Property Views

[sushi88]

Zeal mummy\" post_id=\"2060739\" time=\"1646602461\" user_id=\"58173:[quote=\"Zeal mummy\" post_id=2060739 time=1646602461 user_id=58173]
Source:
https://www.hdb.gov.sg/residential/renting-a-flat/renting-from-the-open-market/regulations-for-renting-out-your-flat

Regulations for Renting a Flat/ Bedroom

Non-Citizen Quota for Renting Out of Flat
If you are a non-Malaysian non-citizen (Singapore Permanent Resident or foreigner) renting the HDB flat, you will be subject to the Non-Citizen Quota for Renting Out of Flat. The quota is to help maintain a good ethnic mix in HDB estates. Malaysians are not subject to this quota in view of their close cultural and historical similarities with Singaporeans.

The quota is set at 8% at the neighbourhood level and 11% at the block level, and applicable if any tenant renting the flat is a non-Malaysian non-citizen. If the quota is reached, only Singaporeans and Malaysians can rent a flat in that neighbourhood/ block. This quota does not apply to the renting out of bedrooms.

You may use our e-Service to check if an HDB flat can be rented by non-Malaysian non-citizens. The e-Service can also be accessed via the HDB Map Services.

Rental period
You must rent an HDB flat/ bedroom for at least 6 months. Owners can apply to rent out flat/ bedrooms for a maximum period of 3 years per application if their tenants are all Singaporeans or Malaysians. For application involving non-Malaysian non-citizens, the maximum rental period per approval is 2 years.

Maximum number of tenants and occupants
Take note of the maximum number of tenants and occupants allowed in each flat when renting the flat/ bedrooms.[/quote]

This LL is really a problem. She even breached the law of years of rental to non-Malaysian foreigners?
No wonder she is in such a panic.
She should just handle this case honestly as a mistake she has made in the TA if she wants to retain her career.
Now? I wonder if she can if she maintains her brusque attitude. The ball is in the tenants' court now, another ammunition to fire back.

[sushi88]

lee_yl\" post_id=\"2060747\" time=\"1646613301\" user_id=\"17023:

The rules and regulations are there but who to enforce them.

I am not sure if the agent (who’s also the LL) made the tenant sign a 3 year TA despite the tenant being non-Malaysian foreigner, with the plan to confiscate the 3 months deposit as small claims tribunal cannot handle tenancy disputes whose tenure is longer than 2 years.

Hello lee_yl, isn't this the best time to point out to HDB that she has flouted HDB rules?
1. She rented the unit for 3 years instead of 2 which is already illegal. (TA proof)
2. The rental of the unit is ongoing in a legally binding TA even if she has requested for termination. So she is renting her unit out illegally now due to her silly action.

You have a clear winning case. Don't speculate her intentions now, just use the facts to make a winning case first.
She has to be subjected to CEA investigation for sure as she has made 3 mistakes and instead of coming off clean, she chose to make more mistakes to cover her previous mistakes.
It's like lying....Lie once, gotta lie 2nd one to cover the first and lie 3rd to cover the 2nd.....
She has done the first wrong, then she did the second and then possibly a 3rd....all breaching HDB's rules.
HDB has to deal with her now if you really want to help the tenants who are possibly clueless what is happening.

Moral of the story ---> Honesty is the best policy.

[lee_yl]

sushi88\" post_id=\"2060754\" time=\"1646616653\" user_id=\"100857:

Hello lee_yl, isn't this the best time to point out to HDB that she has flouted HDB rules?
1. She rented the unit for 3 years instead of 2 which is already illegal. (TA proof)
2. The rental of the unit is ongoing in a legally binding TA even if she has requested for termination. So she is renting her unit out illegally now due to her silly action.

You have a clear winning case. Don't speculate her intentions now, just use the facts to make a winning case first.
She has to be subjected to CEA investigation for sure as she has made 3 mistakes and instead of coming off clean, she chose to make more mistakes to cover her previous mistakes.
It's like lying....Lie once, gotta lie 2nd one to cover the first and lie 3rd to cover the 2nd.....
She has done the first wrong, then she did the second and then possibly a 3rd....all breaching HDB's rules.
HDB has to deal with her now if you really want to help the tenants who are possibly clueless what is happening.

