SINGAPORE – Dirty water has been seeping from a wall in the master bedroom of her Punggol Housing Board home since June 2018.

Despite contacting both HDB and the Pasir Ris-Punggol Town Council at the time, Ms Viola Lam’s family still has to clean up the mess every day and deal with the damage to the home’s furniture.

Ms Lam told The Straits Times that representatives from both HDB and the town council came to her flat at 305A Punggol Road to assess the situation last year and had said that the issue was with a rainwater downpipe.

“They told me that if I did not want to pay for the repair myself, I might have to wait for some time since their service is free. But I didn’t think it would take that long,” said the 28-year-old.

She added that both HDB and the town council later said the matter was “not within their purview”.

In a statement on Wednesday night (Feb 20), however, HDB said it had been assisting the resident since June, together with the town council.

It also confirmed that joint investigations with the town council revealed that the cause was likely a leak from the rainwater downpipe, “which is under the purview of the town council”.

In a Friday afternoon e-mail reply to queries, Pasir Ris-Punggol Town Council said it made a number of appointments from July to September last year to inspect the external wall of the unit.

“As a precaution and to reduce the possibility of the cause of the leak to be due to an issue with the external wall, the town council also carried out supplementary works to the external wall near to the window area of the master bedroom,” it said.

It found no cracks or signs of water seepage on both the sides and front external wall of the HDB block.

HDB said: “To facilitate the town council’s repairs, we had offered to create an opening in the side panel of the built-in wardrobe that was obstructing the area to be repaired. However, the resident has turned down the offer.”

It added that it would continue to work with the town council to assist Ms Lam to resolve the leak.

The town council said HDB visited the unit last November, and confirmed that it arranged for “a small hole” to be created to facilitate checks for water leaks.

“Water leakage was found and this led us to suspect the cause was likely from the rainwater downpipe enclosed in the wall,” it said.

It added that it had asked the resident to remove the built-in wardrobe so that further checks and repairs could be conducted.

Ms Lam, who is self-employed, told ST that she had been asked to foot the bill to find her own carpenter to remove the panel in order for the leak to be fixed.

Speaking to Chinese-language daily Lianhe Wanbao, Ms Lam said that she comes back daily from work to wipe the floor to prevent the water from flooding the bedroom.

In photos provided to Wanbao, the floorboards of the flat can be seen damaged by water seepage. Brown marks have also stained the walls and the bottom of a mattress.

The town council said: “We are currently liaising with the lessee to remove the built-in wardrobe to facilitate the repair works and resolve the issue.”

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