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Rental Contract expires in June - What to do?

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AngryAngMo
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Rental Contract expires in June - What to do?

Post by AngryAngMo » Wed, 07 Jan 2009 12:57 pm

Hello,

my two year rental contract expires on the 1st of June and my landlord just asked me for a meeting tonight. I am very sure he wants to discuss this topic.

Im currently paying 2.300SD for a studio condo at kembangan MRT, everything is new, the location is nice and actually im quite happy. Do you think he will raise the rental and if yes how much?

Furthermore, if i need to look for a new place starting in mb end of April, May, how do you see the rental prices then? Everybody is saying they are going down at the moment but im not sure about that.

Appreciate every comment!

Cheers

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sierra2469alpha
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Post by sierra2469alpha » Wed, 07 Jan 2009 1:08 pm

AAM - my two cents worth but I'm sure brighter folk will chime on in...

A couple of thoughts:

1. LL could just be sounding you out - maybe he wants to sell to take advantage of any capital gain they have made seeing sale prices are plateauing/falling in some areas.

2. I'm not qualified to comment on apartments of that type, however at the range we are in I've noticed a decrease of close on 10% since we moved in last FEB in our building (and similar falls for other buildings of the same type). It may be of no use, but commercial rents are under pressure as we are negotiating on new business premises, and LLs are very willing to negotiate.

3. The financial press (should you wish to believe them) do seem to indicate residential rents here are on the way down in the temporal scope at which you are looking.

Again, better persons than I will be able to assist!

Cheers, Mr. P

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Addadude
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Post by Addadude » Wed, 07 Jan 2009 1:08 pm

Hmm... Six months to go before your tenancy expires and the landlord is the one requesting the meeting? I suspect he is the one who is panicking! I don't see how there is anything for you to worry about.

The fact is, rental prices are indeed dropping and your landlord knows this. By June they will have dropped even further. So he is probably going to try and lock you into a new agreement 6 months early. In your shoes I would procrastinate - you are under no obligation to renew. Tell him you are not sure of your own situation re. job security just yet and that you'll need to wait and see.

AngryAngMo
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Post by AngryAngMo » Wed, 07 Jan 2009 2:17 pm

Thanks a lot for the advice, actually its exactly my situation. I am indeed not sure about the job situation etc. and i already suspected the same, LL panicking because of dropping rentals.

Btw. can he sell the condo while the tenant is still living there, and if yes, what would be the imapct on the tenant?

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Post by dawgbyte » Wed, 07 Jan 2009 2:17 pm

There is also a possibility that he is planning to sell (or maybe has already sold) the place. Sorry, I got no advice.

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sierra2469alpha
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Post by sierra2469alpha » Wed, 07 Jan 2009 2:18 pm

AAM - nothing in your rental contract about selling it out from under you?

@Dawg - yes my point also - see 1) above :) Methinks it may be that or LL is mightly scared

P

[Edit: reaply to dawg]

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Post by Addadude » Wed, 07 Jan 2009 3:29 pm

So I think we can generally agree that there are two possibilities - A, the landlord is anxious to get you to renew the lease early for the aforementioned reasons or B, he is either planning to or already has sold the apartment. In the case of his selling the apartment, normally your contract will protect you in terms of your occupation until the end of your lease, so no worries there.

If you are indeed unsure as to your own personal situation regarding your job, the last thing you would want to do is sign a binding legal agreement to continue paying rent! You don't want to end up like the guy who started the "Doing a runner" thread on the Angry Board!

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Post by dawgbyte » Wed, 07 Jan 2009 3:29 pm

sierra2469alpha wrote:AAM - nothing in your rental contract about selling it out from under you?

@Dawg - yes my point also - see 1) above :) Methinks it may be that or LL is mightly scared

P

[Edit: reaply to dawg]
heh... yeah.. I misread your post earlier to mean LL wanna sell to TS. :P Anyway, my friend also had this problem where her contract will expire on April, but landlord wanna sell and asked her to move out by Dec31. Her agent is very good and somehow the landlord is suppose to pay her $1K / mo for the remaining part of the contract. Not sure abt the details. Anyway, her stay was extended up to March this year. Again, not sure if she will still be compensated for the month of April... sorry my storytelling skill sucks. But that's the gist of it.

