SINGAPORE - Property owners and management corporations should ensure that sloping areas at their buildings have reinforcement to prevent slips during heavy rain.

The Building and Construction Authority (BCA), which issued the advice on Tuesday (Jan 16), also noted that a choked drain or cracks on slope protection structures such as earth-retaining walls can be tell-tale signs of "safety-risk conditions".

If these signs are evident, owners or management corporations should "immediately engage a professional engineer to carry out inspections, assess the condition of their slopes and slope-protection structures, and recommend appropriate rectification works", said a BCA spokesman.

The alerts come a week after earth-retaining structures at the back of a row of houses in Carisbrooke Grove in Serangoon collapsed after heavy rain. There were no reported injuries, but the affected area has been cordoned off for safety reasons.

Based on the BCA's initial on-site assessment, the structural integrity of houses did not appear to be affected. The structural stability of the adjacent buildings, their earth-retaining structures and the houses on the base of the slope were also not affected.

However, home owners have been directed to cordon off their backyards. They have also appointed a professional engineer to recommend safety precautionary measures and permanent rectification works to be carried out.

The exposed slopes have been covered by canvas as an interim measure, the BCA spokesman said.