Hidden costs renting landed?

[guyg]

Apologies if this topic has been covered before (I did breifly try searching for it) but can anyone summarise the hidden costs/hassles of renting a landed property?

[Strong Eagle]

Yard and flower bed upkeep. More general maintenance upkeep that you pay for as all leases have a $200-$250 limit before LL picks up the bills. Potentially higher electric utility bills as a lot of landed properties are older and not as well insulated.

[beppi]

I rented a terrace house for years and had no higher costs at all.
But I never use aircon, tended the garden myself (it was tiny) and also did most small repairs. The very supportive landlord (they exist!) picked up the tab for several bigger ones, but I arranged the repairmen.
You should keep in mind that, even with a tiny green patch, being near to nature in the tropics comes with other drawbacks: We found ants, cockroaches, mice, rats, snails, frogs, birds, bats, stray cats inside the house. The snakes thankfully stayed outside (I still wonder why) but having them mate on the patio might also not be everyone's cup of tea.

[sundaymorningstaple]

beppi, you sound like you lived where I did, out in Seletar Camp back in the '80's & '90'. Very ulu back then, before they started building the"airtroplois" out there. Only I did manage to catch a python in the house. Funny that one. My mother in law freaked out as it was a small one meter one but it was coiled up ON THE ALTER! (Catholics) Only thing missing was the apple!

I caught it and kept it a couple of days and then let it go out by the Golf course about a block away from my house. We did have lots of Black spitting cobras though as there was a next behind the concrete culvert at the road edge out at the front of the property. But I never bothered with them unless I found them up in the perimeter drains around the edge of the house. Then I would catch them and transport to a location a wee bit further away. We never had any rats though! Did have a couple of rather large monitor lizards though.

[beppi]

Cobras eat rats - that explains the lack of the latter.
My place was not at all Ulu, in fact the snakes came from the drain along Sixth Avenue 30m away. (For the uninitiated: The most expensive landed property location in Singapore!) They are night active (and shy), so it didn't bother us too much.

[sundaymorningstaple]

Yeah, I know about cobra's diets. Good old american black snakes favourite as well. I'm an ole farmboy. That's why I never disturbed the nest. I only transported them when they got up next to the building itself as my kids were still small and they could actually walk up on one if it was in the bottom of the perimeter drains. Usually my dog alerted me well in advance of that happening, but best not to take any chances. Never kills one as I don't believe in it.

[x9200]

If you live near forested areas (i.e. Bukit Timah Natural Reserve) you may also have monkeys.
Anybody seen some scorpions around?

[sundaymorningstaple]

As I pointed out in another thread about a week ago (the lynx & I had some discussion on it). I've seen the small brown/tan scorpions occasionally, also in Seletar around the 65 year old housing and more specifically in my wood pile. There are the greater black scorpions in Malaysia that get to be around 6 inches long and while I've seen them in captivity, I've never been lucky enough to see one in the wild.

[x9200]

I was told by a lady living in one of the condos facing the mentioned Bkt Timah NR that they could see scorpions frequently in the drainage channels but I have never seen a single specie while living here.

[sundaymorningstaple]

My wife lived in Seletar Camp for 50 years (she was born in the camp). She's only seen one one time when she was a kid, but saw a number of them after I pointed them out. Unless you are looking for them and they happen to be visible you wouldn't know it as they blend in very well with their surroundings.

The ones I saw on several occasions are the Isometrus maculatus. The malaysian Black Scorpion is apparently found in the Bkt Timah Nature Reserve as well according to the following article, but I've never seen one.

http://members.tripod.com/~c_kianwee/local.htm

[the lynx]

As it turns, scorpions are actually more common than we all thought (at least that's what my arachnologist friends tell me). But they are mostly active at night and during day they often hide in crevices or bifurcations of trees or cements.

If you wanna see them, you can bring out your UV torch light at night and aim at those areas. You will like what you see

[guyg]

Thanks! But with a 7 month old baby I'm not getting sold on the idea perhaps we'll stick to a condo to begin with

[zzm9980]

Thanks! But with a 7 month old baby I'm not getting sold on the idea perhaps we'll stick to a condo to begin with

Don't take your kid to the beach in the evening then. I've seen more roaches scrambling through the sand than I can count.

[sundaymorningstaple]

As it turns, scorpions are actually more common than we all thought (at least that's what my arachnologist friends tell me). But they are mostly active at night and during day they often hide in crevices or bifurcations of trees or cements.

If you wanna see them, you can bring out your UV torch light at night and aim at those areas. You will like what you see

...than you thought. But maybe because of a great interest in insects/arachnids as a student, I remembered these things and often looked for them even today. (I don't mess with salamanders anymore though!)

That's why one has to be careful moving wood stacks in dark places as they like to hide during daylight hours. You can also find them in crevices in stone wall where chinks have fallen out or are loose. Same with stacked bricks, etc.

[sundaymorningstaple]

Thanks! But with a 7 month old baby I'm not getting sold on the idea perhaps we'll stick to a condo to begin with

Don't take your kid to the beach in the evening then. I've seen more roaches scrambling through the sand than I can count.

And don't even talk about no-see-ems! I hate them little biting bastards!