The High Court has ordered a contractor, an engineer and an architect to pay damages to the owner of a Chinatown conservation shophouse for deviating from strict Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) conservation guidelines in their renovation work.

URA had refused to approve the deviations, resulting in rectification costs and a delay of more than three years for the owner to re-occupy the three-storey shophouse in Boon Tat Street.