Punggol faulty lifts: resident says "authorities have used the media to tell a different story"

Bad lifts or bad contractors?

Jonathan Lim | October 12, 2016, 01:18 PM

Punggol resident Jeremy Phua sent an email to the media explaining how the lifts at his new BTO block of flats had not been functioning properly since he moved in during September this year.

In the email, he said he had called the estate management service office "almost every other day" to raise the issue.

This is how he describes the problem:

The lifts will often get stuck at various levels and stop working. And more often than not, they will stop at a level and the doors cannot close fully - residents have to push both sides of the door to get it closed so that it continues moving. This happens at every level the lift stops at. This happens so frequently and our estate is not even fully occupied yet. Our block is 18 storey high, each level having around 10 units and served by 2 lifts - so you can imagine how things will be like during rush hours when we have full occupancy.

He went on to tell the media in the email that when he approached the authorities for a solution, the "only response" he got from them was "to tell the contractors not to damage the lift by stuffing objects to prevent the lift from closing."

This, he said, was just shifting the blame to contractors. He then questioned why better lifts were not put in place to begin with.

CNA's report

Channel NewsAsia (CNA) picked up on Phua's email and ran a two-minute video report on the faulty lifts with the headline "Renovation debris causing Punggol lift breakdowns a "real problem": MP".

The report largely focused on how renovation debris caught between lift doors and movers blocking lift doors were the main culprits for lift faults. A lift engineer was also quoted saying that "chances are it is the debris that is obstructing the movement of the doors."

Phua's points about shifting the blame to contractors and why better lifts were not installed in the first place were not mentioned in the report. Phua was, however, featured in the report talking about how residents had to physically close lift doors with their hands.

Unhappiness over CNA's representation of the issue

Unhappy with the report, Phua took to CNA's Facebook post to express his dissatisfaction. He claimed that "authorities have used the media to tell a different story":

jeremy-phua-punggol-lifts

Is this an issue of lifts with quality issues as Phua claims, or is it the fault of contractors as reported by CNA and claimed by authorities?

At least another individual has come forth to share that he faces the same lift problems in a block of BTO flats in Tampines which uses similar lifts:

jeremy-phua-sigma-lifts-punggol

Other netizens are not buying the explanation that lift faults are due to renovation contractors:

punggol-bto-lifts

Here is Phua's original email in full where he asked the media to be "the voice of the people":

Dear Media friends,

I am writing to you hoping that you can help to make known to all the frustrations and agony that the residents of my housing estate have been going through ever since we have moved in. I am hoping you can be the "voice of the people".

My name is Jeremy, I am a resident of Waterway Cascadia, a new BTO located at Punggol Way. The residents of this project started receiving their keys in the beginning of the year, home renovations are ongoing and I'd say there is less than 50% occupancy rate at the moment. I received my keys in May (some of the residents earlier) and after my renovations are done, moved into my new home in September. It has been just over a month or so, but I have been calling Town Council, EMS almost every other day because of the lift issues my block is having (not only my block, but the other blocks in the estate are also experiencing lift issues).

The lifts will often get stuck at various levels and stop working. And more often than not, they will stop at a level and the doors cannot close fully - residents have to push both sides of the door to get it closed so that it continues moving. This happens at every level the lift stops at. This happens so frequently and our estate is not even fully occupied yet. Our block is 18 storey high, each level having around 10 units and served by 2 lifts - so you can imagine how things will be like during rush hours when we have full occupancy.

Being a new estate, we have no Residents' Committee (RC) formed. We can only call the Town Council, email our MP (Ms Sun Xueling) for help. However, nothing done has solved the root of the problem, which is the quality of the lifts we are getting for this supposed premium estate of ours (We were paying like $100K or more for the same level housing size unit elsewhere at that point in time).

I've taken pictures, videos, sent my fair share of emails but the only response I got from the authorities was to tell the contractors not to damage the lift by stuffing objects to prevent the lift from closing - this is just shifting the blame to contractors, I am not even the least interested to find out who the culprit is, I am just a normal resident wanting my lifts to work properly, the most basic essential which the authorities cannot even provide, yet we are paying monthly conservancy fees, even before we started moving in! If I have to call them everyday and them sending down technicians to look at the issues everyday, some days more than 1 time, isn't it a waste of money and resources - why can't they just put in place a better lift in the beginning?

The recent spate of lift accidents is definitely of concern and yet the authorities are not making substantial effort in ensuring we have proper working lifts.

I would be happy to talk to you more and even walk you through our estate to show you the bad state of lifts we are experiencing day in day out.

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