What Happens When Couples Split Up Before Moving Into Their HDB Flats
When such cases happen, one of the spouses will apply for court orders to retain the flats for themselves, especially when they have children, or for permission to sell the flats after the MOP is over.
As the demand for resale HDB flats is high, few people would choose the option to surrender their flats to HDB when they can sell it in the open market for higher resale prices.
In a recent acrimonious divorce case at the High Court, the man applied for his flat to be repossessed by HDB because he did not want his ex-wife to live there with their daughter, even though she was willing to take over the mortgage loan.
As he was found to have caused financial harm to the wife by depriving her of a home or the option to have more money by selling the flat in the open market, the court awarded her slightly more of the share of the proceeds from the repossession.
There are two other cases involving couples who fought over their new homes:
1. Fought Over a New BTO Flat
A man wanted to return a newly applied-for flat in Tampines to the HDB rather than letting his ex-wife have it in a bitter divorce. He was so determined to deny her a "windfall" should she sell the flat in the future that he fought the case all the way to the appeals court.
Their dispute was unusual because they had not even obtained the keys to the $470,000 flat and had paid only about $32,000 from their CPF accounts.
The wife, who earned $5,000 a month as a nurse willing to refund the husband's share and also willing to shoulder the mortgage by herself so she and their two children could have their own home.
But the husband, who also earned about $5,000 as an operations executive, stuck to his guns, contending that she did not deserve to profit from the windfall if the flat was to be sold in the future.
The Appellate Court ruled that the flat would be transferred to the wife because the needs of the children are important factors in such cases. The court noted that it was premature to consider any windfall from the sale of the flat because the mother and her children had to live there for at least five years to fulfil the MOP.
So the woman had to refund the former husband only the $16,000 he had initially paid plus the 2.5 per cent interest that had accrued during the duration of the purchase.
Divorced before Customary Wedding
A young couple registered their marriage, bought a resale HDB and even renovated it so they could hold the formal wedding ceremony once the dream home was ready.
But they did not count on their marriage hitting the rocks in just 3 years, before they could even hold their customary wedding for relatives and friends.
They had paid $370,000 for the resale flat and splurged close to $80,000 on renovations. The final straw probably happened during the five-month renovation period because the couple actually lived in the flat while renovation work was going on.
Inevitably, their stay was short-lived because of the dust and noise. So instead of building a new home together, the flat became the focus of their divorce as both sides wanted a bigger share of the asset. So everything came down to how much each of them had spent on the flat, which was bought with a loan and money from their CPF accounts.
As the marriage did not last long enough, their shares in the flat were determined solely by the amount each joint owner had contributed. The woman paid more for the purchase and most of the renovation costs. So Justice Choo Han Teck made an order for the sale of the flat and that 67 per cent of the proceeds would go to her, leaving 33 per cent to the ex-husband.
Source: The Straits Times