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Breaking our lease!!

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megmyers
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Breaking our lease!!

Post by megmyers » Wed, 13 Aug 2008 8:59 pm

Hi,

Can someone please help me?? We have been living in Singapore for eight months and wish to break our 1 year lease. We have just given the landlord notice (the broker) and he said that is fine. I asked when we would get out bond back (1 month rent) $4,500.00 and he said you wont as you are breaking the lease. I said what if the landlord finds another tenant. We are allowing them to show people through but I dont even think he will advertise. I rang him a month ao and he said he has had in advertised with no interest???? I find this hard to believe.

It doesnt say in our lease agreement anything about breaking the lease and not getting out bond back! We need to move back to Australia. We dont have a diplomatic clause.

Hope someone can give me some advice.

cbavasi
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Post by cbavasi » Wed, 13 Aug 2008 9:55 pm

i'm not a lawyer - but i think in this case you may have to forfeit your security deposit. have you spoken with the landlord yourself? is he ok with a sublet? (the agent wouldn't really care since there is no commission for him/her.) have you tried to find a tenant on your own through bulletin boards or friends? the real estate market has cooled off quite a bit in the last 8 months - enough so that the landlord probably isn't in a rush to find someone to fill your apt. also, the diplomatic clause wouldn't have done you much good since the standard is 2 months written notice AFTER 12 months (so 14 month minimum). we've tried to have a sublease agreement written into all our leases for just this purpose - but have found here in singapore the landlords are not agreeable.
i had a dispute with an agent over a tenancy agreement and spoke with a lawyer at this firm:
http://www.aajplaw.com/abt_us.htm
basically told the receptionist my problem and asked to speak with someone - the lawyer who spoke with me on the phone gave me some good (free) advice - but told me it would be $500 to look at the agreement. may be worth calling just to field your question and see if it's worth pursuing.
i'm so sorry for your situation - but hope it works out ok.

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ScoobyDoes
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Post by ScoobyDoes » Thu, 14 Aug 2008 10:37 am

You typically won't find the diplomatic clause in contracts less than two years.

There should be a clause there that does say leaving early will mean foregoing the deposit - breaking the contract in any way. A 1-yr lease is a 1-yr lease plain and simple and i've been on the reverse side of the story with the landlord trying to get me out early and in that circumstance the 2-yr lease is a 2-yr lease.

Some we win, some we loose

It will likely be his legal right to keep the deposit. Whether it is his moral right depends on a lot of circumstances but he's running a business, the business of renting his apartment and let's face it he knows you are moving away and he never needs to see you again.

If you must move, let's say for a work reason rather than a personal one, the company would need to cover the lost deposit if it is the company forcing the move.

Other than that you might just fight a loosing battle.

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