A family in Singapore recently found themselves left high and dry after a contractor allegedly went missing and “abandoned” their HDB flat project.
Hoping to assist the affected family, a relative recently appealed for help on Facebook.
Source: Facebook
Turns out, there were other clients who fell victim to the same contractor, with some cases dating back to five years ago.
On Tuesday (16 May), netizen Ayda Ayn took to Facebook to share about her cousins’ predicament.
The family of eight, which includes three children with autism, had engaged an interior designer (ID) to renovate their HDB flat on 23 Jan.
At the time, the ID had given them a quote of S$55,000.
According to Ayda, her cousin’s family had already paid S$45,000 of the amount. They were due to move into the renovated flat this Saturday (20 May).
However, the contractor apparently went missing on 2 May.
To make things worse, the flat was nowhere near completion.
The attached pictures show a partly-renovated apartment with wires dangling from the ceiling.
Source: Facebook
Construction materials and debris had also been left scattered on the dusty flooring.
Additionally, Ayda said that the contractor had “stolen” the fans and air-conditioning units from the flat.
Source: Facebook
Ayda estimated that the flat was only 10% to 20% complete and accused the contractor of abandoning the renovation project.
Source: Facebook
As such, Ayda is appealing to members of the public to “sponsor for certain reno works”.
Those who wish to contribute may do so by reaching out to Ayda via the contact details on her Facebook post.
While there has been an outpouring of support from Facebook users, it soon became apparent that Ayda’s cousin’s family isn’t the ID’s only victim.
In the comments, a netizen shared that her close friend Afiqah was a ‘victim’ of the same ID.
Speaking to MS News, Afiqah shared that the ID in question was her property agent’s husband and that her family became acquainted with him when he joined them house hunting.
Similar to Ayda’s cousin’s family, Afiqah had paid the ID about S$48,000 — which amounts to 70% of the total fees — before renovation works commenced.
However, the ID allegedly went missing on 2 May having completed just 10% of the renovation works.
Source: Instagram
In fact, the ID’s wife — AKA Afiqah’s property agent — also could not contact her husband and eventually resorted to lodging a missing person’s report.
Afiqah subsequently lodged a police report on 7 May and shared that their investigation officer is currently in contact with the ID.
Still, Afiqah said that the experience was “a lot to take in”, given the amount of money lost and the barrage of questions she received from family members.
Afiqah also shared that she’s aware of other individuals who reportedly fell victim to the same ID, some from as far back as five years ago.
To her knowledge, at least seven police reports have apparently been lodged in relation to the ID in question.
MS News has reached out to the ID’s company for comments on the incident. We’ll update the article when they get back.
Although it’s unfortunate that multiple people have been duped by the contractor, at least they now have strength in numbers.
Afiqah shared that past victims now have a group chat — presumably to support each other through the tough experience.
Hopefully, the affected individuals will get some closure from the pending investigations.
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Featured image adapted from Facebook.
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