Car Dealers Allegedly Used Loophole in HDB Carparks to Get Free Parking

Ever wanted to become a car dealer?

Well, we suspect that your parents won’t be too happy with that given that they probably want you to be a doctor, but in the event that you want to be a car dealer, here’s something you should know.

There’s a loophole for car dealers to get free parking on deregistered cars at HDB carparks, but you probably shouldn’t do it.

Here’s why.

Car Dealers Allegedly Using Loophole in HDB Carparks to Get Free Parking

Have you ever seen a few cars parked at your HDB carpark at the same lots for a strangely long period and wondered: do these people never drive their cars?

Chances are, no one’s even driving those cars. They’re likely deregistered.

According to Lianhe Zaobao, car dealers are allegedly parking deregistered vehicles in HDB carparks to exploit an ingenious method of getting free parking.

For the non-drivers among us (or should we say, those that weren’t strong enough to tahan the BBDC instructors’ attitudes), deregistered vehicles are vehicles with expired Certificate of Entitlements (COEs).

You see, when your COE expires, you’re supposed to deregister and dispose of your vehicle so that you can no longer use it in Singapore—there are a few ways to do this.

You could scrap it at a Land Transport Authority (LTA)-appointed scrapyard, temporarily store it at an LTA-appointed Export Processing Zone (EPZ), or export it.

Alternatively, you can also engage a car dealer to help dispose of your vehicle. However, when your deregistered car gets into the hands of car dealers, it’s now their problem to deal with (pun intended).

And it appears that some car dealers have devised a clever (but not very legal) way of storing these deregistered vehicles.

After all, your deregistered vehicle has to be parked somewhere before it’s disposed of. Usually, these deregistered vehicles will be stored at an EPZ, meaning parking and administrative fees must be paid. The administrative fees can go up to $200.

To circumvent these costs, car dealers have allegedly used tow trucks to transport these deregistered vehicles into multi-storey HDB carparks to park them there.

Since the electronic parking system only scans the In-vehicle Unit (IU) of the tow truck, the tow truck can drive into the HDB carpark, leave the deregistered cars in the carpark, and exit quickly afterwards—no parking fees will be incurred.

It’s kind of like tailgating.

And recently, these deregistered cars have caught the attention of eagle-eyed Singaporeans. For instance, pictures of such cars parked conspicuously at Block 120 Kim Tian Place have made their way around social media.

And if it isn’t obvious enough, these deregistered vehicles were parked on an empty level in the HDB carpark—redefining “the elephant in the room”.

Investigations By HDB Ongoing 

Of course, this has caught the eye of the authorities. In particular, the Housing and Development Board (HDB).

Investigations by HDB are ongoing.

And, of course, the authorities will only conduct investigations if whatever’s being done isn’t very legal. The car dealers might have gotten free parking on the vehicles, but as we all know, there’s no such thing as a free lunch in this world.

Well… Unless you flirt with the char kway teow uncle.

The unauthorised use of parking spaces and the failure to pay parking fees constitute illegal parking. Fines will be issued accordingly if an offence is found.

On top of that, failure to properly dispose of a deregistered vehicle can also get you fined.

We guess the car dealers had to pay anyway. And, probably more than the parking fees would have cost if the car dealers actually parked the deregistered vehicles properly.

For failure to properly dispose of a deregistered vehicle, one can be fined up to $2,000 or jailed for three months. Repeat offenders can be fined up to $5,000, jailed for six months, or both.

Deregistered vehicles found to be in possession may be fined up to $2,000, jailed for three months, or both. Repeat offenders may be fined up to $5,000, jailed for six months, or both.