| SHE had put up her three-room flat for sale.
So she thought it would be convenient to let her property agent keep a set of keys so he could conduct viewings when she wasn't around. The agent found a buyer, and though the sale had not been completed, she moved out, leaving some of her things locked in the cupboards. But she didn't get her keys back for months. And when she did, she found someone else was living in her flat.  | | --Mohd Ishak | She also found the locks gone from the cupboards - along with her belongings inside, which she said were worth more than $70,000. Madam Rasa'alakiammal S Ramasamy, 59, who lodged a police report last week, said she had decided to sell her flat in Tampines to help settle debts from a failed cafe venture. She handed over the keys to the agent in April. She claimed that the agent had said he would also help to spruce up the flat. The next month, she agreed to a buyer's offer of $175,000 and they had their first appointment with HDB. Sometime in June, Madam Rasa, a divorcee, cleared her flat of furniture and went to live with one of her four adult sons. She said she tried to return to her flat later that month but found it padlocked. She said: 'I called the agent but he said he had put it there for security.' She claimed that she kept asking him for the keys after that. 'Since I already had a buyer, I asked for my keys back because he didn't have to show the flat any more,' she said. LIGHTS ON But the sale was delayed, and the agent returned the keys to her only on 22 Sep. Two days later, Madam Rasa went to the flat with her youngest son. As they approached the block, they were surprised to see lights switched on in the third-storey flat. She had cancelled the power supply when she moved out. When they got to the flat, they found a different padlock on the door - and all the lights turned off. They knocked on the door and initially, no one opened. Madam Rasa said: 'I was talking to my son outside the flat. Maybe the people heard that we were going to call the police because after that, they opened the door.' She said she was shocked to see people living in her flat. 'It was a family, a couple with a young child and an elderly woman,' she said. And they seemed shocked to see her too, because they thought they had rented the flat from 'the owner'. They showed her a tenancy agreement. Madam Rasa said the family let her and her son into the flat and she went straight to the cupboards to check on her belongings. Before she had moved out, she had latches installed on her kitchen cabinets. She had then placed some of her belongings and valuables inside and secured the doors with padlocks. Now, though the latches were still there, 'the locks were gone, all my things were gone',she said, sobbing. In her police report, Madam Rasa alleged that goods from her crystal and gemstone trading business were missing, including 1kg of blue sapphires with an estimated value of $60,000 and some agar wood, used for incense, worth about $12,000. Also missing were documents, including her birth certificate. She asked to see the tenancy agreement again and claimed she saw the buyer named as the owner. 'How can he rent out the flat when it's not even his yet? We had only had the first appointment with HDB - the transaction was not finished yet.' To be sure, Madam Rasa said she went to the HDB to check on the ownership of the flat and was told that she was still the legal owner. When The New Paper contacted Madam Rasa's agent, he claimed that he had passed the keys to the buyer's agent on the agreement that the buyer would clean the place on his own and move in some of his belongings while waiting for the transaction to be completed. He claimed he had told Madam Rasa about this, but she denied it. He also claimed he was unaware the flat had been rented out and he found out only when she had called him. He said: 'If I had known about it, would I have returned the key to her?' We also tried to reach the buyer and the tenants. But their telephone numbers were either no longer in use or their handphone was switched off. The tenants vacated the flat soon after the police report was lodged. MOVED BACK IN When we met Madam Rasa, she was moving back into the flat that she had previously lived in for nine years. She feared something else would happen if she continued to leave it vacant. She said that while her cafe business had left her with debts, her five-year-old gemstone business was doing well. 'All my valuable goods are missing... a lot of sentimental things that I collected throughout my life,' she said. Police confirmed a report had been lodged and that they are investigating.
Be cautious with keys IF you're intending to sell your home with the help of a property agent, you should think carefully before handing over your keys. ERA assistant vice-president Eugene Lim said this is generally not advisable unless you know the agent very well. Mr Lim said: 'Should the owner choose to engage a sole agent to help with the sale of the property, they should sign an agreement with the agent. 'In it, the duties and responsibilities of the agent should be clearly stated - so it becomes clear that the agent is serving the seller's interest.' An HDB spokesman said the resale process has been streamlined to make it simpler. 'We have also made available relevant and updated information on resale policies and procedures through various channels, such as the HDB website, information booklets and resale seminars,' he said. | 
