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HDB RENTAL FRAUD

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babemarley
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HDB RENTAL FRAUD

Post by babemarley » Fri, 06 Jun 2008 7:58 pm

Hi everyone. Im writing this blog just to spill out my frustrations and at the same time warn everybody to be careful when trying to find a house/hdb flat to rent. This is what happened to me. Last May 7 I met up with an agent and he brought us to this hdb flat in bedok reservoir to view the place. we liked it. he immediately asked us to make a deposit of 2k. we informed him we have to talk to our friends if they will agree on the said amount. the next day we have decided to rent that unit. We even agreed that the move date will be June 1st. Come May 27-29, the agent calls us up to inform us that the tenants of the unit have left except for one. So requesting us to move the date of our move in to the 5th. This was very inconvenient to us but we agreed. Then come June 3 up to present. They dont want us to move to the house anymore. Right now we dont have a place to stay. We will be moving out of our current flat this june 7 and as of today june 6 we dont have a definite place to transfer to. All because of the greed of the owner of the house we are supposed to move into. Since she has greatly caused us inconvenience, headache and stress, we demanded our money back. Up to now she has come up with all sorts of delaying tactics but wont give us our money. We have sought police help and all they could do was file a report. They can only do something about her case once we file a formal complaint from the tribunal of Singapore for small claims. Right now we dont know who to trust or approach anymore. We are just small fry from a poor country. However we arent stupid. We know our rights. I AM VERY VERY DISAPPOINTED AND SADDENNED by this experience. It has tarnished my impression of Singapore. This country is beautiful, the cab drivers are honest over here. Thats a rarity in some countries. But after this experience, this has left a bad taste in my mouth. The case is just about to begin. But I just want to say, I believe in Karma and one day we will get our justice. That money was hard earned. Instead of sending that to our families in our country, we entrusted it to that greedy lady. She didnt keep her word and now we will be homeless by tomorrow. Its also strange that when we went to make the police report, the agent didnt even know the name of the landlord. He communicates with her everyday, helps find tenants for her property and yet he couldnt come up with a name. The police officer asked him for an IC which he says was in his files. That was yesterday. Up to now he hasnt smsed to any of us what the woman's ic is. we just had to figure it out from the contract she signed.

I know this is not common practice here in SG. We are aware that people here are law abiding. Just be cautious when dealing with agents and make sure everything is in black and white. when you pay, make sure you get the keys too. that way, there will always be collateral or something that is concrete you can hold on to in case the landlord runs away.

We will pursue with this case. For now, we are bent on finding a new place and hopefully not encounter such a horrible experience again.


Please do not make multiple postings of the same post across various threads, we regard it as spam. I have deleted your other postings.

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Levikane
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Post by Levikane » Sat, 07 Jun 2008 12:48 pm

Post the name of the agent/their company so other peple can avoid them...

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durain
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Post by durain » Sun, 08 Jun 2008 2:00 am

dont think we can name and shame agent here.

babemarley
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HDB RENTAL FRAUD

Post by babemarley » Sun, 08 Jun 2008 12:34 pm

The agents name i wont tell yet..i hope he can still resurrect his reputation.I believe in karma though. He works for ERA. the owner i know the name and ic. but ill just keep that to myself. just be cautious all the time. sometimes it pays to be paranoid..

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Strong Eagle
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Post by Strong Eagle » Sun, 08 Jun 2008 7:42 pm

Yes, I would also like to know the agent and landlord involved and having spent a lot of money defending myself against a libel suit I'd recommend not posting until:

a) You've got a hard fact situation that can be backed up with paperwork.
b) The post is made in a non-derogatory, non-defamatory kind of way. Your first post is very close but what is essential is to eliminate ANY judgments.

Under Singapore libel laws, the defendant must prove that statements made are in fact, not libelous. So, if you call someone a cheat, how do your prove it? Basically cannot. If you say gave someone $2,000 and did not get the services agreed (and can prove it) then there is no libel.

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Post by local lad » Mon, 09 Jun 2008 9:08 am

Have you tried to file a complain to CASE?

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durain
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Post by durain » Mon, 09 Jun 2008 4:48 pm

CASE doesnt look into this. CASE is for consumer stuff.

you can look for pro bono provided by the singapore law society. they are somewhere in woodland.

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Post by jpatokal » Tue, 10 Jun 2008 12:33 am

Screw CASE, go straight to the Small Claims Tribunal:

http://app.subcourts.gov.sg/sct/index.aspx

Unlike CASE, their judgments are enforced by law -- means the bailiff will be knocking on their door to pick up the TV and sofa if they don't pay up.
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Post by ksl » Tue, 10 Jun 2008 1:16 am

jpatokal wrote:Screw CASE, go straight to the Small Claims Tribunal:

http://app.subcourts.gov.sg/sct/index.aspx

Unlike CASE, their judgments are enforced by law -- means the bailiff will be knocking on their door to pick up the TV and sofa if they don't pay up.
And once you start, don't stop, until you have full satisfaction, even if they want to pay up, before the case, you may have incurred further costs, and the hassle, go for it, full monty! CASE will only advise you to do the same, small claims court.

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Post by bruinbear » Mon, 16 Jun 2008 9:01 pm

Complain to ERA lah. I thought the company has some code of ethics.

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Post by seletargates » Tue, 16 Sep 2008 6:07 am

This is a good heads-up. Anyone know whether this got resolved?

babemarley
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ff up to the scam case

Post by babemarley » Mon, 13 Apr 2009 12:04 am

hi everyone who have posted some of their thoughts and suggestions to my post. I appreciate all of it.
It has been almost a year since that tragic experience. Sorry I didnt keep anyone in the loop on what has happened since that event.

We found another apartment and after pressing the agent to pay us back, using the police report as our evidence, he did give us back our money. The only problem was we were already in financial and time constraint that we took up whatever first offer we had for another flat. The place we got was wonderful but a little expensive.

We still have a copy of the police report with us and it is actually easy to post some names since we have evidence to back our plight. But I have decided to just leave it at that. I just wanted to share my experience with the rest, especially those who are expats and have just arrived in singapore so they can avoid this kind of scam. It was a really horrible experience. Still, I havent lost my faith in Good People here.

We were indeed lucky we were able to retrieve what was rightfully ours, although the repercussions were not too favorable too. I ended up paying more than my alloted budget. As they say, experience was indeed the best teacher here.

Just be very careful when you make arrangements and most importantly when giving your hard earned-blood-sweat-tears dough to EAGER individuals that call themselves agents. Make sure you do a background check too to avoid untoward incidents like ours.

Have a good day everyone. Happy Easter!

babemarley
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A great link related to my blog

Post by babemarley » Mon, 13 Apr 2009 12:13 am

"The greatest pleasure in life is doing something others say you cannot do"-Walter Gagehot

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