seeking for advice--urgent

[Jessiewang]

Here I meet the problems regarding HDB renting.

I rent the whole 5-ROOM HDB though agent and sign the 1-year contract,now due to company want to terminate my contract so I can not commit the rent contract.

And now my company alreay cancled my employment pass and I already gave the agent and owner 1 month notice in advance,meanwhile my agent also found other tenents can replace our contract,but the owner also does not want to return our deposit.

May I know in this situation ,not the personal reason, ,can not stay in Singapore due to the company market down and cancel emplypass,if I can get the deposit back legally according to any policy? My agent also does not have any advice ,we paid him 1 year agent fee not only stay for 3 months,so if can ask for partly agent fee back legally?

now the owner only delay time and does not want to have a open discuss with us to solve this problem,so could u give me any helpful advice regarding how to solve this ?

Looking forward your kindly reply!

Many Thanks,

[sundaymorningstaple]

I am afraid, if the LL will not cooperate, you are out of luck as they can legally keep your deposit unless you had a diplomatic clause in the T & A. But even so, normally a Dip Clause is not able to be used until you have already been 12 to 14 months into your rental contract. Three months? I'm afraid you are going to lose both the deposit and you should be required to pay back the landlord's agent's commission on a pro-rata basis. Sounds like you had a bit of bad luck. Are you able to find another position?

[the lynx]

You only stayed for three months? Even if you have diplomatic clause that would have enabled you to break your tenancy without penalty, you're too short of duration.

[Jessiewang]

I am afraid, if the LL will not cooperate, you are out of luck as they can legally keep your deposit unless you had a diplomatic clause in the T & A. But even so, normally a Dip Clause is not able to be used until you have already been 12 to 14 months into your rental contract. Three months? I'm afraid you are going to lose both the deposit and you should be required to pay back the landlord's agent's commission on a pro-rata basis. Sounds like you had a bit of bad luck. Are you able to find another position?

Thanks for your reply.now finding job but due to the bad market and the processing time seems only small chance to apply EP in the such rush time.So u mean even if the special situation not my personal reason due to the company teminate the contract in advance I still can not get back the deposit and partly agent fee for 1 year,but but on the contrary need to pay the landlord agent fee?

[Jessiewang]

You only stayed for three months? Even if you have diplomatic clause that would have enabled you to break your tenancy without penalty, you're too short of duration.

thanks for your reply ,cause the company terminate the contract and the sg GOV can not allow renting the whole HDB by holding visit pass.

[ecureilx]

You only stayed for three months? Even if you have diplomatic clause that would have enabled you to break your tenancy without penalty, you're too short of duration.

thanks for your reply ,cause the company terminate the contract and the sg GOV can not allow renting the whole HDB by holding visit pass.

I was in your situation years ago and the landlord refused to budge including refusing to accept my friend moving in .. as rental had dropped a fair bit by then

I will not tell you to do what I did

[Jessiewang]

You only stayed for three months? Even if you have diplomatic clause that would have enabled you to break your tenancy without penalty, you're too short of duration.

thanks for your reply ,cause the company terminate the contract and the sg GOV can not allow renting the whole HDB by holding visit pass.

I was in your situation years ago and the landlord refused to budge including refusing to accept my friend moving in .. as rental had dropped a fair bit by then

I will not tell you to do what I did

yup,I also find many groups to replace my contract,but the landlord refuse to return the deposit also...

[Addadude]

I'm afraid that you're out of luck. Your agent did well finding new tenants to take over so that the landlord is not at a loss. But in a case like this, the landlord is perfectly within his rights to keep your deposit.

Your only hope is to appeal to him or her directly, explaining your circumstances, your significant finnacial loss and the fact that the landlord will not be losing any money as a result of your situation.

However, in view of the fact that the landlord doesn't even want to speak to you, I would not be very hopeful that anything will come of it.

The only other thing you can do is approach your former employer and inform them of the difficult circumstances their decision to terminate you has left you in. After all, unless you did something to warrant your dismissal, they at the very least should feel some measure of guilt. Perhaps they can contribute something to help you with your financial loss.

Your unfortunate experience should perhaps serve as an example to other expats negotiating for a job here to ensure that their prospective employer compensates them for any financial loss incurred because of a situation like this. After all, it hardly seems fair to haul somebody over here, with all the time, effort, inconvenience and expense that that involves, and then leave them high and dry because the company did not forsee a change in business circumstances.