Yishun Beacon key collection: a defect check plan for your flat

Yishun Beacon is the small Yishun BTO along Yishun Central and Yishun Avenue 2, next to Khoo Teck Puat Hospital and about a 10-minute walk from Yishun MRT. It has 646 flats in 5 blocks of 14 storeys: 273 2-room Flexi, 207 4-room and 166 5-room flats. It was launched in the May 2022 BTO exercise with an estimated completion in the second quarter of 2026, so owners are collecting keys now or will be soon. Here's how to check your flat properly on the first visit.

The deadline that matters

Report defects to your Building Service Centre (BSC) within one month of collecting your keys, and before your renovation starts. Your exact key collection date comes from HDB by letter or email, so go by that, not by what you hear in the group chat. The 12-month defects liability period covers problems that appear later, but the first month is when it's easiest to show a defect was there from the start.

Built from factory-made modules

Yishun Beacon was built with PPVC (Prefabricated Prefinished Volumetric Construction): rooms are made as boxes in a factory, finished inside, then stacked on site. You don't need to know the details, but it's a good reason to look carefully where things meet:

• Wall and ceiling lines: hold your phone torch flat against the wall and look along it, especially along the line where the wall meets the ceiling and at room corners. Look for cracks, gaps in the sealant and uneven paint. See wall and ceiling cracks.
• Ceilings below and around wet areas: look for stains or damp patches on the ceiling and walls next to the bathrooms and kitchen. A stain now is easy to report; a leak found after renovation is much harder. See ceiling leaks and water seepage.
• Floor tiles across doorways: tap every tile with a coin, including the ones at each doorway. A dull, hollow sound means a hollow tile. See how to check for hollow tiles.

2-room Flexi owners (the biggest group here)

Over 40% of the flats at Yishun Beacon are 2-room Flexi, many of them for seniors. The flat is small, so the check is quick, but the same one-month deadline applies.

• Bathroom: run the tap and shower, flush, and look under the basin for drips. Pour water near the floor trap and watch it drain without pooling. If grab bars are fitted, pull on each one firmly. See the floor trap test.
• Doors and gate: every door and the main gate should close fully and lock with each key you were given. See doors, gate and locks.
• Sockets and switches: try every socket with a phone charger and every switch. See the electrical check.

Collecting keys for a parent? Do the check together, and keep the defect list and photos on your own phone so you can follow up with the BSC for them.

4-room and 5-room owners

A bigger flat means two bathrooms, more windows and a lot more tiles. Give it two to three hours, in daylight, and bring a second person: one taps and tests, the other tapes and takes photos. Open and close every window panel and check the locks and rubber seals (see window defects), and do the full bathroom check in both bathrooms.

A simple plan for the first visit

1. Pack the night before: painter's tape, a marker, a coin, a bottle of water, a charger and a charged phone. Full list: what to bring on key collection day.
2. Go room by room. In each room: floor, walls, ceiling, doors, windows, sockets, then anything with water. Finish one room before moving on.
3. Number each defect on tape (#01, #02…), then take one close-up and one wide photo with the number showing. The BSC uses the numbers to find each spot.
4. Mark them on a floor plan. A quick sketch with the numbers on it saves the contractor time and saves you a second visit.
5. Write one clean list, grouped by room, and submit it within the month. Check the repairs when they're done and report anything that wasn't fixed.

Every room and what to check is in the room-by-room BTO defect checklist. Prefer paper? There's a free printable version with tick boxes and number labels. Or use the free KeyDay app on your phone: it numbers each defect, keeps the photos with it and marks it on your floor plan. How to hand the list in: how to report BTO defects to the BSC.

After the first month

Tiles can turn hollow and hairline cracks can appear over the first year. Do a second round before the 12 months are up: the one-year DLP check. Renovating? Check the contractor's work before the final payment with the renovation handover checklist.

Other projects collecting keys around now are on the BTO key collection list.