Private property sales, OTP and en bloc: RES practice questions

Section 47(1)(c) provides for certification of matters including periodic contributions and unpaid contributions. Under section 47(3), a certificate is conclusive evidence in favour of a person taking an estate or interest for valuable consideration, as at the certificate's date, of the matters stated. That date limitation is important: the certificate is neither an informal estimate nor a promise that later levies cannot arise. The buyer should distinguish the statutory protection for the stated position on 1 September from the need to check developments relevant to the later completion.

The Strata Titles Boards' respondent guidance separates the stages. Before filing, all owners receive notice of the proposed application with the required documents. After filing, the applicants serve a copy of the actual application on all minority owners. An owner who has not agreed in writing is a minority owner for this purpose; silence does not remove the service requirement. The earlier proposal notice does not replace service of the actual filed application.

IRAS's pre-sale checklist says an eligible owner who has not applied for owner-occupier rates needs to apply at least six weeks before the property is transferred. It expressly states that it will not accept the application after the applicant ceases to be the owner. Its separate five-year limit concerns claiming a refund of excess tax paid following a successful application; it is not permission to make the underlying rate application after the sale. The seller's application for the seller's period is distinct from the buyer's future circumstances and should be addressed during pre-completion preparation.

URA distinguishes a sale licence, which permits construction and sales after the relevant approvals, from a no-sale licence, which permits construction only after those approvals. The building plan approval fulfils an approval requirement but does not change the type of licence. The developer may commence the approved construction on the facts given, but the salesperson should not treat the no-sale licence as authority to grant Options to Purchase. Disclosure to buyers does not convert the licence either.

Section 84D provides a majority-sale route for the stated non-strata development where flat proprietors own the land. For the ten-years-or-more category, section 84D(2)(b) requires written agreement by proprietors owning at least 80% share of the land and at least 80% of the total area of all flats. The land-share measure is not a count of people. Both weighted measures apply; the absence of strata registration does not itself make unanimity necessary when section 84D applies. These are consent prerequisites, not a substitute for the other application and approval requirements.