Section 24 — Dangerous buildings

(1)If the Commissioner of Building Control is of the opinion that a building is in such a condition, or is used to carry such loads, as to be or likely to be dangerous, the Commissioner of Building Control may, for the purpose of obviating any danger, order an owner of the building to do all or any of the following:

(a)to appoint an appropriate person to carry out (at the owner’s cost) any inspection of the building that the Commissioner of Building Control may specify;[Act 12 of 2020 wef 01/10/2025]

(b)to execute or cause to be executed (at the owner’s cost) any building works that the Commissioner of Building Control may specify (which may include retrofitting under Part 3);

(c)to demolish or cause to be demolished (at the owner’s cost) the building or any part thereof, and remove any rubbish resulting from the demolition;

(d)to cause (at the owner’s cost) the building to be shored up or otherwise secured and a proper hoarding or fence to be put up for the protection of the public from danger, or arranging for the building to be watched;[Act 12 of 2020 wef 01/10/2025]

(e)to suspend the operation or use of any part of the building by any occupier or other person until after the Commissioner of Building Control otherwise approves.[47/2007; 22/2012] [Act 12 of 2020 wef 01/10/2025]

(1A)In addition, the Commissioner of Building Control may give an order under subsection (1) to do any thing under subsection (1)(a), (b), (c), (d) or (e) in respect of an exterior feature of a building or a fixed installation, or any building product used in a building, that the Commissioner of Building Control reasonably believes is necessary for either or both the following purposes:

(a)to prevent safety incidents involving the exterior feature or fixed installation in the future;

(b)to eliminate or minimise a safety risk posed by the use in the building of the building product.[Act 12 of 2020 wef 01/10/2025]

(1B)Where an order under subsection (1) is given to the owner or owners of 2 or more adjoining or connected buildings, a power to order the doing of anything under subsection (1)(a), (b), (c), (d) or (e) includes —

(a)a power to order the respective owners of the buildings to jointly appoint the same qualified person or persons to carry out (at the owners’ cost) an inspection of each of the buildings, where subsection (1)(a) is concerned; and

(b)a power to order the respective owners of the buildings to jointly do that thing under subsection (1)(b), (c), (d) or (e) in relation to each of those buildings.[Act 12 of 2020 wef 01/10/2025]

(1C)In the case of an order under subsection (1) in respect of a building with 2 or more owners, each of those owners is jointly and severally responsible —

(a)to take such steps as are necessary to comply with the order; and

(b)to bear all costs incurred to comply with the order.[Act 12 of 2020 wef 01/10/2025]

(2)The Commissioner of Building Control may, in lieu of or in addition to any order under subsection (1), make —

(a)an order (called in this Part an occupancy order) directing the owner or occupier of the building to not allow more than the number of people stated in the occupancy order to be in the building at any time or to otherwise restrict the use of the building, until the Commissioner of Building Control, being satisfied that any inspection or building works mentioned in subsection (1) are completed, withdraws the order; or

(b)an order (called in this Part a closure order) directing the closure of the building, and that every owner and occupier of the building must quit the building and must not allow anyone else to occupy the building except as permitted under this Part.[47/2007]

(3)Before exercising any of his or her powers under subsection (2), the Commissioner of Building Control must, if it is reasonably practicable to do so, give notice of his or her intention to make an occupancy order or a closure order, as the case may be.[47/2007]

(4)If the person to whom an order in subsection (1) is given fails to comply with the order within the time specified, the Commissioner of Building Control may ––(a) execute the order in any manner that he or she thinks fit; and (b) recover in a court of competent jurisdiction as a debt due to him or her all expenses reasonably incurred by him or her in doing so from the person in default, except that so far as the expenses incurred under this section consist of expenses of fencing off the building, or arranging for it to be watched, the expenses are not recoverable in respect of any period after the danger has been removed by other steps under this section. [47/2007]

(5)Without affecting the right of the Commissioner of Building Control to exercise his or her powers under subsection (4), any person who, without reasonable excuse, fails to comply with any order in subsection (1) that the person is given shall be guilty of an offence and shall be liable on conviction —

(a)to a fine not exceeding $100,000 or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 12 months or to both; and

(b)in respect of a continuing failure to comply, to an additional fine not exceeding $2,500 for each day or part of a day the person fails to comply with the order, and if the failure to comply continues after the conviction, the person shall be guilty of a further offence and shall be liable on conviction of this further offence to a further fine not exceeding $5,000 for each day or part of a day the person fails to comply with the order after conviction. [47/2007]

(6)Any person to whom any occupancy order or closure order under subsection (2) is given must, while the order is in force, display a copy of the order at every entrance to the building to which the order relates, and that copy must be displayed in a way that it can be easily read by people outside the building.[47/2007]

(7)Any person who contravenes subsection (6) shall be guilty of an offence.[47/2007]

(8)For the purposes of subsection (1A), it does not matter that the building product was used in a building before the building product became the subject of a reportable safety risk.[Act 12 of 2020 wef 01/10/2025]

(9)Where a building in respect of which the Commissioner of Building Control is to exercise his or her powers under this section is a fixed installation, any reference in this section to the owner of a building is a reference to the fixed installation owner of that fixed installation.[Act 12 of 2020 wef 01/10/2025] [Act 15 of 2026 wef 01/07/2026]