Moral of the story ---> Honesty is the best policy.

For your 1st point, the 3 year TA has obviously breached the rules. Because of the 3-year TA, we cannot go to small claims court. 5 months ago we wrote to CEA about misrepresentation of the TA and that the agent did not declare conflict of interest since she’s also the LL. CEA said it would investigate but never got back! The irony is that before CEA could get back, the tenants already got evicted. This episode taught me that CEA may be powerful but may not be that effective. Likely a new group of tenants will fall victim to LL’s cheating way.

As for your 2nd point, LL is not renting out illegally after the tenants moved out, right? I supposed she will reapply for approval to rent again after she finds the next group of victims (aka new gullible tenants).

According to the tenants, the group of tenants before them was some foreign students. The tenancy was also terminated half way through the tenancy. Their neighbor told them the students’ stuff was dumped along the corridor.

We filed a police report for “intention to cheat”. Cheat money one group after another police no need to investigate? But police said they will classify the case as TA dispute, and asked us go back to HDB and lawyer. That’s why we always end up going round in circles.

[lee_yl]

Actually we have given up hope in getting back the 3mths deposit as tenants have no means to go to court. 9 out of 10 tenants would not resort to court.


Deposit kept with the LL is at the LL’s mercy. My brother’s colleague’s LL confiscated the colleague’s 2 months deposit so I told my brother to tell the colleague to go to small claims. Upon knowing that, the LL returned 1 month deposit, the other 1 month is said for handyman to touch up the unit.
I think such things happen everyday, just that they are not reported.

Anyway, my initial post is not to help tenant get back their deposit. Just that the lawyer and I, we fell off our chairs when LL came to evict the tenants with the HDB termination letter, locksmith and police in tow. Then 5 days later the very same unit was put up for rent asking for 40% more. This left a bitter taste in my mouth seeing how the tenants suffered and at the end of the day, the LL still got her way. Writing in KSP helps me get rid of the negativity and also get to tap the collective wisdom of KSP.

[Liew Nga Wing]

lee_yl\" post_id=\"2060835\" time=\"1646702726\" user_id=\"17023:

Actually we have given up hope in getting back the 3mths deposit as tenants have no means to go to court. 9 out of 10 tenants would not resort to court.

Your effort in helping the tenants is highly appreciated. You are so kind.

[sushi88]

lee_yl\" post_id=\"2060824\" time=\"1646670611\" user_id=\"17023:

For your 1st point, the 3 year TA has obviously breached the rules. Because of the 3-year TA, we cannot go to small claims court. 5 months ago we wrote to CEA about misrepresentation of the TA and that the agent did not declare conflict of interest since she’s also the LL. CEA said it would investigate but never got back! The irony is that before CEA could get back, the tenants already got evicted. This episode taught me that CEA may be powerful but may not be that effective. Likely a new group of tenants will fall victim to LL’s cheating way.

As for your 2nd point, LL is not renting out illegally after the tenants moved out, right? I supposed she will reapply for approval to rent again after she finds the next group of victims (aka new gullible tenants).

According to the tenants, the group of tenants before them was some foreign students. The tenancy was also terminated half way through the tenancy. Their neighbor told them the students’ stuff was dumped along the corridor.

We filed a police report for “intention to cheat”. Cheat money one group after another police no need to investigate? But police said they will classify the case as TA dispute, and asked us go back to HDB and lawyer. That’s why we always end up going round in circles.

Ah sorry, I thought the case was ongoing so there was a pressure of time to act quickly...So it's like a SCAM case study now. You have to tell the police, it is NOT a TA dispute, it is a SCAM. There was no dispute in the TA, the TA was crystal clear in the Ts and Cs of rental, except the foreigner tenants were ignorant of her cunning ways to abuse the HDB system and the police to commit the SCAM.

