Tale of three siblings fighting over the sale of late mum's HDB flat

Three siblings who inherited a $600,000 Housing Board flat from their late mother ended up fighting in court because they could not agree on the seemingly straightforward process to sell it.

- Tan Ooi Boon

It all seemed rosy at first when one of the siblings offered to pay $400,000 to buy out the others' share. This was gladly accepted and all looked on track for a happy resolution.

But things went south after the siblings clashed over how the sale should be done, even though there are clear guidelines in the HDB standard option to purchase (OTP) forms.

For instance, while the two siblings wanted $5,000 for the option fee and its exercise fee, which is the prescribed maximum amount, the buyer wanted to pay only $1 plus another $500 for this part of the process.

The sellers were willing to accept the lower deposit since it merely meant that the buyer would have to pay more for the balance sum.

But the buyer's next request - to prolong the completion date to four months, which was twice the norm for HDB resales - proved a major stumbling block for the two siblings.

The buyer wanted them to ask the Housing Board to amend the standard form to reflect this request but their lawyer said that the changes to the OTP could not be made.

The buyer's lawyer responded on the same day, stating that the onus was on the sellers to obtain HDB's consent to modify the OTP to reflect the parties' agreement.

Instead of responding to this, the next letter from the sellers stated that they would apply for a court order to sell the flat and then divide the proceeds equally among the three of them.

But the transaction still hit a brick wall: The court dismissed the sellers' application, noting that they cannot ask for such an order to "short-circuit" the conveyancing process just because they thought it was tedious.

The case highlights two important lessons on why parties should not simply resort to court orders as a way to force a property sale.