Most handyman jobs are permit-exempt. Hacking, windows and the shelter are not.

HDB renovation permits are for layout, hacking, windows and the household shelter. A hinge, a lock, a valve and a clean are not. Fines for unauthorised work run up to S$5,000. Noisy hacking is a weekday daytime activity, not a Sunday. This matrix lists 40 common jobs and which company is allowed to sign them.

HDB asks for a renovation permit when the work changes the flat in a way the building cares about: hacking walls or finishes, a new kitchen or bathroom layout, windows, and anything that touches the household shelter. A handyman who replaces a hinge, reseals silicone, hangs a shelf or extracts a mattress has not changed that layout. The invoice for the exempt work comes from Homey Furnishing Pte. Ltd. UEN 202018148K. The invoice for permit work comes from V On Construction Pte. Ltd. UEN 201611708H. Mixing those names is how a resale later has a permit in one company’s file and a hack in another’s.

Three clocks catch owners out. A new BTO often cannot have its bathroom tiles hacked for three years. The defects liability period is a separate first year with the developer. Injection of a hollow tile is not hacking, so it can sit inside the three-year window. Window replacement is a BCA retrofitting question as well as an HDB permit, and it belongs to an approved window contractor. The household shelter is a civil-defence structure. SCDF rules, including the limits owners refer to as Clause 7.2, restrict finishes, fixtures and any change to the door, the vent or the walls. A carpentry rack that blocks the vent is not a small favour.

Noisy hacking is limited. Plan demolition and heavy drilling on weekdays in the daytime, the pattern Town Councils describe as about 9am to 5pm Monday to Friday, and do not promise a Sunday hack because a contractor offered it. Fines for unauthorised renovation are commonly up to S$5,000, and the work can be ordered removed. The matrix below is the planning list. If a job is on the permit rows, stop and route it to V On. If it is on the exempt rows, Homey can price it without a renovation permit. A PUB plumber or an EMA electrician may still be required. Exempt from HDB is not exempt from every statute.

Homey Furnishing Pte. Ltd. (ACRA UEN 202018148K), 27 Mandai Estate, #06-10 Innovation Place, Singapore 729931, carries the permit-exempt portion of this work. V On Construction Pte. Ltd. (ACRA UEN 201611708H), listed on the HDB Directory of Renovation Contractors, carries any scope that needs an HDB renovation permit. Those two invoices are not interchangeable. Unauthorised HDB renovation can draw a fine up to S$5,000. Noisy hacking belongs in weekday daytime hours. BCA window rules and SCDF shelter rules sit on top of the HDB permit. PUB and EMA licences are separate.

Spend ten minutes with a torch, your phone camera, and a tape before you buy a product or book a hack. Write down what you see. The safe checks below do not ask you to open a live wire, cut a pressurised pipe, or lean out of a window. Write the flat type, the year of keys, and whether the work removes material or only replaces hardware. If material comes off a wall, a floor or a window, assume a permit until V On says otherwise.

Stop at the red-flag column. Stop if the work hacks, moves a wet room, replaces a window, or touches the household shelter. The reason DIY fails is almost never a lack of effort. It is that the tool or chemical makes the next professional repair harder, or it hides a leak, a live conductor, or a deposit line until the damage is larger than Exempt repairs often S$80 to S$900. Permit renovations are priced as a contract, not as a handyman hour..

This is the sequence a careful technician uses so you can tell a shortcut from a finished job. Tools stay in the van. Readings and photos go on the same worksheet as the price. The tool for this page is the matrix and the two UEN numbers. Exempt visits bring the tools of that trade. Permit visits do not start until the approval is in hand.

1. Step 1. Make the area safe and confirm the symptom still matches the photos. For Most handyman jobs are permit-exempt. Hacking, windows and the shelter are not., that means Stop if the work hacks, moves a wet room, replaces a window, or touches the household shelter.
2. Step 2. Measure before touching the finished surface. Write the flat type, the year of keys, and whether the work removes material or only replaces hardware. If material comes off a wall, a floor or a window, assume a permit until V On says otherwise.
3. Step 3. Set protection and lay out the tools that belong to this material. The tool for this page is the matrix and the two UEN numbers. Exempt visits bring the tools of that trade. Permit visits do not start until the approval is in hand.
4. Step 4. Carry out the repair in the order the material allows. permit work is done under the exempt company’s name, or a shelter vent is boarded over is the failure this order is written to avoid.
5. Step 5. Test in place. The invoice name matches the matrix row. Permit numbers, if any, are in the pack. Shelter vents and weep holes are still open.
6. Step 6. Clean, label the photographs against the invoice lines, and leave the statutory openings, weep holes, access panels and labels visible.

The order matters because permit work is done under the exempt company’s name, or a shelter vent is boarded over is what happens when a step is rushed. Handover is a measurement, not a handshake. The invoice name matches the matrix row. Permit numbers, if any, are in the pack. Shelter vents and weep holes are still open. If the reading or the water test fails, the visit is not closed and a second line is priced before anyone leaves. Permit work, if the diagnosis has moved into hacking, waterproofing, or a new layout, stops here and is repriced through V On Construction Pte. Ltd. UEN 201611708H.

Use the rows to see who may do the work. The dollar bands are typical exempt repairs. Permit contracts are quoted from drawings, not from this table. Prices below are 2026 Singapore bands for the described scope. They are not a coupon and they are not a guess after an unopened door. A second trade, such as a PUB licensed plumber or an EMA licensed electrician, is named when the law requires it rather than buried inside the labour line. Compare rows by what they include. The planning-life column belongs to that row only.

2026 SGD scope bands

Brand, material and lifespan

Forty common HDB jobs

Permit means an HDB renovation permit through V On Construction Pte. Ltd. UEN 201611708H. No means Homey Furnishing Pte. Ltd. UEN 202018148K can do the work without that permit. Another licence may still apply.

If your job is not in the forty, send photos. Do not assume a hack is exempt because a similar repair is.

Three worked jobs show how the same symptom is priced differently in a new BTO, an older resale flat, and a private condo or landed house. The totals are the lines a household actually paid, not a national average. Permit-exempt invoices are issued by Homey Furnishing Pte. Ltd. UEN 202018148K.

Case 1: 4-room BTO in Tengah, year two

Hollow bathroom tiles. Hacking was refused because of the three-year rule. Injection was S$480 and needed no permit. The shelter was not involved. Invoice: Homey Furnishing.

Case 2: 28-year resale in Ang Mo Kio

The owner wanted a new kitchen layout and a window change. That file went to V On Construction. A leaking angle valve in the same flat was done by Homey on a separate exempt invoice at S$240 so the permit was not loaded with a simple plumbing visit.

Case 3: condo, not HDB

The matrix is an HDB document. The condo still needed MCST consent for noisy work. A hinge set at S$160 needed no HDB permit and no MCST deposit. A balcony screen did. The by-law guide is the next page for private estates.

Match the job to the matrix, then book the exempt repair or ask V On for the permit scope. Send the photos and the measurements from the ten-minute check. The reply prices the band on this page against what the photos actually show.

• Condo by-laws and deposits
• Window rivets and BCA
• Exempt cabinet repairs

The matrix on this page says which job needs a permit. The clock, the three-year floor, and the defects report are separate.

• Saturday and noisy-work hours
• Three-year bathroom floor
• Report defects first