The tenants were ignorant and harassed by her to move out so the second point became invalid if you cannot provide proof of forced exit now. Can the police evict the tenant with a TA in place??? :yikes: In any case, if you can prove that they had a forced exit, then the TA duration would serve as the proof of rental period and she was terminating the rental approval to frame the SCAM. Then she was breaching the HDB rule of renting an apt that was not approved by her self-termination action. HDB cannot be condoning a LL to do this with a TA in place, if it's a loophole, they have to set tighter rules for this otherwise any LL can happily go to the portal to terminate a rental approval and evict their tenants! :yikes:

CEA has to know it's a SCAM and act on it fast as it is moving on to others.

I just read 5 days later the unit was up for rental, please collect this proof and send to HDB, how was it possible for a unit to be issued a termination letter and 5 days later approved again for rental and advertised after evicting tenants? Is this a playground?? :? Does it mean the portal is failing to do what a human can do, detecting fraudulent activities? If she advertised without getting an approval from HDB, she has violated the HDB rules again, this is the 3rd errant behaviour.

[starlight1968sg]

Maybe see the MP if a recourse can be sought.

[Estéema]

@sushi88 I think if one goes to the neigbourhood HDB office, they will likely just go by the process as most wld in a bureaucratic system - owner have the privilege to apply for unit to be rented out or terminate at will so long as all other regulations complied with (e.g. quota, etc). The TA is a private doc btwn 2 parties, without HDB in the pic except to abide by local laws & regulations.


I wld hv brought this errant LL/Agent up to the main HDB office to catch the owner with proof of the TA, as looking at the case of expiry in May 2022 & eviction in Jan 2022, owner alr flouted HDB rules for entering into a 3-year TA with non-M’sian or Sporean.

Unfortunately, many of us are very peace keeping folks, and when suddenly faced with the presence of police, we wld comply rather than stay to argue.

Not related to tenancy but I admire a frd who got her garden plot vandalized & many of her neigbor’s got their labor pilfered, when NParks bureaucratically reply they will not put up fences nor put up CCTVs, she went to the press! So, I’m just wondering if social media will surface tenants’ plight w/o jeopardizing their identities or jobs. Thinking this might wake both CEA & HDB to catch errant Agents & plug the loophole for owners?

[sushi88]

Estéema\" post_id=\"2060855\" time=\"1646708848\" user_id=\"66413:

@sushi88 I think if one goes to the neigbourhood HDB office, they will likely just go by the process as most wld in a bureaucratic system - owner have the privilege to apply for unit to be rented out or terminate at will so long as all other regulations complied with (e.g. quota, etc). The TA is a private doc btwn 2 parties, without HDB in the pic except to abide by local laws & regulations.

I wld hv brought this errant LL/Agent up to the main HDB office to catch the owner with proof of the TA, as looking at the case of expiry in May 2022 & eviction in Jan 2022, owner alr flouted HDB rules for entering into a 3-year TA with non-M’sian or Sporean.

Unfortunately, many of us are very peace keeping folks, and when suddenly faced with the presence of police, we wld comply rather than stay to argue.

Not related to tenancy but I admire a frd who got her garden plot vandalized & many of her neigbor’s got their labor pilfered, when NParks bureaucratically reply they will not put up fences nor put up CCTVs, she went to the press! So, I’m just wondering if social media will surface tenants’ plight w/o jeopardizing their identities or jobs. Thinking this might wake both CEA & HDB to catch errant Agents & plug the loophole for owners?

I know they can apply and terminate but it is the regulations now we need to look into and highlight to HDB. Renting out a terminated unit violates the law but she escaped that craftily with quick action from police and termination letter.

Yes, don't shy away from media if there is real injustice done and let the scammer get away scott-free.

[lee_yl]

starlight1968sg\" post_id=\"2060851\" time=\"1646708510\" user_id=\"14025:

Maybe see the MP if a recourse can be sought.

Tenants don’t hold pink IC, no voting rights.
No point to see MP.