Tengah resident discovers 'waterfall' in flat, delays honeymoon indefinitely because of air-con woes
He said he had sought help from his MP Amy Khor, Prime Minister Lawrence Wong, President Tharman Shanmugaratnam - all to no avail.
Dealing with the problematic central cooling system (CSS) in his Tengah flat has affected his marriage, his health, his finances and his job.
The issues have become so myriad that Stomper Skai had to create an 8,000-word web page to document the entire saga that began in April 2024.
The freelance photographer told Stomp: "My wife and I moved into our new home around 1½ years ago. However, the air-con isn't functioning properly."
They had signed up for the "eco-friendly" CCS provided by SP Group.
"We gave the company five chances to repair the air-con and they failed," said the Stomper.
"It was a torturous process. Eventually, there was a waterfall, which posed a safety issue for us."
It happened on Halloween 2024.
On his website, the Stomper recounted: "Just before midnight, as I was about to head to bed, I heard the sound of water dripping - a steady tap, tap as it hit the floor and the bucket I'd placed underneath.
"Curious and a bit alarmed, I went to check and found water pouring from the CCS unit.
"My photography equipment was lying on the floor, ready for an early morning shoot. If I hadn't noticed the dripping in time, the water would have ruined my gear, forcing me to cancel the shoot at the last minute - a blow to both my income and reputation.
"But the risk went even deeper than that - should the water get into my battery chargers, it could have caused an electrical shock, potentially sparking a fire while we slept."
He told Stomp: "Despite this, they refused to give us a full refund. They have been dragging the case till now."
The Stomper said on his website that SP offered a 50 per cent refund, which he rejected, and he explained why he did so.
"The CCS system delivered to us was defective upon installation," he claimed.
"We did not cancel the service out of personal preference or due to a change of mind - it was the poor product quality and SP Group's failure to deliver what was promised that forced us into this situation.
"It is fundamentally unjust to impose a financial penalty on a customer who received a defective product through no fault of their own."
The Tengah resident gave Stomp a list of how the CCS has negatively impacted the couple's lives: "We had to change our marriage plans and were not able to do it in our new home.
"Our honeymoon is delayed indefinitely. We had to skip our family planning because my wife's age is catching up.
"Our parents have yet to visit the flat till now.
"Occasionally, both of us would have 'discussions' about it. It causes mental strain and health issues, including sleep disorders. We have been sleeping without air-con since last Halloween after the waterfall.
"It's affecting my income directly because I'm a freelance photographer who had planned to set up a home studio, but without air-con, it's challenging."
The Stomper isn't the only Tengah resident who regrets choosing the CCS over a conventional air-conditioning system.
An online petition asking the Government to intervene was started in April, and it has 362 signatures so far. A Telegram group dedicated to Tengah CCS issues has more than 3,300 members.
The Straits Times reported in March 2024 that Daikin, which is responsible for installing the CCS, said it has tripled its team of workers rectifying condensation issues after some residents reported leaks stemming from the system.
SP and Daikin told ST that cases of condensation - which may result in leaks in some incidents - were largely caused by workmanship issues due to the Housing Board's "compressed timeline" to hand over units to residents.
As a result, they had insufficient time to install the fan coil units, piping and trunking, as well as to fully test, stabilise and commission the systems.
The spokesman for Daikin apologised for the inconvenience caused to customers.
More than 1,000 households have cancelled their contracts for the cooling system, based on figures from SP at the time.
Stomp has emailed tengahsupport@spgroup.com.sg for more info.
