Housing and Development (Polling for Upgrading Works) Rules

Housing and Development Act

(CHAPTER 129, Section 65K)

R 7

G.N. No. S 361/1993

REVISED EDITION 2010

(31st May 2010)

[8th September 1993]

Citation

1. These Rules may be cited as the Housing and Development (Polling for Upgrading Works) Rules.

Definitions

2.—(1) In these Rules, unless the context otherwise requires —

“beneficiary flat”, in relation to any special upgrading works, means a flat prescribed in rule 2A to be a beneficiary flat in relation to those special upgrading works;

“building” includes part of a building and any part of 2 or more buildings;

“chief polling officer” means the chief polling officer appointed under rule 16(1)(a) and includes a deputy chief polling officer appointed under rule 16(2);

“daily statement of the poll” means the statement prepared in respect of any polling day under rule 29(1)(b) or 34E(1)(a), as the case may be;

“electronic polling machine” means any mechanical, electronic or electro-optical machine that can —

(a)	be activated by a voter to mark or record his vote for or against any proposal regarding general upgrading works, specified upgrading works or special upgrading works, as the case may be, on a polling display on the machine;
(b)	process the vote and the value in the vote by means of a computer program;
(c)	instantaneously record and store that vote and the value in that vote within a memory device within the machine; and
(d)	sort and count votes and the value in the votes marked or recorded on all polling displays on that machine, and includes any computer program that is used in the operation of the machine;

“electronic polling system” means any polling system using electronic polling machines;

“flat upgrading poll” means a poll conducted under section 65C of the Act in connection with any proposal to carry out any flat upgrading works within flats comprised in a building in a precinct or within any building in a precinct;

“flat upgrading works register” means a register prepared under rule 3(3) in relation to certain flat upgrading works within flats comprised in a building in a precinct or within any building in a precinct;

“HDB flat” means a house or flat sold under the provisions of the Act;

“Lease Buyback Scheme” means a scheme administered by the Board under which a lessee of an HDB flat who has been approved by the Board to take part in the scheme enters into an agreement with the Board to reduce the term of the lease of his HDB flat, in consideration of a sum of money part of which is to be used for the purchase of an annuity from the Central Provident Fund Board;

“list of proxies” means the list of proxies prepared under rule 15;

“poll”, in relation to a precinct, means either a primary poll, a secondary poll, a special poll or a flat upgrading poll conducted under section 65C of the Act in relation to that precinct or a building or buildings within that precinct;

“polling day” means any day on which a poll is taken;

“polling display” means an on-screen electronic video display, image or representation of a polling paper;

“polling place”, in relation to a poll, means the place at which the poll is to be taken;

“primary poll”, in relation to a precinct, means a poll conducted under section 65C of the Act in relation to the precinct with a view to establishing the opinions of owners of flats within the precinct about any proposal to carry out general upgrading works within that precinct;

“register” means a register (whether in paper or electronic form) of owners of flats prepared under rule 3 in respect of any particular precinct;

“registered owner” means any person whose name is entered in a register, a special register or a flat upgrading works register, as the case may be;

“scrutineer” means a scrutineer appointed under rule 16 for the purposes of a poll;

“secondary poll”, in relation to a building within a precinct, means a poll conducted under section 65C of the Act in relation to the building within the precinct with a view to establishing the opinions of the owners of residential or non-residential flats in the building about any proposal to carry out specified upgrading works in that building;

“Singapore corporation” means —

(a)	any body corporate established by any written law;
(b)	any company incorporated in Singapore, one of whose members is either a citizen of Singapore or a company incorporated in Singapore one of whose members is a citizen of Singapore, and so on; or
(c)	any society, co-operative society, trade union, mutual benefit organisation or other organisation formed or constituted in Singapore, one of whose members or trustees is a citizen of Singapore;

“special poll”, in relation to any building or any 2 or more buildings within a precinct, means a poll conducted under section 65C(1A) of the Act with a view to establishing the opinions of owners of beneficiary flats in that building or those buildings, as the case may be, about any proposal to carry out special upgrading works in that building or for those buildings;

“special register” means a register (whether in paper or electronic form) prepared under rule 3(2) in relation to certain upgrading works in a building or for 2 or more buildings;

“voter” means a person who applies to vote or votes at a poll, whether or not he is a registered owner.

(2) Any reference in these Rules to the commencement of a poll shall be a reference to the first polling day of the poll.

