Singapore Expats

Badly Need Advice of all of you

Discuss about life in Singapore. Ask about cost of living, housing, travel, etiquette & lifestyle. Share experience & advice with Singaporeans & expat staying in Singapore.
Post Reply
User avatar
ecureilx
Immortal
Immortal
Posts: 9817
Joined: Fri, 20 Aug 2010 5:18 pm

Post by ecureilx » Wed, 04 Dec 2013 5:07 pm

hairy legs wrote:Hi,

Do you have children or it is just you + husband?

I think it is important to think about safety vs $ or matter of principle.

So manay things can happen to you + family; the money lenders, this landlord etc etc...

I would suggest you move house asap.. forget about whats right or wrong, how much money you may lose etc...
you, by any chance, aren't their landlord I hope :D

Just kidding ..

AngMoG
Reporter
Reporter
Posts: 609
Joined: Wed, 17 Apr 2013 11:39 am

Post by AngMoG » Wed, 04 Dec 2013 5:18 pm

Since he rented out a non-approved unit, I doubt he will go to the police. That would expose him as well for illegal rental, as well as his debts and I don't think he would want that.

Tricky situation. I think you will have a very hard time getting any money from him, so in your situation, I'd probably offset some of the deposit with outstanding rent. By right, you cannot do this, but then again, this is not a standard situation.

I would also suggest to talk to your employer since he may be harassing him, to advise them of this situation in case the landlord decides to harass you. Additionally, maybe not a bad idea to talk to a lawyer.

User avatar
JR8
Immortal
Immortal
Posts: 16522
Joined: Wed, 24 Mar 2010 12:43 pm
Location: K. Puki Manis

Post by JR8 » Wed, 04 Dec 2013 7:58 pm

>> It is Time for us to vacate the house , so we told owner that we are vacating the house and compensate the rental amount. we are very much sure that he will not pay us our advance since many finance people are still coming home and looking for him..

That would put you in breach of the lease (and law).
You need to proceed with goodwill. If it ends up in court the judge will point to you and say you are the criminal, as you are acting wrongly, simply based upon your ‘badwill’ and unproved assumptions.
You cannot pre-empt what you fear might happen, by going and doing worse yourself.

>> he is telling that he will complaint the police and inform our company and threatening us if we dont pay the rent..( he has collected copy of EP or any details from us)

No kidding, I’d do the same. If I were in the same shoes (a rare event I’m glad to say), I’d whack you really hard.

>> my husband was so sweet with him and whenever he asked for money to pay the rent in advance , he was paying by listening to his financial problems.. now he is telling that legally one should compensate the advance for last month rent and if you don’t pay will put the interest rate everyday for the rent u have not paid..

Sweetness doesn’t pay the rent.
If you’re looking at ‘’’offsetting’’'’ the last months rent against your deposit, it doesn’t work like that. The deposit is against damages and debt, not a piece of advance rent that means you don’t pay your final rent.

>> I feel since he is not supposed to rent a non-approved unit. and in the rental it states that he rented only a room and also asked us if anyone come and ask u tell them owner is staying..


Here we go, how cute! You rented this place, and now you’re trying to screw him over, accusing him of being bad: Look in the mirror.

>> and also we were telling him to repair the bathroom from day1 of our arrival,but he kept on postponing.. now he is claiming that previous tenants never complained and after u occupied i am hearing all these things. he is just playing the game.. we are sure that tomorrow he may claim it is we who did it and compensate our advance for the repair..

If it was a ‘problem from day #1’, then why did you rent the place on day #1?

