PART I | Short title and commencement |
| 1. This Act may be cited as the Building Control Act, 1973, and shall come into operation on such date as the Minister may, by notification in the Gazette, appoint. |
2. In this Act, unless the context otherwise requires —| “arcade” includes verandah and covered passageway or footway; |
| “building” includes the whole or any part of any house, hut, shed, enclosure roofed or otherwise or any other structure whether used for the purpose of human habitation or otherwise, and also any wall, shoring, fence, platform, staging, gate, post, pillar, paling, frame, hoarding, slip, dock, wharf, pier, jetty, landing-stage or bridge, or any structure, support or foundation connected to the foregoing; |
| “Building Authority” means the Assistant Director (Building Control) of the Public Works Department; |
| “building regulations” means the regulations made under section 26 of this Act; |
| “building works” includes any kind of building construction, site formation, repairs, demolition, alteration, addition and every kind of building operation; |
| “holding” means any piece or parcel of land held or possessed under an instrument of title, capable of being registered under the Registration of Deeds Act (Cap. 281), or where applicable under the Land Titles Act (Cap. 276), relating exclusively thereto; |
| “occupier”, in relation to any premises, means the person in occupation of the premises or having the charge, management or control thereof either on his own account or as agent of another person, but does not include a lodger; |
| “owner”, in relation to any premises, means the person for the time being receiving the rent of the premises whether on his own account or as agent or trustee for any other person or as receiver or who would receive the rent if the premises were let to a tenant and includes the person whose name is entered in the Valuation List authenticated under section 13 of the Property Tax Act (Cap. 144); |
| “premises” includes messuages, houses, buildings, lands, tenements, easements and hereditaments of any tenure, whether open or enclosed, whether built on or not, whether public or private, and whether maintained or not under statutory authority; |
| “street” includes any road, square, footway or passage, whether a thoroughfare or not, over which the public have a right of way, and also the way over any public bridge, and also includes any road, footway or passage, open court or open alley, used or intended to be used as a means of access to two or more holdings, whether the public have a right of way thereover or not; and all channels, drains, ditches and reserves at the side of any street shall be deemed to be part of the street; |
| “unauthorised”, in relation to any building or works, means any building or works erected or carried out in contravention of any provision of this Act or the building regulations. |
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| 3. The Minister may by order either generally or in any particular case exempt any premises or building works from any or all of the provisions of this Act. |
| 4. The powers conferred and the duties imposed on the Building Authority under this Act may be exercised and carried out by any officer of the Building Control Division, Public Works Department, authorised by the Building Authority either generally or specially and subject to his instructions. |
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