minds after signing the agreement within a five-day 'cooling off' period.

Prof Jayakumar also explained that the changes will not apply to projects that have already got the required 80 or 90 per cent majority - based on share value - before the start of the amended act.