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Building and Construction Authority

Commissioning of Household Shelters and Storey Shelters

Learn about commissioning inspection requirements for household and storey shelters in Singapore, including household shelters in landed house built for owners own use.

Last updated on 30 June 2026

The construction of household and storey shelters in Singapore shall comply to the Building Control Act (opens in new tab), the Civil Defence Shelter Act, (opens in new tab) building regulations, and technical requirements.   While commissioning inspections for the first shelter in a building are not mandatory for all projects, it can serve as a useful reference for other shelters in the same development. 

How to apply for CD shelter inspections

  1. Evidence-based Approach for CD Inspections for a Landed House Built for Owner’s Own Use

QPs shall submit the following to the Commissioning of Building Control as part of the TOP/CSC application: 

Effective 1 January 2025, only evidence-based CD shelter inspections will be accepted for landed houses built for owner’s own use. Please refer to this circular [PDF, 208 KB] (opens in new tab) for more details.

Effective 3 July 2026, QPs shall use the new e-form on the Electronic Submission for Professionals (ESPro) in CORENET 2 when applying for TOP/CSC. The previous form in Word document will only be accepted until 2 July 2026, after which only e-form in Corenet 2 will be accepted.

  1. CD Commissioning Inspections for Other Types of Developments

For all other development projects such as landed houses built for the developer’s sale, non-landed residential developments, and non-residential developments, the QP shall submit the following: 

  • CD Commissioning checklist [ZIP, 1.6 MB] (opens in new tab) endorsed by the Qualified Person (QP).

  • Commissioning application with the CD Commissioning checklist via CORENET at least 5 working days before the proposed commissioning date.

  • If the shelter fails inspection, the QP may apply for a second inspection 14 working days after the date of failed inspection.

The supervising QP for structural works and Supervising QP for architectural works shall also submit the Certificate of Supervision of Building Works in respect of CD shelter(s) for all projects with CD shelters as part of TOP/CSC application.

Understanding the number of shelters to be inspected

The sample size for household and storey shelter project commissioning inspections is as follows:

Table 1 – Household Shelter (HS) Sample Size

Number of HS in Each Project/Block

Number of HS Samples Required for Commissioning Inspection

1 to 5

1

6 to 20

2

21 to 100

5

> 100

5% of total units

Table 2 – Storey shelter (SS) Sample Size

Number of SS Compartments in Each Project/Block

Number of SS Compartment Samples Selected for Commissioning Inspection

1 to 5

1

6 to 10

2

11 to 30

3

31 to 50

4

> 50

8% of SS compartments