Housing and Development (Amendment) Bill

Bill No. 18/1977

Read the first time on 9th November 1977.
An Act to amend the Housing and Development Act (Chapter 271 of the Revised Edition).
Be it enacted by the President with the advice and consent of the Parliament of Singapore, as follows: —
Short title and commencement
1.  This Act may be cited as the Housing and Development (Amendment) Act, 1977, and shall come into operation on such date as the Minister may, by notification in the Gazette, appoint.
Repeal and re-enactment of section 42
2.  Section 42 of the Housing and Development Act (hereinafter in this Act referred to as “the principal Act”) is hereby repealed and the following substituted therefor: —
Special provisions
42.—(1)  Where —
(a)a flat is sold by the Board to any person under the provisions of this Part; or
(b)any estate or interest in such flat is —
(i)subsequently transferred by or to any person with the written consent of the Board; or
(ii)surrendered to the Board,
and a solicitor is not employed by such person to act for him in the transaction, the Board may by its duly authorised officer act for such person.
(2)  Where the Board acts for such person as is mentioned in subsection (1) of this section then for the purposes of the registration of any instrument relating to the sale of the flat or the aforesaid transaction in respect of the flat —
(a)in the case of an instrument which is required to be registered under the Registration of Deeds Act (Cap. 281), section 12 of that Act shall not apply if a duly authorised officer of the Board certifies that such flat has been sold under the provisions of this Part; and
(b)in the case of an instrument which is required to be registered under the provisions of the Land Titles Act (Cap. 276), a certificate of an officer of the Board duly authorised by the Board to act for such person mentioned in subsection (1) of this section shall be sufficient for the purposes of subsection (4) of section 50 of that Act.
(3)  For the purposes of this section —
“flat” means any flat, house or other building or living accommodation sold by the Board under the provisions of this Part;
“transfer”, with reference to a flat, means the conveyance, sale, purchase, assignment, mortgage, charge or the disposal in any manner of any estate or interest in a flat and includes a discharge of a mortgage, or a reconveyance, or the devolution of the rights of a deceased owner of a flat to another person, and “is transferred” shall be construed accordingly.
(4)  The provisions of section 35 of the Legal Profession Act (Cap. 217) shall not apply to any officer of the Board acting for any party to the transactions referred to in subsection (1) of this section.”.
Amendment of section 49
3.  Subsection (1) of section 49 of the principal Act is hereby amended —
(a)by deleting the word “and” appearing at the end of paragraph (e) thereof;
(b)by deleting the full-stop appearing at the end of paragraph (f) thereof and substituting therefor the expression “; and”; and
(c)by inserting immediately after paragraph (f) thereof the following new paragraph: —
(g)prescribing the fees to be charged by the Board for acting for any person in the sale, purchase, transmission of the interest of a deceased owner, transfer, assignment, mortgage, discharge of a mortgage, reconveyance, or surrender, of a flat sold under the provisions of this Part or for acting for any surviving joint owner of such a flat in his application to register his entitlement consequent upon the death of the other joint owner.”.