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sierra2469alpha
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Post by sierra2469alpha » Wed, 07 Jan 2009 3:59 pm

Dawg - your story is good - hopefully it helps out AAM.

Good outcome for your friend, though. Frankly, in our situation, I'd love to point a rather large weapon of choice at our landlord but hey we're relatively new to Singapore and while we did our homework there's only so much one can do!

Interesting that the LL was prepared to pay your firned $1K per month - I haven't heard of that. Maybe some of our friends here can advise on that.

@AAM - sounds like holding your ground, giving face, is all you need to do, lah?

Cheers, Mr. P

AngryAngMo
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Post by AngryAngMo » Wed, 07 Jan 2009 4:25 pm

Yes, thanks for all the input, i have to check the contarct later again what it states about the selling of the flat while im still in there.

Furthermore, I have a clause saying that i can cancel the contract from my side, when I lose my job, but still, i wont sign or agree on anything in 6 month in advance of course :)

Gonna let you know what the outcome was.

Cheers

AngryAngMo
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Post by AngryAngMo » Wed, 07 Jan 2009 6:18 pm

...actually i dont think he sold it off already, since there were never any potential buyers or people at all visiting the flat :)

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Re: Rental Contract expires in June - What to do?

Post by resm » Wed, 07 Jan 2009 7:50 pm

AngryAngMo wrote:Hello,

my two year rental contract expires on the 1st of June and my landlord just asked me for a meeting tonight. I am very sure he wants to discuss this topic.

Im currently paying 2.300SD for a studio condo at kembangan MRT, everything is new, the location is nice and actually im quite happy. Do you think he will raise the rental and if yes how much?

Furthermore, if i need to look for a new place starting in mb end of April, May, how do you see the rental prices then? Everybody is saying they are going down at the moment but im not sure about that.

Appreciate every comment!

Cheers
First of all: in today's market you can get a 2-3 room condo for 2500.- (asking price) so that means even below.

Wait until after Chinese New Year and the prices will go down even more and probably until april it will be paradise for tenants.

If your landlord sells the apartment when you are still renting it, the new owner has to take over you and your contract.

If he should ask you for an increase of rent after the old lease expires, you should ask him from which planet he is coming from.
PROUT....the only way out !

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Post by durain » Wed, 07 Jan 2009 8:09 pm

you still got 6 months to go. i would say wait coz you never know what the market will be in 6 months time! the trend for rental is going down, thus it might even go up but that's the risk you will have to judge yourself.

AngryAngMo
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Post by AngryAngMo » Wed, 07 Jan 2009 8:45 pm

Ok, so as promised, here is what happened:

We met and he did all the usual honey talk and how everything is.
Then he was asking how my job situation is (which is stable for the moment), if my girlfriend would come over soon...and so on.

I pretty soon sensed that he was actually asking if i want to leave my place earlier. He even (which i never expected) offered me a cheaper place(HDB though), closer to the city, offered to shorten the notice period from both sides to end the contract etc etc.

When i was still saying i want to stay until the contract expires, he asked if i would change my mind if he wanted to move in. Then suddenly he said that it would be very good since he "still" has some demand...

So to make things short, i think he realized that by the time my contract officially expires the prices will have dropped even more then they are now and was trying to get me off, so he can quickly have another tenant sign a 1 year or 2 year contract to lock in at least the rental prize he would get now...

Well, good for me though, lets see where the prices are in June and if i can stay and even safe some dollars towards my current payment...

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sierra2469alpha
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Post by sierra2469alpha » Wed, 07 Jan 2009 9:11 pm

AAM - well, for someone who runs a blog about all things Singapore, I'm guessing something for you to add to everything here :)

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