Singapore, 27 July 2024 – Two HDB flat owners have been convicted in the State Courts for littering from their high-rise units under the presumption clause, which came into effect on 1 July 2023. In both cases, the National Environment Agency (NEA)’s surveillance cameras that were installed in response to persistent reports of high-rise littering, captured acts of littering from their respective apartment units. These cases are the first two convictions for high-rise littering under the presumption clause.

2.         On 11 June 2024, a 63-year-old man was fined $700 in court for presumably throwing an object out the toilet window from his unit at Bedok North Street 2. Separately, a 42-year-old female was also fined $700 on 25 June 2024 for presumably throwing items such as food waste and unknown liquid out of the kitchen window from her unit at Ang Mo Kio Street 52. Both were first offenders of high-rise littering.

Presumption clause for littering from residential flats

3.         Littering from residential flats is a serious offence as it poses a danger to the public, dirties the environment, and threatens our public hygiene. This presumption clause places greater onus on registered owners and tenants of residential flats to prevent littering from their flats. Where in any proceedings it is proven that littering acts have been committed from a residential flat, the registered owners (or tenants of the unit, where the whole residential flat is leased), will be presumed to have committed the offence.

4.         The presumption can be rebutted by the owner/tenant by proving that he/she was not present in the flat at the time of the offence, by proving that he/she could not have been the offender or by providing the identity of a person reasonably believed to be the offender.

1,100 enforcement actions taken for high-rise littering annually