Tenant dispute (I am the tenant) about water mark on the wall

[Marzio]

Hello everyone, I am going to leave Singapore soon, hence the landlord and agent had to come and inspect my unit to make sure everything is in the same condition as they had rented it out to me. Everything was perfect but the landlord and agent found a water mark on the wall near the kitchen, which is definitely caused by a problem inside the wall, probably an internal water pipe leakage.

However, now they have my security deposit and they are going to hold it till this problem is rectified. Furthermore, I can see that this water mark has been painted over before. (See photo attached indicate by the arrow) But they are acting like they have never seen this before and accused me of causing it. My problem is that I don’t have anyone standing on my side because the agent seems to only have the landlord’s interest at heart and I don’t want to pay for an existing problem of the landlord’s.

May I know if anyone has experienced a similar situation before? And what should I do about it?

[Strong Eagle]

Since they seem determined to take your money for an issue that is not of your doing, you are not going to be able to reason with these people. Therefore, send both the landlord and the agent a letter, signed by you. Tell them that if your deposit is not returned in full within 10 days that you will be filing a claim against both of them in the Small Claims Tribunal. Better yet, if you've got a lawyer who will prepare such a letter on his/her letterhead, have the lawyer send the letter. You've got photographic evidence, you will probably prevail if it does go to court, and right now, you want to scare the unethical thieves into giving you your deposit back.