My car was parked at the MSCP beside my block in the Sembawang GRC. My estate is undergoing some renovation works which includes rectification works at the MSCP and the painting of the blocks in my estate.
On 15 of December 2022 which is a Thursday, I parked my car in the lot near the washing bay of my MSCP. I notice a group of workers mixing paint right beside the lot where my car is parked. I assume that they are the painters doing the painting for the blocks in my estate. On Friday evening when I came back to my car, I noticed my car had paint spots all over it. My car is black in colour so it was very obvious. My first thought was the painters who were mixing paint at the lot where my car was parked the previous day.
Since it was Friday evening, I contacted Sembawang Town Council the very next Monday to report the damage to my car. I received a call from Sembawang Town Council staff a few days later telling me that the project is under HDB purview and she already forwarded my complaint to the Sembawang HDB branch. I waited for one month but nobody from HDB contacted me regarding my complaint.
I went down to my MSCP to find the contact number of the project manager of the renovation works being done at the MSCP. I WhatsApp the project manager on 1st of Feb 2023. I told him about my case and he said he would look into it. I received an email from one of the contractors asking a staff from HDB to follow up on an email sent on 11 Jan 2023. I was cc in the email. Two HDB officers were in the email loop.
After one week of no response, I sent an email reply to this email asking for an update on 9 Feb 2023. I stated in this email that my car lease had expired and I would need to return the car to the rental company but I could not do so because of the paint damage. I am incurring weekly rental and the season parking for this car. Nobody in the email loop replied. After three weeks of waiting, on 22 Feb 2023, I sent another email asking them for an update and also received no reply from anyone in the email loop. Apparently HDB officers couldn’t be bothered with my case.
I waited until 14 of March and I called the HDB hotline to ask for an update on my case. The very day on 15 March, I received a call from a HDB staff telling me that he had taken over the case from the previous officer and he needed time to investigate. I told him ok and I would wait for his reply. This officer also went MIA and I did not receive a single reply.
On 5 April 2023, I went down to meet my MP Ong Ye Kung at the MPS and explained my situation to him. He helped draft a letter to HDB asking them to look into my case. The very next day on 6 April 2023, I received a call from one of the contractors asking to discuss my case. I told the contractor to ask HDB to find a solution and not keep asking me details about the case which I have provided to them 4 months ago.
Nothing was heard from the contractor or HDB until 13 April 2023 when I received an email from a Senior Estate Manager from HDB that he is looking into my case and needs more time to respond. After this nothing was heard again from HDB. On 3 May 2023, a General Manager from HDB sent an email stating that the contractor would be contacting me regarding the damage done to my car.
I waited until 8 May 2023 when I finally received a call from the contractor. To my surprise, the contractor told me that they could not find the person who was responsible for damaging my car. There is no evidence that it is the workers from their company that did the paint damage to my car. I told the contractor that there are only two groups of people doing paint works at the estate and who else could have done the paint damage to my car. They would be offering to polish my car out of goodwill instead. I rejected their offer straight away and told them that I would be filing claims for my rentals payments and season parking. The contractor told me straight that my claim would not go through even if I tried. I told the contractor that if I knew this would happen, I would have gone to the police and made a report about it. They would have gotten the CCTV from the carpark to see what actually happened but after 4 months, I think the CCTV footage would have been long over written. The contractor then said he would tell HDB my response and ask me to again wait for a reply from HDB. Another round of the waiting game.
After nearly 4 months and one week, I got this reply. The HDB took 4 months to come up with this reply. They are inefficient or really incompetent. They took 4 whole months to investigate and my case got passed around to god knows who many HDB officers. I didn’t know that HDB officers were this inefficient and not once in the 4 months did they reply or updated me. It was only when I went to see my MP that I got a conclusion to my case.
If I knew that HDB was this inefficient, I would have bear the polishing cost right at the start and settle it myself. After 4 months of waiting, the paint would have eaten into my car body paint. I have to bear the rental cost of my car during this period when I could have return the car to the rental company in Feb 2023.
I have attached some pictures of the paint spots that are all over my car. I have all the email and whatsapp conversations with the contractor and HDB if further verification on my story is needed.




