| WHEN he put down more than $1,000 as the first month's rent on this three-room Tampines unit, Mr Ezhilan Mullaiyappan, 31, thought he had struck a fair deal. The flat was not much to look at - its floor was not yet tiled and there were bricks, packs of cement and dirt all over the living room. But Mr Ezhilan was assured that the unit would be renovated before he moved in.  | | Pictures: Jonathan Choo | So, he put down one month's rent as a deposit. Then, at the last minute, he found out that nothing had been done. The software engineer from Tamil Nadu had viewed the unit in early October and was supposed to move into the unit on Tampines Street 21 on 1 Dec. An agreement was made with the landlady that Mr Ezhilan would pay a rent of $1,050 a month. But the landlady said she would be renovating the flat and that he could move in only about two months later. Mr Ezhilan gave the woman, whom he had met through a housing agent, a deposit but did not pay the agent's commission. Mr Ezhilan said he was supposed pay the agent only after he moved in. About seven weeks after the deposit was paid, Mr Ezhilan found that no work had been done at the flat. Mr Ezhilan said: 'I went to the flat to check on the renovations. But nothing was done at all. I was shocked as I was going to move in about two weeks later. 'I called up the landlady and she said she was in Jakarta and would not be back any time soon. 'How was I going to live there if renovation work had not even started? I asked the landlady to return my rental deposit as I've decided not to rent the flat from her any more. 'But she kept delaying the repayment and stopped taking my calls. I must have called her more than 50 times. She must have switched off her phone as I don't seem to be able to contact her now.' Mr Ezhilan made a police report at Tampines NPC after that. The New Paper too failed to reach the landlady on her handphone. He now feels that he had been taken for a ride because he is a foreigner. He said: 'If I am a Singaporean, will my landlady dare to do such a thing to me?' When The New Paper visited the second-floor flat in Tampines, it was deserted. There was no furniture, one of the windows was broken and the gate was locked.
RUNAWAY AGENT ABOUT the same time as Mr Ezhilan Mullaiyappan was looking for an apartment to rent, his colleague was looking for a place to rent too. Like Mr Mullaiyappan, Mr Kannan Adiseshan, 26, also had a tough time. Mr Kannan, also a software engineer from Tamil Nadu, was introduced to a housing agent in October. He had come here to work in June. Mr Kannan said he was given the handphone number of a housing agent by his colleagues. He called the man and was told that an HDB flat in Bishan, with three bedrooms, was available for rent. Mr Kannan was going to rent the flat with two friends, also Indian expatriates. On 6 Oct, Mr Kannan went to view the Bishan flat with the housing agent. On the same day, he agreed to rent the flat and paid the agent $650 as commission. The monthly rent was supposed to be $1,300. The housing agent, saying he was acting on behalf of the flat's owner, also took one month's rent as deposit from Mr Kannan. He and his friends were supposed to move in on 14 Oct, he said. Mr Kannan never saw or spoke to the owner of the flat. And he didn't hear from his agent until he contacted him on the day he was to move in. Mr Kannan recalled: 'I called my agent to find out why he did not call me even though I was supposed to move in that day. 'It was only when I called him that he said the owner was not willing to rent out the place. 'Then, I called the owner's agent and he told me that the owner had already decided, back on 6 Oct he was not going to rent the flat out.' DEPOSIT RETURNED The owner's agent then returned Mr Kannan's $1,300 deposit. Subsequent calls to his own agent went unanswered. Mr Kannan said he then asked a friend to contact the same housing agent on the pretext of looking for a house to rent. According to him, the agent agreed to meet Mr Kannan's friend. Mr Kannan said he went along to ambush his agent. He said: 'I was standing behind my friend as the agent drove past us in his car. 'However, he managed to spot me and he drove away without meeting my friend.' Mr Kannan said he is yet to get his agent to return the $650 commission. The New Paper tried without success to contact the agent on his handphone.
BANKRUPT OWNER EVEN an Indian expatriate who has been living here for the past 10 years ran into problems. Mr Sachin Varshney, 25, found out only a day after he signed a rental agreement that the landlady was a bankrupt. The agreement was made on 12 Nov. The monthly rent for the flat on Choa Chu Kang Ave 4 was $1,050. Mr Sachin said he agreed to give the owner $1,600 as advance payment on the day the agreement was signed. His agent took $550 in commission. Mr Sachin said: 'I called the landlady's husband a day after signing the agreement as I wanted to buy a new sofa for the living room. 'I didn't like the one that was already there, so I asked the landlady's husband if the sofa could be removed. 'To my shock, I was told that the landlady was bankrupt and the house was under her name. 'He told me that if creditors come to the house, they could take the furniture away.' Mr Sachin decided not to move into the flat after that. His agent returned the commission, but his landlady refused to refund the advance payment. Mr Sachin said: 'The landlady and her husband said the agreement was such that they would get to keep the advance payment even if I didn't want to move in. 'They stopped taking my calls after that and I have given up chasing them for the money.'
Problem agents on the rise THE number of complaints lodged against housing agents with the Consumers Association of Singapore (Case) has gone up in the past three years. The figure rose from 447 complaints in 2003 to 469 in 2004. Last year, there were 672 complaints. From January to October this year, 658 complaints were filed, said Mr Seah Seng Choon, Case's executive director. Those with rental and housing disputes with housing agents may approach Case for help. Case, however, does not handle disputes between landlords and tenants. This is handled by the Small Claims Tribunal and the Community Mediation Centre. Mr Seah said most of the complaints involved alleged misrepresentation by the agents. This year, 20 foreigners sought Case's help with housing agents. They were student-pass holders, work-permit holders, employment-pass holders or dependent-pass holders. Of the 20, 16 had lodged complaints on rental issues. All except one were tenants. Besides going to Case for assistance and mediation, Mr Seah recommends looking for agents and companies with proper accreditation. He said: 'The new Singapore Accredited Estate Agencies Scheme, jointly administered by the Singapore Institute of Surveyors and Valuers and the Institute of Estate Agents (IEA), provide mediation and adjudication if the real estate company in question is a member of the scheme. 'Consumers may check the background of housing agents from IEA's central registration scheme.' You can go to the website at www.iea.org.sg. | 
