Quora users Lian Jing Hua and Stacey Morris answered a question of if there are ‘any dodgy/bad landlords in Singapore that I should be aware of’ and recounted their experiences of renting a room from a dodgy landlord there.
From the documents shared by Lian Jing Hua, her landlord is a permanent resident who is a citizen of the People’s Republic of China (China)/ Stacey Morris’ landlord is a new citizen, who hailed from China.
We republish both their answers in full.
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Lian Jing Hua
Rented a semi-master room from a dodgy PRC couple who rented the entire unit at No. 10 Geylang Lorong 26, #06–02, Guilin Court, Singapore 398485. I called it semi-master room, because the bathroom is shared with the landlord. The name of landlady is Jasmine Jiang Xiaomin (江小敏). She was born on June 19, 1979. Her husband’s name is Sinclair. Not sure what his Chinese name is. His English might even be a fake.
Before I moved in, I made it clear that I needed the Internet socket in my room to work with Starhub, and her husband confirmed it’s working. I made sure that part was in the rental contract. I moved in and found that there’s no signal at all. I had to call Starhub to install a brand new cabling for my Internet to work which I had to pay out of pocket.
One night while I was cooking, the husband pointed a knife at me telling me to not use the kitchen, as I didn’t have permission. Out of fear for my life, I called the police. While waiting for the police to come, Jasmine was shouting at me for calling the police and recording them for evidence. Once the police came, they were all quiet. Jasmine lied to the police and demonstrated how I was holding the knife instead. The police got angry and pulled out a gun and pointed at Jasmine instead. Her husband complained he couldn’t understand English. The police scolded him for wasting police resources. Eventually 4 police officers were in the unit. Ridiculous as it seems, I have already decided to move out.
A day before I was supposed to move out, they shut my electricity down from the electric box. I knew where the switch was so I turned it on. When they came back, they turn it off again. As you can see an argument started and continued.
I finally moved out and sued them at Small Claims Tribunal. The day when they showed up in court, Jasmine looked scared and unprepared. The judge favored my point and ordered Jasmine to pay for my Internet cost, overpaid rent and days of unused electricity. This wasn’t the main problem, because if Jasmine didn’t pay, I would have to enforce it. Enforcing a judgment cost a lot of money, time and paper work. I didn’t go through it and decided it was okay for me to lose all that money. I guess losing time is worse. I hope this post serves as a warning against this greedy and ruthless landlord for those renting in Singapore.
Another property that they are affiliated with is APT BLK 880 Woodlands Street 82 #10–02 Singapore 730880.
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Stacey Morris
I had the unfortunate bad luck of encountering and living with a dodgy landlord by the name of Frankie Yu Fei (于飞) who rented the entire unit of #06–01, Sims Meadows, Singapore 387977. I rented a small room in that unit. When I first moved in I noticed a few weird events:
- The AC was already leaking water.
- The AC unit was making a lot of noise when turned on.
- Landlord refused to pay for it to be fixed before I moved in.
I had asked the landlord to fix the issues before I come back from vacation. I paid my deposit and rent before I left.
When I came back, the issues were not fixed, and that was the first red flag. I did confront him about it, but he told me to pay to fix the AC myself. Long story short, we had numerous arguments about the AC, electricity bills and more.
I lived there for less than 2 months, then Frankie started to enter my room when I take a shower. I had set up CCTV to capture him. Here’s are the footage.
[fvplayer src=”http://youtube.com/watch?v=IZMPlMJ0jj0″]
[fvplayer src=”http://youtube.com/watch?v=EjUHMPL-LFg”]
I called the Singapore Police and they said landlords have the right to enter tenant’s rooms at any time. Apparently there are no privacy laws to protect tenants in Singapore.
I finally moved out and he even refused to return back my deposit. I had to visit Singapore’s Small Claims Tribunal, but it was no use because he never showed up in court and I never got my money back. Singapore completely favors landlords over tenants and Singaporeans over foreigners like me.
If you’re renting in Singapore, avoid this landlord. He is a pervert at best.