(3) For the purposes of these Rules, the seniority of joint owners of any flat shall be determined by the order in which the names of the joint owners appear in the register, the special register or the flat upgrading works register, as the case may be.

(4) For the purposes of these Rules, a person or group of persons shall be regarded as the common registered owner of more than one flat if and only if —

(a)	he is the sole registered owner of each of the flats; or
(b)	the group comprises persons who are the same joint registered owners of each of the flats and whose shares and interests in each of those flats are the same, whether equal or unequal.

(5) For the avoidance of doubt, a polling display need not resemble a polling paper provided that it contains all information necessary to enable a voter to mark or record his vote for or against any proposal regarding general upgrading works, specified upgrading works, special upgrading works or flat upgrading works, as the case may be.

Beneficiary flats of special upgrading works

2A. Where any special upgrading works comprise items of works necessary or ancillary to installing any lift or lift landing or any additional lift or lift landing in a building or for 2 or more buildings, the beneficiary flats in relation to those special upgrading works shall be all flats in the building or those buildings, as the case may be, other than —

(a)

flats on the ground level;

(b)

flats on the same level of such lift landings as are existing in that building or those buildings before the commencement of the special poll relating to those special upgrading works; and

(c)

flats which, after the completion of the special upgrading works in that building or those buildings —

(i)	are at least one whole storey above or below any lift landing in the building or buildings; or
(ii)	are in a part of any of the buildings to which there is no direct access from any level (except ground level) of the building or buildings where those special upgrading works are carried out.

PART I

Preparation of register of owners

3.—(1) As soon as practicable after a precinct has been declared under section 65B(1) of the Act, the Board shall prepare a register of owners of flats for that precinct, entering the names and addresses of all persons who —

(a)	are owners of flats within that precinct or entitled to have their names entered in the register as owners of such flats; and
(b)	are not disqualified under rule 5 from voting at the poll relating to that precinct.

(2) Where there is any proposal to carry out special upgrading works in a building or for 2 ormore buildings within a precinct, the Board shall prepare a special register of owners of beneficiary flats in the building or buildings, as the case may be, in relation to those works, entering the names and addresses of all persons who —

(a)	are owners of beneficiary flats in the building or buildings, as the case may be, in relation to those special upgrading works or are entitled to have their names entered in the register as owners of such flats; and
(b)	are not disqualified under rule 5 from voting at the special poll relating to those special upgrading works.

(3) Where there is any proposal to carry out any flat upgrading works within flats comprised in a building in a precinct or within any building in a precinct, the Board shall prepare a flat upgrading works register of owners of flats in the building, entering the names and addresses of all persons who are entitled to have their names entered in the register as owners of such flats and are not disqualified under rule 5 from voting at the flat upgrading poll relating to those flat upgrading works.

(4) The register of owners for a precinct may comprise a series of subsidiary registers of owners of flats comprised in each building within the precinct.

(5) For the purposes of paragraphs (2) and (3), the Board may combine —

(a)	the special register relating to special upgrading works within a precinct with the register of owners for that precinct prepared under paragraph (1);
(b)	the flat upgrading works register relating to flat upgrading works within flats comprised in a building in a precinct or within any building in a precinct with the register of owners for that precinct prepared under paragraph (1); or
(c)	the special register relating to special upgrading works within a precinct with the flat upgrading works register relating to flat upgrading works within flats comprised in a building in that precinct or within any building in that precinct, provided that the combined register shall include appropriate notation to identify the persons entitled to vote in the special poll relating to the special upgrading works or the flat upgrading poll relating to the flat upgrading works, as the case may be.

(6) Where the Board has prepared a combined register under paragraph (5), a reference in these Rules to a person’s name appearing or being registered in the special register or the flat upgrading works register shall be read to refer to the person’s name appearing or being registered (as the case may be) in the combined register with the appropriate notation to identify that the person is entitled to vote in the special poll to which the special register relates or the flat upgrading poll to which the flat upgrading works register relates, as the case may be.

Owners of flats, etc.

4.—(1) Subject to paragraphs (2) and (3), in relation to any flat within a precinct which is sold by the Board, any person who, immediately before the commencement of a primary poll relating to the precinct, is —

(a)	the most recent purchaser, jointly or otherwise, of a leasehold interest in the flat; or
(b)	the most recent purchaser, jointly or otherwise, under an agreement for a lease, shall, for the purposes of these Rules, be the owner of the flat within the precinct and shall be entered in the register as such.

