THE management committee (MC) of Elizabeth Towers, a condominium near Orchard Road, has resorted to spying on its residents.

It hopes this can weed out owners or master tenants who are illegally partitioning their apartments to create more bedrooms for subletting.

Mr Chng Hee Kok, an MC member and a former Member of Parliament, said the council had to dig into its funds to hire the private investigators (PIs).

Speaking to The New Paper in his Pegu Road office, Mr Chng, who runs a real estate business, said: "We're really at our wits' end in trying to solve the problem.

"At our last annual general meeting in August, we passed a by-law stating that residents and tenants aren't supposed to run their homes as hotels."

Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) rules state that private apartments are for residential use, so leasing them out on daily, weekly or monthly terms is generally not allowed. Also, planning approval is needed for a single residential unit to be broken up into more units.

Offenders, when discovered by URA, will receive notices requiring them to remove the partitions within a month. If they ignore the notices, they can be prosecuted and fined up to $200,000 or jailed up to a year, or both.

Mr Chng contacted The New Paper after reading our report on 19 Sep that reported that the owner of a maisonette in Elizabeth Towers was ordered by the URA to remove partitions erected by her tenant.

The tenant had partitioned the four-bedroom maisonette to create three extra rooms and it was sublet to 11 people.

Showing us a list of offending apartments, Mr Chng said 21 apartments in the 84-unit estate had been partitioned.

He said: "We hired PIs after getting complaints from residents who are worried about strangers living in the estate.

"Obviously, the MC members can't inspect the apartments as the committee is in charge of only the common areas.

"The PIs can only stake out the suspected units and take photos of the different people who come and go."

Mr Chng said that the MC will gather evidence and inform the URA, whose officers can inspect the apartments.

He said: "The MC can't order the apartment owner to tear down partitions as we have no control over the apartment interiors."

The partitioning is such that a four-bedroom maisonette can become a seven-bedroom one after subdividing the living room.

When asked about the worst case he had come across, Mr Chng was unable to do so as the MC does not inspect offending apartments.

He said: "If you ask me, every case is bad because you have many people staying in one unit and making a lot of noise."

Since late last year, the MC has also sued five errant owners successfully to recoup the money spent on hiring PIs.

In the case reported by The New Paper last month, the owner was asked to pay about $3,000 after being sued.

Mr Chng, who has been living in Elizabeth Towers for eight years, said more apartments had been partitioned in the last three years.

He said: "Medical tourists like renting units here as it's near a hospital (Mount Elizabeth) and Orchard Road."

This was much cheaper than staying in a hotel as the short-term tenants usually stay for up to a month.

One sub-tenant, Mr Stuart Cheng, paid $900 a month for his partitioned room in the condominium. He moved out after the master tenant was told to remove the partitions.

Mr Chng said: "It's definitely good money. We've caught people who rented two units in the estate and sublet the apartments out for a profit.

"I've personally seen a bunch of people moving out with suitcases and then the next day, another group of people move in with suitcases."

Mr Mohamed Ismail, chief executive of real estate agency PropNex, said he has heard of people renting an apartment and making a profit of as much as 100per cent by subletting the rooms. Mr Mohamed said subletting is usually not allowed in tenancy agreements.

Would-be sub-tenants usually come to know about such rooms through online postings.

One apartment owner, who was sued by the MC for about $3,000, told The New Paper that her ex-tenant was the culprit.

Giving her name only as Madam Wong, she said: "I wasn't aware my tenant put up the partitions until the MC called me. Now I'm the one who has to bear the costs. In the future, I have to be more watchful over my tenants."

The tenant rented Madam Wong's maisonette for $3,000 a month and collected more than $6,000 a month from 10 sub-tenants.

Madam Wong terminated the tenancy agreement after hearing about the partitions.

She said: "Till today, the partitions haven't been removed. I'm considering legal action if she doesn't take it down. I don't see why I have to spend money hiring contractors to do so, as it's not my fault."

Mr Chng said that despite the MC reporting errant owners to the URA, some persist in subletting.

Those owners were served notices by the URA to remove the partitions.

He said: "When the URA issues notices to owners to remove the partitions, they may comply. But after some time, the owners or the master tenants resume the subletting scheme.

"Many residents don't like the idea of strangers having free access to the estate as it poses security problems."

Other measures, such as making it compulsory for all residents and occupants to be registered with the condominium's security office, have not worked.

Mr Chng said: "Some subtenants get abusive when the security guards deny them entry, so the guards just let them in to avoid trouble."

He feels the URA should prosecute offenders instead of merely serving notices on them to remove the partitions.

Other condos

Elizabeth Towers is not the only condominium plagued by partitioned units.

Mr Donald Han, managing director of property consultancy Cushman & Wakefield, said the problem is common in older estates near popular areas like Chinatown and Orchard Road.

One MC member at The 101, a mixed development at Beach Road, told The New Paper that 10 apartments had been partitioned and used as hotel rooms.

Declining to be named, the member said: "We don't hire PIs to spy on the units. It's obvious when you see different people moving into the units every few days."

She said the MC has received numerous complaints from residents about the matter.

When contacted, a URA spokesman said it is investigating the situation at The 101.

As for prosecuting offenders, she said: "Enforcement notices may be issued to cease the unauthorised use (of residences).

"If the unauthorised use does not cease by the date stipulated in the notices, the persons responsible may be charged in court."

Last year, URA investigated 400 such cases, most of which involved illegal refurbishment of dwellings for use as workers' dormitories.

This year alone, URA has investigated more than 500 such cases.