On last Friday, at 4+pm, HDB called darling to ask whether we could make it for an appointment today, Monday to collect our keys. We were quite surprised with the reaction time that they gave us, but it is good news so it's ok. If we want to fault HDB in terms of the completion date, we couldnt, cos they said that the estimated completed date is 1Q2014, and 31 Mar 2014 falls within this. Hahaa, talk about timeliness. But then there are other blocks which are not completed yet, we are considered some of the few lucky ones.When we went to the site yesterday (Sunday), the hoardings around our block were still up and we couldn't enter. And amazingly, those hoardings were taken down today. Hence, we are very sure that we were the first few to collect the keys for our block.
So this afternoon, we went to HDB hub excitedly. For the appointment, you just have to bring along your marriage cert, IC and your bank details. Before you meet the customer service officer for the keys, if you are taking a loan from HDB, you got to buy a fire insurance by Etiqa from them. It costs $8.24 for a 5-year plan. They also sell home insurance at the same counter. Since we felt that it was necessary and it was hassle free buying from the same counter, we also bought the home insurance from Etiqa which costs $319.60 for a 5-year plan.
And then, we took a queue number for our appointment. Within 5 min, we were called in. It was a pleasant experience even though we had so many things to sign and pay for. One main document would be the repayment plan that we would have to decide on. After deducting our initial deposit and wiping clean our OA accounts, we still had about 2/3 of the flat price which was outstanding. Looking at the monthly contributions that we had to pay based on the different periods, we decided to first take on a 20-year loan from HDB. It is a comfortable period. If at any point we would want to shorten the period, we could go to the town council to change it without a charge. You could only shorten but not lengthen the period of repayments.
And then, we need to sign some deed agreement and a home protection scheme health declaration form to be given to CPF. It is a mandatory payment of $100+ which we need to pay to CPF on a yearly basis which could be deducted from our OA accounts. We also need to start paying for the town council conservancy charges of $69.90 per month. The first month's deduction was done at the HDB counter. You would need to fill in a form if you want to apply for GIRO for subsequent month's payments. Next comes the SP charges. We decided to activate our water and electricity this coming sat as SP needs us to be around in the flat when they activate those. All these would still cost money if you don't use it as there is a base charge. But since we could apply for everything there and then, we decided to do it. For gas, you need to apply with Citygas separately. The whole appointment took us about an hour to complete. It was rather fuss-free as everything that required application was contained within the HDB building.
Exactly 3 years on, we got hold of the keys to our first home. <3
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