Condo Tenancy Completion Dispute

[speedbird]

Hi,

We are facing a situation with our landlord wherein on completion of the tenancy agreement, the landlord has carried out an inspection of the premises and pointed towards 200-300 issues in the unit. Most problems are regular wear and tear over 2 years of our tenancy.

The landlord then demanded us to pay S$18000 for closing the matter, whereas our security deposit is S$3200 (We signed the TA for 1 year and then renewed for another year). At the time of renewal, the landlord removed his agent, so presently no real estate agents are involved.

The landlord's intention seems to be to get the premise renovated at our expense.

The landlord threatened to claim from us damages of more than S$20,000, along with rental on the current market rate in court till the time his premise is not in rentable condition if we did not agree to his offer of S$18,000 - which we refused. Per our view, the premise is already in rentable condition. We offered to forgo our deposit which he refused.

Any advice on how should we proceed?
Anyone who has been in a similar situation and can share their insights would be helpful. Further, do we need to hire a lawyer? Any estimates of the cost of a lawyer and references will be helpful too.

Thanks in advance for your response.

[jalanjalan]

Try Singapore Mediation Centre?
https://www.mediation.com.sg/service/property/

[malcontent]

Hi,

We are facing a situation with our landlord wherein on completion of the tenancy agreement, the landlord has carried out an inspection of the premises and pointed towards 200-300 issues in the unit. Most problems are regular wear and tear over 2 years of our tenancy.

The landlord then demanded us to pay S$18000 for closing the matter, whereas our security deposit is S$3200 (We signed the TA for 1 year and then renewed for another year). At the time of renewal, the landlord removed his agent, so presently no real estate agents are involved.

The landlord's intention seems to be to get the premise renovated at our expense.

The landlord threatened to claim from us damages of more than S$20,000, along with rental on the current market rate in court till the time his premise is not in rentable condition if we did not agree to his offer of S$18,000 - which we refused. Per our view, the premise is already in rentable condition. We offered to forgo our deposit which he refused.

Any advice on how should we proceed?
Anyone who has been in a similar situation and can share their insights would be helpful. Further, do we need to hire a lawyer? Any estimates of the cost of a lawyer and references will be helpful too.

Thanks in advance for your response.

This is unfortunately all too common here.

Here are my two cents.

If there is no damage and it’s all wear and tear, you shouldn’t even let the LL keep a single cent. By agreeing to that, it might imply some acceptance of guilt on your part.

In case it does go to court, make sure you get every single thing in writing and take as much photo evidence as possible. I would absolutely discontinue any/all verbal communications with the LL and insist that all correspondence be via email or other written medium.

If you have not agreed to forgo the deposit in writing, you might also want to issue a written demand that the deposit be returned. If the LL doesn’t respond, send regular follow-ups.

You can represent yourself in court, and that might be seen favorably. The LL would have to weigh the cost of a lawyer, which is not cheap, versus the odds of winning any judgment against you, which I would assume is far less than the LL is demanding, if anything.