Is a mezzanine in a warehouse unit a building work?
A mezzanine or steel platform that adds floor area or loads the existing structure is a building work under the Building Control Act and generally needs plan approval and a structural permit, along with SCDF approval for fire safety works and possibly URA clearance on floor area. In January 2025 a mezzanine floor collapsed in a Toa Payoh warehouse unit; BCA said it had received no applications for the platform and SCDF found no Fire Safety Certificate had been obtained.
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?
- How are unauthorised works usually discovered?
- What does regularisation cost?
- Does the tenant or the landlord bear liability for a tenant's unauthorised works?