Tenants Allegedly Owe $60,000 After Staying For 15 Months At Bedok Unit
Running a business is never easy. The same can be said for landlords who need to manage tenants and units.
One landlord in Bedok, however, has been having a particularly challenging time recently.
On Tuesday (27 Oct), the landlord tried to forcibly evict a tenant who has not been paying rent.
However, the incident turned ugly when the tenants decided to report him to the police instead, accusing him of assault and harassment.
Bedok landlord tries to drive tenants away
According to Lianhe Wanbao, the landlord reached boiling point after not receiving rent for 15 months and decided to drive his tenants away.
The 60-year-old alleged that the tenants owed him over $60,000 in rent. The tenants not only refused to pay up, but were also adamant on staying despite their lease being up.
On Wednesday (28 Oct) morning, the landlord and his cousin tried to damage the front gate of the Bedok Court unit by sawing it, in a bid to scare the tenants away.
They managed to saw through a few iron bars but did not enter the unit.
In retaliation, the tenants allegedly sprayed them with a water hose and kicked the landlord’s cousin. They subsequently called the police for assistance.
Tenants repeatedly found reasons to evade payment
The landlord claims that when the family moved into the unit, they merely paid one month’s rent, reported Lianhe Wanbao.
From then on, the tenants would reportedly find reasons to evade payment each time the landlord asked.
Some reasons cited include difficulties in transferring money kept abroad over to Singapore.
Once, they also claimed that the Monetary Authority of Singapore had confiscated millions from them.
Alleged water leak & fault lock in unit
According to AsiaOne, the family had also claimed that their rental fees should be waived due to a water leak in the unit and a faulty lock.
Image for illustration purposes only
Source
But the landlord insisted that he had spent $200,000 renovating the unit. The tenants had also thoroughly inspected the place before moving in.
Apparently, this is not the first time the tenants have pulled such a stunt.
The same family made headlines back in 2017 for not paying rent when living in an East Coast shophouse over a period of 6 months.
The family ended up having to pay $100,000 in compensation to that landlord.
Bedok landlord & tenants called police on each other 6 times
Speaking to Lianhe Wanbao, the police confirmed that they received a report at 9.36am on Wednesday (28 Oct).
When they arrived at the scene, they also spoke to the landlord about the incident.
The assault and harassment case is now under investigation.
Prior to this incident, the landlord and tenants have already reported each other to the police on 6 occasions, reported AsiaOne.
Hope matters can be resolved amicably
We will never know if the tenant is truly struggling or simply evading rent payment. Nevertheless, this is an unfortunate incident where both parties were at fault.
Despite the tough circumstances, the landlord should not have taken matters into his own hands.
Instead, he could have gone through official channels to evict the tenants such as sending them a tenancy notice.
We hope the matter will eventually be resolved in an amicable manner.
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Featured image adapted from Lianhe Wanbao and Google Maps.
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