thank you all for your replies

[nicoletta]

thank you all for your kind replies - I will take this out
nicoletta

[brifusg]

Poor you. Hope you are among only few expats experiencing the similar problems.

[sundaymorningstaple]

Hi, my name is Nicoletta and I have moved to Singapore 9 months ago. I have found it a very difficult country and my staying has not being easy.
So I have decided to leave and go back to Europe
However I have just found out that I will not receive the deposit back on my flat, I will not received the deposit back on the manteinance bills, my place of work will withold my final salary .....

You have broken the contract of your lease. It is entirely in the landlord's rights to withhold your security deposit. Doing him a favour? Do you know how much money he had to spend to get the flat livable prior to you renting it? I thought not. Obviously, renovation costs have to be factored into the rental rates based on the length of the lease signed. If you leave earlier than the lease duration then he/she will incur costs to make it rentable/presentable on the market again. Same with maintenance bills. You employer is required by Singapore law to withhold your final salary pending tax clearance. This country is very easy if you follow the rules and don't sign anything without first reading the contracts.

I need a suggestion in all the countries i have lived, i have always felt landlords were available to make concessions - my landlord is currently putting my flat on the market for 500 dollars more then he was renting it to me and i do not understand why he keeps hold of my deposit - i made him a favour i think by leaving early and giving him the chance to earn more money

See my comments above, he has to spend even more sooner to get it presentable to new renters sooner than he budgeted for. For your information, most landlords have been renting a losses for the past 6 or 7 years due to the property crash in '98. They have been trying to hold onto the property the best way they can as most are in negative equity. They lose money every month that you stayed there and now will have to probably redecorate again.

My last day of work is on April 27 _ I was planning to close bank account and leave the country by April 29th. I have tried and tried again to have a reply from HR and the inland revenue on my tax payment for this year because I could it now and close the gap instantly ..but of course no reply and no help ....what am i going to do if i do not have a place to stay, no money to pay it ...how long do i have to stay? i just want to leave !!! You cannot file a tax clearance until your Work visa has been cancelled.

You cannot cancel your work visa until you finish your job. Sounds like you are a bit impatient and didn't plan or read or do any research prior to coming to Singapore. It would also seem that you did not make any plans for your departure either. Is this the type of Foreign Talent that the country is letting in now days?

To everyone that has gone through the same - please help me

Another thing I will never suggest to my friends or future colleagues to come and work in Singapore - apart from being very unfriendly you cannot even leave the country !!!!

i really feel lonely

I am sorry nicoletta, but I feel most of this is your own doing and not Singapore's. Your attitude is the only thing that will keep you from besmirching Singapore to your friends/colleagues in the future. They will already know you.

[Florian]

[sundaymorningstaple]

Just a bit more info for anybody interested:

http://www.iras.gov.sg/ESVPortal/resources/1997it6.pdf

[nicoletta]

I need to say something because I have found some of the replies insulting

1 - the flat deposit
in Europe and in all the other countries I have lived the deposit is considered a security deposit for anything that get damage within the flat and it needs to be replaced unless has been already dealt with during the tenant stay - the flat comes completely empty no need to replace anything - nor even to re-paint the flat as
please follow from point 2

2 - the maintenance was part of my lease and I have manteined the flat as per contract every 3 months at my expense - so for example washing the walls and AC and windows screws and so on has been done as per guideline - also the flat is very clean and extremely well kept with my thanks to the lovely lady who is helping me in house - Also the landlord has refused a chinese colleague of mine as a replacement only because he was chinese - the landlord sent me a text message saying he prefer better people like me - meaning fromthe west ....so he rented the flat to an unware swedish couple who are now paying 600 dollars more then i pay because in Singapore flats are going like flies and renting is going up

please follow on point 3

3 - i could not belive the comments - i'll bring it all on myself or is this the talent we are letting into the country ....because you need people like us to come here and show you how things are done in other part of the world and make your life better! but with this i do not want to start a chain so please lets stop here -

4 - even when i lived in america my tax pmt was right first time and arrived when they said it would arrive...in spain the local office was very efficient and in Italy ( and who has been there knows ) although the queue at the post office was incredibly long the process was easy enough
in here if you give them a case outside the day to day script people do not how to deal with it and ignore it hoping it to disappear or turning it on you making it very difficult ....

you know I just need to go earlier and instead of given me stupid comments like that - be aware that unfortunately this is not one of the little cases but it is one of hte many ....speaking to friends at the American Club this happens anytime someone is presenting the various customer services bodies in Singapore with an issue outside their day to day script - they do not know how to handle it - so in summary many things works in Singapore but customer service is one of them that need some thougths

thank you

[huggybear]

well a few things nicoetta.

this isn't "europe" or "all the other countries" you have lived in...

it's singapore...

there are very strict rules. it seems that you were in a bad situation and made a rash decision to up and leave without asking first a few of these questions and reviewing the implications of what may happen if u break ur lease. you made a lot of assumptions based on your experiences in, from what i see, western countries. not having done any research myself on singapore, at least i knew that they have very strict rules and very harsh punishments based on the stories i hear of people executed for drugs, or caning obnoxious americans for vandalising cars. Thus while in the states i would gloss over the 90 page contract that was written in Kling on, when i signed my lease here i read every word and asked many questions.

ok u kept the apartment in tip top condition, so it sounds like you were a good tenant, maybe your landlord is happy with you and is willing to accept reduced rent? perhaps the landlord doesn't want to go through the process of having to find another tenant who might not maintain the apt so well and is willing to accept reduced rent from a good person? again, going to the above paragraph, ur not in a western country...it would have been advisable to ask about these deposits before u skipped town. alas i understand we can't have superman spin the world 'round really fast to go back in time, and make everything better the second time around and we have to work with what we have to assist you.

also u said u were lonely, but ur hanging out at the american club? i'm an american and i've found the americans to be really friendly and very welcoming...they always invite me to their parties / social gatherings.

with regards to the "insulting" tone, someone once told me, "Don't listen to the tone of my message, just listen to the message." someone famous said this but i'm too lazy to google it.