Landlord doesn’t agree to change occupants

[Harry1313]

Hi I need help in this matter. If this question is already asked pls delete my post and re direct me to the same.

I took a 18 months lease agreement for a 5 room hdb flat and have finished 5 months now. It’s a standard tenancy agreement with no additional clauses.

The contract is signed between me and owner.

When I took the lease I listed my Wife, Son and helper as occupants.

Fast forward 5 months my Wife is expecting 2nd child and planning to head back to home country in May for almost a year and wouldn’t be back until the end of this contract.

I informed my owner about the change of situation in May and my willingness to continue the contract until end and requested him to approve change of occupants from my family to 2 bachelors for the rest of the contract whom he can legally register with hdb as occupants.

However he is not agreeing for the change of occupants and says either I should stay alone or with my family and continue paying rent and he won’t approve anyone else staying in the house. If I cannot stay alone I should find new house and he will consider it as early termination from my end and confiscate my deposit.(equivalent of 2 months rental)

Can someone advise if changing occupants is illegal and is considered subletting. Looking for a win win situation for both.

What are my options here.

[Max Headroom]

I'm not sure how your LL is going to "win" in any scenario. At best he's going to come out out this with zero upside and zero downside. Why would he want to change the status quo? Goodwill? Good luck with that.

I'm afraid that the default setting here is that you take a hit. Anything else you're lucky.

Then again, with a little 'un on the way, it's worth it eh.

[sheshen]

In my experience, change occupants is not considered subletting. I once change occupant, but I stated very clear to other tenant how much I pay to the owner per month and it's divided accordingly (I didn't earn from other tenant). The owner also acknowledge the occupants change.

You may try provide all the information of other 2 bachelor (their particular and study/work in sg) to the owner, and tell the owner how much they pay for the rent per month. When everything clear, hope the owner will understand your situation.

Next time when rent a room/whole unit, always sign for 1 year contract, 1 month deposit. So if anything like this happen, you will not lose too much.