A lack of maintenance was the most common cause of windows falling from buildings in the first 11 months of the year, the Building and Construction Authority (BCA) and the Housing Board said yesterday.
The authorities also reminded home owners to check and maintain their windows every six months, and said those who failed to do so could be jailed and fined.
The BCA fined seven home owners for falling windows this year and eight last year. Since 2006, 352 people have been fined and 92 people prosecuted for windows that fell.
Many home owners The Straits Times spoke to expressed surprise about these penalties, with many unaware of the law that could see them fined up to $10,000, jailed for up to a year, or both.
The authorities said there were 48 cases of falling windows from January to last month, similar to last year's full-year total of 49 incidents.
There were 56 in 2017 and 45 in 2016 but only 35 in 2015, the lowest for the past 14 years.
"All windows may detach and fall when window parts become loosened or defective over time due to wear and tear," the BCA and HDB said in a joint statement.
Mr Lim Beng Kwee, director of BCA's enforcement and structural inspection unit, noted that the risk of injury from falling windows is high due to "Singapore's built environment (being) made up of mostly high-rise buildings".
Half of the 48 cases this year involved casement windows, or windows with a side hinged to a frame, the two agencies said, with the most common cause of incidents being corroded aluminium rivets.
It has been a legal requirement since 2014 to replace aluminium rivets with stainless steel ones. Owners who do not comply with this can be jailed for up to six months, fined up to $5,000, or both.
The remaining cases of falling windows included 19 sliding windows and other window types such as louvres. It was usually the lack of angled strips or stoppers that caused sliding windows to fall out of their frames.
Such window panels detached and fell when home owners applied excessive force in opening or closing the windows, said the authorities.
The BCA and HDB said home owners should do simple checks, oil moving parts every six months and contact approved window contractors to replace parts when necessary.
Several home owners were surprised by the severity of the penalties.
Businessman Yap Yong Soon, 42, was concerned that many home owners are not trained to know what to look out for when it comes to windows.
"I think they should be penalised only if they have deliberately not followed the rules," he said.
Facebook user Alicia Ku said many people would not even know what a window rivet looks like, and wrote in a post that the HDB could send certified inspectors to flats - older flats for a start - to help check on the condition of windows.
