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Beware dodgy landlords in Singapore
Beware dodgy landlords in Singapore

Beware dodgy landlords in Singapore

Looking at the latest round of numbers, it appears as if more and more

expats are becoming victim of dodgy landlords, bogus lease agreements,

deposits that simply disappear and a host of other rental issues that leaves

fresh arrivals swindled even before they had a chance to settle down in

their newly adopted home.

In fact, Consumers Association of Singapore, CASE, a consumer advocate

organisation there that keeps track of complaints logged by people that have

been duped, found that in the October 2008 - March 2009 period foreigners

lodged 32 out of the total of 365 complaints against realty agents. This

constitutes a 23% increase from the 26, out of 516 complaints in the same

period a year before.

Meanwhile, the Institute of Estate Agents in Singapore

received five complaints from foreigners since last October. Perhaps

tellingly, none the agents involved was IEA registered. The most common

complaints were overcharging and not honoring agreements made, especially

when it came to returning deposits and advanced payments.

Another quite common ruse is the fake landlord. Recently, the Singapore

Straits Times reported on a suspected fake landlord who claimed to be the

owner of an apartment on 14 Scotts Road and was looking to rent out his

unit. However, this address is actually the location of a shopping centre

called Far East Plaza. After pressing him for more details, he hung up and

never replied to the paper's inquiries again.

As expat populations grow, conmen like this are seemingly becoming ever more

numerous and ever more brazen, targeting foreigners in particular who are

looking to rent a property. New arrivals are especially easy targets because

obviously they're not as clued in to the property industry as the local

population or long-term expats.

Posing as condo owners, these conmen send potential tenants fake addresses

and pictures of well-furnished homes to entice unsuspecting foreigners into

transferring security deposits to them. When these tenant hopefuls request

for a meeting, the "landlord" simply claims to be overseas for business.

Eventually, as in the case above, the tricksters are never heard from again.

The lesson to be learned here is to always make sure that the landlord

you're dealing with is indeed the owner of the property you're interested

in. Better yet, enlist a realty agent with plenty of local knowledge to

filter out the bad apples for you so you have one less potential headache to

worry about.

N.B. Recently, the Singapore authorities have started zeroing in on

unscrupulous landlords. A sizable number of these con-men have in fact been

found guilty of tricking tenants. In all cases, a jail term was meted out.

As a result of this, it's safe to say that the incidence of rental fraud

will most likely go down.

Bryan Norman

Renting in Singapore

www.rentinginsingapore.com.sg

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