It depends on how the flat is held.
If the owners are joint tenants, they own the whole flat together. When one passes away, the flat goes to the surviving owner automatically, will or no will. That's called survivorship. The surviving owner lodges a Notice of Death with the Singapore Land Authority.
If they're tenants-in-common, each owner has a separate share. That share follows the will, and if there's no will, the Intestate Succession Act decides who gets it. Same if there's only one owner. HDB's page covers each situation.
That said, the name on the title isn't always the end of it. There was a case in 2021 where a father had added one of his daughters to his flat as a joint owner. When he passed away, the flat went into her name, just as the rule says. But her sister took it to court on behalf of his estate, and the appeal court decided the daughter was only holding the flat for the estate. It came down to what the father meant when he added her, so it won't play out the same way for every family.
I've been learning about cases like this and started a YouTube channel to talk about them. I went through this one here, if you're interested.
It depends on how the flat is held.
If the owners are joint tenants, they own the whole flat together. When one passes away, the flat goes to the surviving owner automatically, will or no will. That's called survivorship. The surviving owner lodges a Notice of Death with the Singapore Land Authority.
If they're tenants-in-common, each owner has a separate share. That share follows the will, and if there's no will, the Intestate Succession Act decides who gets it. Same if there's only one owner. HDB's page covers each situation.
That said, the name on the title isn't always the end of it. There was a case in 2021 where a father had added one of his daughters to his flat as a joint owner. When he passed away, the flat went into her name, just as the rule says. But her sister took it to court on behalf of his estate, and the appeal court decided the daughter was only holding the flat for the estate. It came down to what the father meant when he added her, so it won't play out the same way for every family.
I've been learning about cases like this and started a YouTube channel to talk about them. I went through this one here, if you're interested.