Tenancy agreements/leases and your rights as a tenant

[Oversoul]

thank you PNGMK.

I was not aware of that common law as she kept on saying she is very experience agent and has been in the line for more than 15 yrs so everything she does is legal and she will win the case no matter what.

Is there anything I should bring to SCT to prove my case? As I have not encountered this kind of agent before in the last 8 yrs I've been renting in SG. Probably because this is a special case where the Landlady is overseas permanently and the agent is the only person authorized to act on her behalf.

[PNGMK]

thank you PNGMK.

I was not aware of that common law as she kept on saying she is very experience agent and has been in the line for more than 15 yrs so everything she does is legal and she will win the case no matter what.

Is there anything I should bring to SCT to prove my case? As I have not encountered this kind of agent before in the last 8 yrs I've been renting in SG. Probably because this is a special case where the Landlady is overseas permanently and the agent is the only person authorized to act on her behalf.

Bring copies of the TA, the service bills for aircon (to show what you normally pay), print outs of any damage, before and after reports. Determine mentally what you want to settle on. SCT pushes for a mediated settlement rather than just win / lose.

10:1 as soon as the beyatch gets a summons she will back down.

My point around common law is that one party cannot simply claim damages without showing evidence as to the amount of damages.

[Oversoul]

I guess I have to put the complain to the SCT on the landlady (even though the agent is the one making all this noise).

That's what I thought as well (regardless of whether there is a law or not) as i've been asking what exactly is the charge as to why it's 600 SGD, which till date she hasn't given me. But by having a common law around that, I guess that makes the case stronger ?

[PNGMK]

"Common Law" refers to certain practices being f accepted as legal and normal. It's not a specific set of laws or an act. It's a British era thing. But yes someone cannot claim $600 in damages without proof of those damages.

[Oversoul]

thanks...

What's your experience with SCT? Does the SCT process take long? Like those court proceedings that takes months or years ?

And you recommend after getting an SCT mediated settlement, (win/lose) to complain to the CEA just to get the agent to stop doing these kind of things ?

[PNGMK]

thanks...

What's your experience with SCT? Does the SCT process take long? Like those court proceedings that takes months or years ?

And you recommend after getting an SCT mediated settlement, (win/lose) to complain to the CEA just to get the agent to stop doing these kind of things ?

It's very fast. if the other side try to delay they will get one tight slap.

[AgieVelasco]

Sorry, pls delete this

[Joaquish]

Need your advice. I’m renting a 1br + 1 study condo by myself. My husband and 2 kids have DP but they’re based in my home country. During the kids summer vacation, they went here and because of COVID, their school announced that, they will do online studies when school resumes. One day, my agent visited the unit because the LL wants to sell and they have viewers. The day after, agent asks me why I didnt tell him that ng family is here and he told me to inform him when they plan to leave.

If my family stays until December, does my agent have the right to make me leave?

[PNGMK]

No

[Mike Cooper]

Can someone advise please : AirCon issue
There was a delay in air con service in my flat & now there is a leakage in aircon piping. All other services were done on time year, however one service got delayed as I was in UK during holiday season

Now for the air con pipeline replacement, the landlord is forcing me to pay for the entire cost. As per him it is breach of contract as I did not do service every quarter. There were 4 services done during the year, however one was delayed

The condo is almost 10 years old. Can some advise please is the tenant responsible to pay ?

[PNGMK]

Mike just say no. Ask for proof. If he refuses then inform him you intend to take it to SCT as an unreasonable demand. Any damages would be pro rated anyways at depreciation of aircons is over 7 years I believe.

[x9200]

Need your advice. I’m renting a 1br + 1 study condo by myself. My husband and 2 kids have DP but they’re based in my home country. During the kids summer vacation, they went here and because of COVID, their school announced that, they will do online studies when school resumes. One day, my agent visited the unit because the LL wants to sell and they have viewers. The day after, agent asks me why I didnt tell him that ng family is here and he told me to inform him when they plan to leave.

If my family stays until December, does my agent have the right to make me leave?

Nope, but it would have been more appropriate if you informed the LL. A few weeks visitors I would not bother, but longer, yes. There are two reasons: (1) authorities pressing on the LLs and making them oversensitive for potential illegal harboring; (2) with 3x more people in the unit the wear / tear goes up so this may in principle be a reason to increase your rent. A reasonable LL would not care for few months or at all, but some kiasu bastard (many of them around) would be happy to take this opportunity and make your life more difficult - I bet your TA includes the list of the occupants and most of the local TAs will state that ANY breach to the TA allows the LL to kick you out. This is fortunately not true, but again, if the LL is an a* h* s/he may use it against you.

[Mike Cooper]

Mike just say no. Ask for proof. If he refuses then inform him you intend to take it to SCT as an unreasonable demand. Any damages would be pro rated anyways at depreciation of aircons is over 7 years I believe.

