Spoiled furniture, cost estimates, and rights

olex · Post by **olex** » Sat, 16 Jul 2011 2:02 am

Hi,

I have been renting an HDB flat for one year, and I am going to finish it soon.

Due to an accident, my son damaged a leather sofa, causing a 2 inch tear.
The landlord has asked for SGD 600 repair cost.

Firstly, I want to know if the request is legally ok.
Second, although being subjective, I want to know if the price asked is reasonable.

Thanks for your advice.

Mad Scientist · Post by **Mad Scientist** » Sat, 16 Jul 2011 2:53 am

Why don't you get another quote from another upholsterer repairer and see if it is on the spot or off the mark compare to the LL quote ?

Post by **x9200** » Sat, 16 Jul 2011 8:08 am

olex wrote:Hi,

I have been renting an HDB flat for one year, and I am going to finish it soon.

Due to an accident, my son damaged a leather sofa, causing a 2 inch tear.
The landlord has asked for SGD 600 repair cost.

Firstly, I want to know if the request is legally ok.

What you mean by legally ok? You spoiled it. You have to get it repaired or pay for the repair or pay compensation. Your logic different?

ksl · Post by **ksl** » Sat, 16 Jul 2011 1:04 pm

It appears reasonable to me, as i took an old chair to get repaired 3 quotes, the cheapest cost was 300$ per chair! If he's having the sofa done, $600 is very cheap, remember a patch isn't good enough, the whole sofa will have to be done so it looks the same. I doubt he can buy a new sofa for $600 . Legally you don't have a leg to stand on! Take at as a lesson learnt and the next time watch your children!

poodlek · Post by **poodlek** » Sat, 16 Jul 2011 4:18 pm

ksl wrote:It appears reasonable to me, as i took an old chair to get repaired 3 quotes, the cheapest cost was 300$ per chair! If he's having the sofa done, $600 is very cheap, remember a patch isn't good enough, the whole sofa will have to be done so it looks the same. I doubt he can buy a new sofa for $600 . Legally you don't have a leg to stand on! Take at as a lesson learnt and the next time watch your children!

The original condition of the sofa might be a consideration. If the sofa were like new before the tenant moved in, then yes, I'd say the tenant is responsible for reupholstering the sofa. But if we're talking about retuning a sofa to like-new quality when it was worn before, I'd look into replacing the sofa with something similar at Salvation Army.

Edit to add: we got a leather sofa and loveseat set at Sally Ann for $150. It's not pretty but it works and is in reasonably good condition.

poodlek · Post by **poodlek** » Thu, 14 Jun 2012 10:31 pm

Since my last post on this thread we were forced to give up our old Sally Ann sofa/love seat set and use the owner's sofa when we moved. Our cats have torn up one arm of it, and we are having our home inspection next week before we ship out, so I was hoping to get an independent estimate of the cost of repair before the agents have at it.

The thing is, I don't really think it's a good quality leather, so I don't want to get roped into purchasing a new $1500 sofa when this one doesn't look any better/nicer than the two we got for $150.

Anybody have recommendations on a repair service that could give me a quote?

uscate · Post by **uscate** » Fri, 15 Jun 2012 7:16 am

Hi PoodleK -

This is totally off topic, but I just learned that you're shipping out, and wanted to thank you for all of your terrific posts! I've been the direct recipient of some of your advice, and have indirectly benefitted from others of your posts.

Thank you so much for all of the insights you've brought to this forum, and all the best for success and happiness in this next phase of your journey!

-Catie

poodlek · Post by **poodlek** » Fri, 15 Jun 2012 9:23 am

uscate wrote:Hi PoodleK -

This is totally off topic, but I just learned that you're shipping out, and wanted to thank you for all of your terrific posts! I've been the direct recipient of some of your advice, and have indirectly benefitted from others of your posts.

Thank you so much for all of the insights you've brought to this forum, and all the best for success and happiness in this next phase of your journey!

-Catie

Thank you for your kind words! It's been fun participating here, and although I'll be in a geographically different place, I'll still be sure to check in here to get all the latest Singapore hot topics

Post by **sundaymorningstaple** » Fri, 15 Jun 2012 10:00 am

YaY! That's the beauty of this thing. You become part of a rather large extended family here.

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Spoiled furniture, cost estimates, and rights

Spoiled furniture, cost estimates, and rights

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