User avatar
sundaymorningstaple
Moderator
Moderator
Posts: 40376
Joined: Thu, 11 Nov 2004 1:26 pm
Answers: 21
Location: Retired on the Little Red Dot

Post by sundaymorningstaple » Wed, 04 Dec 2013 8:46 pm

If it was a ‘problem from day #1’, then why did you rent the place on day #1?
Needed a place to stay and the only thing within budget? :-k :shit: [-o<
SOME PEOPLE TRY TO TURN BACK THEIR ODOMETERS. NOT ME. I WANT PEOPLE TO KNOW WHY I LOOK THIS WAY. I'VE TRAVELED A LONG WAY, AND SOME OF THE ROADS WEREN'T PAVED. ~ Will Rogers

User avatar
JR8
Immortal
Immortal
Posts: 16522
Joined: Wed, 24 Mar 2010 12:43 pm
Location: K. Puki Manis

Post by JR8 » Wed, 04 Dec 2013 8:54 pm

sundaymorningstaple wrote:
If it was a ‘problem from day #1’, then why did you rent the place on day #1?
Needed a place to stay and the only thing within budget? :-k :shit: [-o<
So if you can only rent a place with a broken/outdoor/delapidated bathroom, what right do you have 6 months later to complain that it's any of those things.

I think that's the point. Tenants can seek to brew up trouble when they come to leave...

x9200
Moderator
Moderator
Posts: 10073
Joined: Mon, 07 Sep 2009 4:06 pm
Location: Singapore

Post by x9200 » Wed, 04 Dec 2013 9:03 pm

JR8 wrote:If it ends up in court the judge will point to you and say you are the criminal
If the judge said something like this and the hearing was public he could probably effectively sue the judge * for defamation.
Hint: a criminal is the one who is convicted under the penal code.
JR8 wrote:>> he is telling that he will complaint the police and inform our company and threatening us if we dont pay the rent..( he has collected copy of EP or any details from us)
No kidding, I’d do the same. If I were in the same shoes (a rare event I’m glad to say), I’d whack you really hard.
And the police would say this is not the case for them but for the civil court.

PS. Sometimes when I see you in cases like this rattling the sabre I am really tempted to say, pity I am not your tenant, but I am a good tenant and I think you are a good landlord so probably we have to find someone else to whack really hard.

*) unfortunatelly judges are protected against this by judicial immunity

hairy legs
Newbie
Newbie
Posts: 16
Joined: Mon, 28 Oct 2013 10:06 am
Location: Shanghai China

Post by hairy legs » Fri, 06 Dec 2013 4:49 pm

ecureilx wrote:
you, by any chance, aren't their landlord I hope :D

Just kidding ..

I am a Sporean....

Please be aware that there is a difference staying / renting a HDB flat vs a condo.

There is no fencing, security guards etc in HDB estates, so people are free to come and go.

Therefore, there is really no protection against anyone knocking on your doors, locking your gates and setting fire to your door, pouring red paint, spraying O$P$ on the walls etc etc...

So it will be very stressful for the tenant, and as a foreigner, why do you want to risk your safety (or happiness) by subjecting yourself or your loved ones to this..

Beeroclock
Reporter
Reporter
Posts: 718
Joined: Thu, 31 Oct 2013 2:51 pm

Post by Beeroclock » Fri, 06 Dec 2013 6:21 pm

I tend to agree hairy legs, of course depends if you can afford to lose the deposit or if that money is critical to survive, but if you can get by without it then sounds like time to cut loss, learn from the experience and move on. Can be very risky messing around with someone who is both desperate and untrustworthy, difficult to predict what he might do, not to mention the people chasing him.

User avatar
JR8
Immortal
Immortal
Posts: 16522
Joined: Wed, 24 Mar 2010 12:43 pm
Location: K. Puki Manis

Post by JR8 » Fri, 06 Dec 2013 8:12 pm

x9200 wrote:Sometimes when I see you in cases like this rattling the sabre I am really tempted to say, pity I am not your tenant, but I am a good tenant and I think you are a good landlord so probably we have to find someone else to whack really hard.
Well I've landlorded for a long time now, and encountered a huge array of characters along the way. Wow, what an enlightenment. Mostly decent people, but some absolute loonies too. What do you do... when they're sitting in and have legal possession of your S$1mm flat, smoking smack, and inviting 50 people around tonight.... and you can't do anything about it, as the legal process takes 6 months?

