Hi all,
I have had a quick read of this thread, and I am very impressed by how helpful (and knowledgable!!) people here are. Certainly, I have learned of some mistakes i made in my past tenancies.
Now, the current tenancy I have is turning out to be a pain in inconvenient places (and literally so! You'll find out why as you read on
)
Well, so we took this house as tenants on about two and a half months back. Two year contract - two months rental, one month agent fee. The day we moved in, we found the house infested with bed bugs, and it was a bad infestation. Of course, we couldn't spot the bugs when we went the view the house because they don't come out until the night.
Immediately, we informed the agents asking for prompt response. After two weeks of sleepless nights (talk about prompt!), they engaged a pest control agency that did two services. The owner paid for the pest control service (as she ought to, we feel)
But the problem persisted, and has remained so.
This month, we engaged a new agency for pest control. They recommended that we throw away all existing furniture. That is done. We are having another couple of pest control visits. But after the first one, the bugs have not gone, if anything they have multiplied suddenly, after the pest control. We have been bitten every night for nearly 80 days now! And now, the new agency says we will need to re-paint the walls and re-do the entire electrical wiring of the house to eliminate the problem (because the bugs can possible hide inside the wire casings)
The agent and owner have not shown much inclination to giving their tenants peace at home. Indeed, the owner's agent routinely ignores calls, emails, and does not deliver on his promises (he says: "Ok, let me call the pest control guys and i will get back to you in two days", and then he vanishes for two weeks, only to magically appear at the end of the month to demand rent. That's been the story so far.) It's been a most miserable time for us.
We feel that the Landlord has breached clause 3(a) of our Tenancy Agreement by failing to deliver to us the premises, the furniture, fixtures and fittings on the premises in good order and condition at the commencement of the Tenancy. (taken verbatim from contract). The Landlord failed to mention that the place was and is still infested with bed bugs.
It is possible that the owner was genuinely not aware of the bugs. There was a pest control visit in May when the previous tenant complained about bugs, but he did not complain thereafter. But, on a certain level, DOES it matter? The fact is that we did not get the premises in "good order and condition" at the commencement of tenancy.
Some other issues:
1. We made a list of faulty items in the first month (as per contract). Till date, not one of them has been addressed.
2. One of us in the house has developed a skin allergy because of the bugs.
3. The owner did not bother removing the furniture even after bugs were discovered, we had to lift them all and throw them out ourselves. Manual labour on top of paying the rent!
4. Right now, after the second pest agency recommended clearing all furnishings, we are living in an unfurnished house, so to speak. I requested the owner that we pay the rent for an equivalent unfurnished house in our area for this one month since we get no furnishings for no fault of ours, and she flatly refused.
5. Our performance at work has suffered greatly due to lack of sleep and general peace at home.
We are now considering moving a small claims tribunal here in Singapore. We are totally disillusioned with the entire episode, and want to move out with our deposit back (two months' rent) at the end of the current rental period. We want the contract terminated as the clause 3(a) indicated above has been breached.
What are our chances?
Please consider the following details:
1. To my knowledge, the signed tenancy agreement we were given does not contain any sort of stamp (as mentioned in earlier posts here). I will have to confirm upon going home.
2. The owner has so far paid for the pest control visits (we pay upfront and deduct from monthly rent). But things are moving so slowly, it's taken 80 sleepless nights to get here! And now we find that painting and re-wiring are involved!
3. This particular month, we notified the agent by email that we will delay the payment of this month's rent until we pay for the pest control visit (it was purely a convenience arrangement, because we were supposed to pay upfront for the pest control and deduct from rental, we wanted to be done with the pest control payment and deduct it from this month's rent itself)
Is it possible to seek compensation from owner because of what we have gone through?
If not, can we just get out of this hell-hole with our deposit back?
What are your chances? Please help.
In trauma
Noobs (really, we are to get ourselves into this shi*!
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