Letterbox locks: yours, or the town council’s bank

HDB letterboxes are often a bank of boxes at the void deck or the lobby, maintained as common property. The lock and the door of that box are not a bedroom knob. Forcing one damages the bank and the neighbour’s box. Report a failed common lock to the town council on your S&CC bill. The 2025 order is why the council name may have changed. We will not arrive to drill a council box because the key snapped. If the council tells you the box is your responsibility, send that instruction with the photo. Until then, quote on inspection is not even the first step. The council is.

Landed houses and some condos have a private box on the gate or the yard. That lock can be a private job. No price is published. Quote on inspection after a photo of the box, not of the house. A cam lock and a pin cylinder are different. Bring the broken key if you have the stump. We still will not pick it. Condo lobby boxes are often the MCST’s, the same way the HDB bank is the council’s. Ask the management office before you book.

People price this job from the digital-lock bands because both say “lock.” S$188 to S$320 is a fire-door digital lock, not a 20mm letterbox cam. Using it would be cannibalising the lock guide and overcharging a cam, or undercharging a fire door. The door repair hinge band is equally the wrong row. A letterbox does not have a butt hinge at S$60 to S$120.

If mail is stuck and the council is slow, do not pry the flap with a screwdriver. You will bend the door so the next lock will not sit. The lost-key guide is the sequence: identify the owner of the box, then the hardware. A private box with a snapped key is the hardware. A common bank is the owner.

Send the location: void deck bank, condo lobby, or private gate. Include the block and the council name from the bill if it is HDB. We will tell you if we should not be involved. That answer is useful. It is free of a made-up call-out.

Homey Furnishing Pte. Ltd. (ACRA UEN 202018148K), 27 Mandai Estate, #06-10 Innovation Place, Singapore 729931, invoices the permit-exempt visit. V On Construction Pte. Ltd. (ACRA UEN 201611708H), on the HDB Directory of Renovation Contractors, invoices hacking, a new layout, windows that are not exempt, and the household shelter. Homey Furnishing is not a MOM-licensed employment agency and does not place helpers, nannies or caregivers.

The priced door catalogue stays on door repair: alignment and hinges, HDB PD pivots, pocket rollers, balcony bogies, veneer patches and surface-mounted drop seals. This page does not replace that list. It only covers the narrower job in the heading.

1. Decide whether the box is common property.
2. If it is an HDB bank, contact the town council before you book.
3. If it is a private box, photograph the lock and keep the broken key.
4. Do not pry or drill the door.
5. Do not apply a digital-lock price. Expect quote on inspection for a private box.

HDB banks follow the town council named on the bill. Condo lobbies follow the MCST. Landed gates are private. The hardware price, when we are even the right party, is still quote on inspection.

How you're charged

These four lines are the published handyman charges. A job that already has its own band uses that band. The hour is not added on top of a band unless the written scope says so. There is no fuel surcharge.

Small, medium, and large visits

Times are planning estimates for the work itself. They are not a promise of when someone arrives.

What a handyman can't do

Permit-exempt fittings stay on the Homey Furnishing invoice. These do not:

• A new cable, a new circuit, or a consumer unit. That is an EMA licensed electrician. A socket on an existing circuit is the S$55 row. A dedicated appliance circuit stays S$220 to S$450.
• A new or relocated water point, or a hacked chase. That is a PUB licensed plumber. Tap labour on the existing outlet is S$55.
• Piped gas. That is a Licensed Gas Service Worker.
• Hacking, a new layout, or the household shelter. That is an HDB renovation permit through V On Construction Pte. Ltd. UEN 201611708H.
• A hole in a fire-rated door that the fire detail does not allow.
• Common-corridor lights, stacks, and letterbox banks. Those follow the town council on the S&CC bill, or the MCST in a condo.

Handyman vs licensed contractor

Ways to keep the bill smaller

• Put several tasks on one visit. The S$55 call-out is one task. Extra permit-exempt time is S$45 an hour, not a second trip.
• Buy the part when the row is labour only. Tap labour is S$55. Toilet-bowl labour is S$168. Instant-heater labour is S$108 to S$260. Exposed storage-heater labour is S$188 to S$380.
• Send the photos first, so the reply can use a published band instead of a vague hour.

WhatsApp the photos to +65 8561 0630.

Rows below are already published elsewhere. This part is quote on inspection when it has no row.

Anything not in that table is quote on inspection. A second trade, when the law requires one, is named. It is not folded into a handyman hour.

WhatsApp the photos to +65 8561 0630. The reply uses a band already printed on HomeySG, or it says quote on inspection. It does not invent a third number in the chat.

• Lost letterbox key
• Door repair, a different door
• Key cutting
• What the town council owns