Most tenants ARE good. It's the 1/10 who do crazy stuff, that you remember. They define your experience.

x9200
Moderator
Moderator
Posts: 10073
Joined: Mon, 07 Sep 2009 4:06 pm
Location: Singapore

Post by x9200 » Fri, 06 Dec 2013 8:44 pm

Yeah, but these are extremes you are talking about and the OP is far from it. Besides, IMHO being in the place of her LL not only you would not whack them but most likely you would got whacked yourself. As much as we can figure out without seeing the TA, the LL here violated the most basic tenant's right - the peaceful enjoyment of the property. He did not comply to the HDB regulation. This endangers the lease or enforces LL to violate some initial conditions (i.e. regarding his occupancy).
What the LL may face here include:
- an HDB fine,
- damages and compensation for violation of the TA,
- criminal charges as his actions may be seen as fraudulent (it was his intention to rent out the place and not comply to regulation but he acted like his offer was legally valid).
So i really don't see you whacking OP being in the shoes of this particular LL.

parivinu
Member
Member
Posts: 25
Joined: Tue, 02 Jul 2013 3:50 pm

Post by parivinu » Wed, 11 Dec 2013 4:59 pm

Hi,

Thank u all for ur replies..

I really wonder if the Singapore Govt is taking any action against the people like my current landlord. who has lot of debits and on top of it they give trouble to tenants like this. even if we go to Police i am pretty sure we dont get justice.
He is trying to make us to get scared and pay him the rent which I really dont want to do. I dont want to go away from the problem. he recently messaged my husband that if we dont vacate the house by dec 16th we will be in trouble. or else pay the rent. I said "since the advance and utility deposit is with u why we have to pay the rent" in the agreement it states that if the tenant does not pay the rent, deposit amount will be waived off. and also many of my friends landlords are fine with compensating the last month rent with deposit amount.
for which he replied, I am Singaporean, i am land lord of the house i have rights to make whatever i want. then I replied we have rights to stay till Jan 1st week , since we came this house in the first week of August. and also our Advance is with u.
he said u guys will be in trouble.. I said lets see ..but we dont pay the rent.

Please let me know what he is trying to make..
I have all the proofs of his debits, people coming home and asking for him and giving the letters and court letter where many finance companies went to court.

we do not want to loose the money since it is a hard earned money and huge amount.
The thing is we have been getting stressed from the Day 1 in this house where people coming and looking out for him
and also every month he keeps on messaging till we transfer him the money.. The problem is he keeps on sending messages N no. of messages with in few minutes about transfer of rent or transfer utility . where I would be telling my husband not to transfer. but my husband seeing his torture of N no. of messages he would transfer to get rid of it.

that is the reason he is using lot of tricks to get us panicked and transfer him the money.
I am pretty sure he will not return our advance where he has debits from 200$ to 100000$
every month he collects utility bills from us but he never pays, got letter about utility due amount also..

Can I put our personal lock for the house ?

or please tell me what should we do ?

User avatar
zzm9980
Governor
Governor
Posts: 6869
Joined: Wed, 06 Jul 2011 1:35 pm
Location: Once more unto the breach

Post by zzm9980 » Wed, 11 Dec 2013 8:02 pm

All of his personal debts and everything you think he may or may not be doing wrong is irrelevant.

The only thing relevant in this case is what the tenancy agreement says. Most tenancy agreements say you CANNOT use the deposit in lieu of the final month's rent. Check yours again. If you're certain yours allows you to do this and you've served him written notice this is your last month, etc, then threaten to take him to court.

GarethC
Newbie
Newbie
Posts: 16
Joined: Wed, 14 May 2008 4:37 pm
Location: SG

Post by GarethC » Mon, 16 Dec 2013 1:08 pm

I would just leave if I were in your shoes. Usually the last month's rental cannot be offset with the deposit as its for protection against damage etc. It's obvious that the landlord is in quite a bit of debt and I think you are pushing your luck just to stay a couple more weeks.

Post Reply
  • Similar Topics
    Replies
    Views
    Last post

Return to “Staying, Living in Singapore”

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 3 guests