(2) Notwithstanding paragraph (1), the following persons shall not be the owner or owners of any flat for the purposes of these Rules and shall not be entitled to be registered as such:

(a)	any sole purchaser of a flat who is neither a citizen of Singapore nor a Singapore corporation;
(b)	the joint purchasers of a flat, all of whom are neither citizens of Singapore nor Singapore corporations;
(c)	any body corporate which is declared under section 50A of the Act to be entitled to purchase a flat; and
(d)	any sole purchaser or joint purchasers of a residential flat which is the subject of an agreement entered into under the Lease Buyback Scheme.

(3) For the avoidance of doubt, where only one of the most recent joint purchasers of a flat is either a citizen of Singapore or a Singapore corporation, all the joint purchasers shall be the owners of the flat for the purposes of these Rules and shall be entitled to be registered as such.

(4) Where the owner of a flat is deceased and representation has been taken out at any time before the commencement of the primary poll, the personal representative of the deceased owner shall, for the purposes of these Rules, be entitled to have his name entered in the register as owner of the flat instead of the deceased owner.

(5) Where an owner of a flat is of unsound mind or his person or estate is liable to be dealt with in any way under the law relating to mental disorders, his committee or such other person who properly has the management of his estate shall be entered in the register as the owner of the flat.

(6) Where immediately before the commencement of the primary poll any flat within a precinct is rented out by the Board or is the subject of an agreement entered into under the Lease Buyback Scheme, the Board shall, for the purposes of these Rules, be the owner of that flat and shall be entered in the register as such.

(7) Where immediately before the commencement of the primary poll any flat within a precinct is neither sold nor rented out by the Board, the Board shall, for the purposes of these Rules, be the owner of that flat and shall be entered in the register as such.

(8) This rule shall apply to any special poll as if —

(a)	all references in this rule to a primary poll relating to a precinct shall be read as references to a special poll relating to special upgrading works in a building or for 2 or more buildings, as the case may be, within a precinct;
(b)	all references in this rule to a flat shall be read as references to a beneficiary flat in relation to those special upgrading works; and
(c)	all references in this rule to the register shall be read as a reference to the special register for those special upgrading works.

(9) This rule shall also apply to any flat upgrading poll as if —

(a)	all references in this rule to a primary poll relating to a precinct shall be read as references to a flat upgrading poll relating to flat upgrading works within flats comprised in a building in the precinct or within any building in the precinct; and
(b)	all references in this rule to the register shall be read as a reference to the flat upgrading works register for those flat upgrading works.

Disqualified persons

5. An owner of a flat or his personal representative shall be disqualified from voting at a poll if the Board has served any of the following notices on him and does not subsequently waive in writing any such notice before the commencement of the poll:

(a)	a notice of the intention of the Board to have the flat vested in itself pursuant to section 47(2A) or section 52(1A) or (2) of the Act;
(b)	a notice of the intention of the Board to terminate or rescind an agreement for a lease of the flat pursuant to section 47(2A) or 52(3) of the Act;
(c)	a notice of the intention of the Board to re-enter upon the flat pursuant to section 55 of the Act;
(d)	a notice of the intention of the Board to compulsorily acquire the flat pursuant to section 56 of the Act; or
(e)	a notice of the intention of the Board to terminate the lease or an agreement for a lease of the flat.

Completion of register

6.—(1) The Board shall, not later than the day before the commencement of a primary poll relating to a precinct, complete the register and shall certify the completed register as the register in operation for that precinct.

(2) The Board shall, not later than the day before the commencement of a special poll in relation to any special upgrading works in a building or for 2 or more buildings within a precinct, complete the special register referred to in rule 3(2) and, shall certify the completed special register as the register in operation for those special upgrading works.

(3) The Board shall, not later than the day before the commencement of a flat upgrading poll in relation to any flat upgrading works within flats comprised in a building in a precinct or within any building in a precinct, complete the flat upgrading works register referred to in rule 3(3), and shall certify the completed flat upgrading works register as the register in operation for those flat upgrading works.

(4) The register in operation for a precinct and the special register in operation for any special upgrading works in a building or for 2 or more buildings shall be conclusive evidence for the purpose of determining whether a person is entitled to vote at a poll relating to that precinct and at a special poll in relation to those special upgrading works, respectively.

(5) The flat upgrading works register in operation for any flat upgrading works within flats comprised in a building in a precinct or within any building in a precinct shall be conclusive evidence for the purpose of determining whether a person is entitled to vote at a flat upgrading poll in relation to those flat upgrading works.

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