How are unauthorised works usually discovered?
Common routes include periodic structural inspections (the engineer must look for evidence of structural works done without approved plans), periodic façade inspections, buyer or tenant due diligence, insurance claims after an incident, complaints from neighbours or feedback to agencies, agency inspections, and A&A submissions for new works where the Qualified Person surveys existing conditions. Incidents such as a collapse also trigger investigations.
From the RRD Field Guide, checked against the sources cited in Unauthorised Building Works in Singapore: Penalties, Detection and How to Regularise. General information, not advice for your project.
The fuller picture
Unauthorised building works are works carried out without a required approval from BCA (plans or structural permit), SCDF (fire safety works) or URA (planning or conservation permission). They can attract fines of up to S$200,000 under each regime. To keep them, the owner appoints a Qualified Person to survey and assess the works and seek retrospective approval; otherwise they must be rectified or removed.
More questions on this topic
- What counts as unauthorised building works in Singapore?
- I bought the property with the unauthorised works already there. Am I responsible?
- Can unauthorised works be approved after the event?
- Will my lawyer's legal requisition reveal unauthorised works?
- What does regularisation cost?
- Is a mezzanine in a warehouse unit a building work?
- Does the tenant or the landlord bear liability for a tenant's unauthorised works?