Unintentional Breach of Contract

[scribblemia]

Hi everyone,

Nice to e-meet you all. I'm new to Singapore and to this forum, and I wish I could have known about this forum before I moved here and signed a housing contract.

I just moved into my studio in a brand new condo few weeks ago, and in the contract it states clearly that my rent is inclusive of utilities and wifi. The landlord is living oversea so everything has to go through the agents. Since it's a new apartment, nothing has set up yet including the wifi. I have waited 2 weeks for them to contact internet service provider and unfortunately, when they finally came to set up the wifi, something goes wrong with the power/outlet and now it has became a building management/developer's issue.

I have been bugging the agents to push them to fix this asap, since it's almost a month now and the next month rent is coming up, and I'm still paying for wifi without actually having wifi. It looks like nothing has moved since then. Building management didn't respond. I'm afraid it won't get fixed anytime soon. From a tenant's perspective it's a breach of contract unintentionally. I understand that this is not the landlord's fault, but I want to explore my options here and I can do with my rights because I'm bearing the costs of something that is not my fault too (I have to pay for the data to use in the meantime)

Can somebody please please advise me on this and what should I do? What could be a temporary solution for this?

Thank you and I really appreciate all your input

[PNGMK]

Inform the agent you intend to deduct the cost of broadband wifi until it is fixed.

[singaporeflyer]

Hi everyone,

Nice to e-meet you all. I'm new to Singapore and to this forum, and I wish I could have known about this forum before I moved here and signed a housing contract.

I just moved into my studio in a brand new condo few weeks ago, and in the contract it states clearly that my rent is inclusive of utilities and wifi. The landlord is living oversea so everything has to go through the agents. Since it's a new apartment, nothing has set up yet including the wifi. I have waited 2 weeks for them to contact internet service provider and unfortunately, when they finally came to set up the wifi, something goes wrong with the power/outlet and now it has became a building management/developer's issue.

I have been bugging the agents to push them to fix this asap, since it's almost a month now and the next month rent is coming up, and I'm still paying for wifi without actually having wifi. It looks like nothing has moved since then. Building management didn't respond. I'm afraid it won't get fixed anytime soon. From a tenant's perspective it's a breach of contract unintentionally. I understand that this is not the landlord's fault, but I want to explore my options here and I can do with my rights because I'm bearing the costs of something that is not my fault too (I have to pay for the data to use in the meantime)

Can somebody please please advise me on this and what should I do? What could be a temporary solution for this?

Thank you and I really appreciate all your input

Ask them to get you a portable WIFI till they fix the broadband line?

[scribblemia]

Thank you guys for your suggestions!

I have asked the agents if there are temporary solutions for this and he said no, so it's unlikely that they would allow me to deduct the cost of the broadband from my rent. Plus I think if I do that, is it technically a breach of contract from me as a tenant because I don't pay the full amount of rent?

@Singaporeflyer: I didn't know if portable wifi is a thing. Where do I find more information about that?

Thank you all!!

[Addadude]

Does your rental contract have an itemised list of what the rental covers? eg $XXXX for apartment, $XXX for furnishings, $XXX for Utilities etc? There may be a way to determine a fair reduction of your monthly rent from that.

The only other thing I can suggest is to do as PNGMK says, and get an estimated cost of monthly WiFi and tell teh agent you will deduct that amount from the rental. They can't simply say 'no' if access to WiFi is clearly part of the rent you are paying as per the contract. They have to give you a fair alternative.