35-Year-Old Receives Fine After Failing To Declare Change Of Address Within 28 Days
When moving houses, it might be hard to keep track of all the administrative work — granted, there’s a lot going on.
However, one thing Singaporeans shouldn’t miss is reporting their change of address when they’ve switched homes.
Recently, the Immigration and Checkpoints Authority (ICA) revealed that a Singaporean man was fined for missing the 28-day timeframe.
Source: ICA Singapore on YouTube
As such, 35-year-old Muhammad Taufiq Hidayat Bin Kamsin faces a S$3,700 penalty in default of ten days’ imprisonment.
Man receives fine for not reporting change of residential address
The ICA stated that the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) first alerted them about the issue on 1 Apr 2022.
Initially, auxiliary police officers had visited Taufiq’s registered residence to “execute an outstanding warrant of arrest”.
Upon arrival though, they found that Taufiq had moved elsewhere and was no longer staying in the unit.
Additionally, the homeowner told the officers that she had not allowed him to use her address as his registered residence.
Despite ICA’s attempts, Taufiq allegedly remained uncontactable.
According to the ICA, the 35-year-old had multiple Police Gazettes at the time, including warrants of arrest.
Wanted to avoid brushes with authority
Upon investigating the case, the ICA discovered that Taufiq had moved out of his previous residence in Canberra in December 2021.
However, he failed to report the change of address to ICA within 28 days as he reportedly wanted to avoid the authorities, including the ICA and Traffic Police (TP).
In March this year, however, Taufiq surrendered himself at the TP Headquarters to settle his matters with them.
Thereafter, the ICA followed up with him regarding his failure to report the change of address.
Singaporeans must declare change of address per National Registrations Act
Per the National Registrations Act, all identity card (IC) holders must report a change in the address — if any — to the ICA.
Failure to do so within the stipulated 28 days will incur penalties.
Those who are found guilty can be fined up to S$5,000, imprisoned for up to five years, or both.
Let this be a reminder to all Singapore Citizens and Permanent Residence to comply with the regulations.
Individuals who need to register a change of residential address may do so online here.
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Featured image adapted from TheSmartLocal, for illustration purposes only.
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