Thank you & appreciated

[pleaseplease]

Hi everyone, seek for your help as my landlady has been harassing me a lot lately

Lease period: 1 Jan-31 Dec 2020
Room: Common Room
Rental: $800/month, $800 deposit paid
Landlord: Single late 50-ish lady very devoted to her faith, retired, stays home 90% of the time and the 10% is her hanging out with her church uncle and aunties
Agent: No rep for both tenant and landlord
Terms agreed on contract: 1) no cooking 2) no visitors 3) washing done by landlord (out of goodwill)
HDB: She has 3 cctvs pointing to the front gate of the house, her neighbour has 2 of their own,
I'm the only tenant living with her in a 5 room block

Landlady seemed pretty nice for the first 3 months, and this was signed with the thought of me spending most of my time out at work/with friends so I didn't think I'd need to cook much anyway, until covid hit us all.

Case 1: Microwave
Was hoping she would be understanding to at least let me save money & cook some instant noodles here and there, but she say no, so i bought quite alot of frozen dinners so i can microwave them... only to find out one day that the microwave oven was gone, and when I asked her why she said she lend the microwave to her neighbours (ridic), and when I pry further if I could get my own she highlighted that I was not supposed to cook, I didn't know that microwaving an overnight bowl of fried rice would cause her so much hassle...

Case 2: Laundry
Specific clause was "Laundry service (washing of clothing except under garment) offered by Landlord without any cost out of goodwill".. I wanted to do my own laundry with the machine the first couple of times but she stepped in saying that she understands that us working folks are busy so she would do our laundry, hang them and collect them for me (basically just doesn't trust me to use her machine). Things started to get ugly in May when I had a load of under garments for wash for a particular week. She took great offense to that and said that I was throwing shade at her and was insulting her by having her to only wash my under garments, to which I ask how else would I be able to do it if she did not let me use her washing machine, and if I were to insult her, why would I load a stash of them in the designated laundry bin which was intended to be washed....she couldn't answer...talked about being petty.

Fast forward to sometime July/Aug, when the microwave incident happen, she was rolling her eyes while answering me to which I questioned why the need to be rude, she got triggered and brought up the laundry issue again and how she even 'consulted' her church friends about this and they all agreed that I was rude with the under garment incident (lol?)

The clause said she would offer to wash out of goodwill but it did not state that I wasn't allowed to use her machine, yet she didn't allow me to so was I supposed to hand wash everything ? To which I actually did hand wash once and she took another offense on me drying it indoors near the washing area....

Earlier in the year she said she would automatically do my laundry once a week, but I've been here for 9 months and there wasn't a single time where she did it when the bucket was full, I literally had to message her once a week to remind her and she would reply saying things like 'weather forecast says it's going to rain' 'i can't work miracles if it's going to rain' to which i say i don't care, why can't she just let me be an adult and do my own laundry...

Case 3: Lights
Landlady is very frugal, never turns on a single lightbulb in the house regardless if she's eating at 9pm or watching TV at 10pm... She walks without a sound and there were many incidents where I was scared to death when I turn a corner to see her walking towards me in pitch darkness, I'm not too fond of complete darkness so I'll leave the kitchen lights on while I'm showering in the bathroom beside it (and only when I'm showering which is like 10mins a day). She would turn off the lights. There was once I left my room ajar and the lights were on too, I came back from the toilet to find that my room lights were switched off...

Case 4: Delivery
While most of the cases described above were petty and something I could live with for the next 3 months until the end of my lease, what happened tonight was the nail in the coffin for me. I was expecting a couple of packages to arrive and out of the blue she just banged on my door without saying a word. Already scaring the living shit out of me, I asked who was it to no reply, so I swung the door open out of fear. She started yelling at telling me how rude I was for not acknowledging her past few knocks last week to collect my packages. I told her I have never ignored anyone of her knocks, I asked her if I was even home? She stuttered and then proceeded to yell at me for swinging the door open. I merely just swing it bigger and faster than usual, causing no damages to the door whatsoever, and she started screaming, spewing clean versions of cusses, banging the door repeatedly and saying that the only reason she did was cause I swing my door 'rudely'

I'm embarrassed to even have to type this out but it just seemed like soap opera when you're reading it from a 3rd person. I've had it with her pettiness and my fear is with her emotional instability, not being able to form sound and logical sentences that I'd one day get stabbed in the back or something.

There were many other petty cases where she'll just nag at me when I'm minding my own business but that would take more than a page to cover. She definitely is not honouring the "to allow tenant to peaceably hold and enjoy said premises without any interruption" clause. I've been trying to record bits and pieces of when she starts yelling at me as backup and proof

What's the best thing that I could do at this point of time? I have 3 months left but the levels of her anger is scaring me, anyway I can move out and still retain my deposit?

[PNGMK]

^ approach her and explain it's not working out. Tell her (when rent is due) you don't expect you don't expect her to refund your deposit but you will leave a little later so you can find a new place. Don't stay the whole month if possible. Tell her to advertise the room and find a mutual date for her to move in new tenant and you to move out. You don't have to move out without a court order! She may calls the cops but without a writ they cannot ask you to leave.