In 2014, a man purchased a condo unit in Bukit Batok costing S$838,000 under his mistress’ name.
Back then, he allegedly wanted to sell it for a shared profit in the future.
However, after their relationship turned sour during the pandemic, he sought a court order in hopes that the sale would go through.
In court, Mr Ng Hong Khiang stated that the unit at Parkview Apartments should be sold. Additionally, he asserted that he should keep 30.24% of the proceeds as it was the amount he contributed to the original purchase.
Source: Google Maps
On the other hand, his former mistress, Ms Wu Caiyun, argued that the amount he paid was a “betrothal gift” to her.
On Thursday (2 Mar), the judge ordered the sale of the property, and 15.4% of its proceeds would go to Mr Ng.
According to Channel NewsAsia (CNA), Mr Ng first met Ms Wu in 2010, when she was working for him at a KTV lounge.
The pair, both of whom were married to other people, began their affair in 2011, after which Ms Wu divorced her husband.
In 2014, they decided to buy the condo, which cost S$838,888.
Ms Wu acknowledged that Mr Ng paid around S$273,000 for the property, including a S$166,943.60 cheque and S$61,710 for stamp duties.
Besides that, she acquired a S$630,000 mortgage loan from the bank. Since the loan was under her name, Ms Wu has been repaying her loans monthly, reports CNA.
The purchase of the condo under her name was apparently to avoid high stamp duty fees as Mr Ng owned several properties at the time.
Before they purchased the condo, Mr Ng stated that they made a verbal agreement in which both parties would invest in the property.
He would pay for the cash portion of the price, stamp duties, legal costs and maintenance fees.
They also allegedly agreed that if either of them wanted to sell the condo, they would split the proceeds according to their contributions.
However, Ms Wu argued that the agreement did not exist. Instead, she claimed that Mr Ng’s contributions were a “a gift” to her due to the years they had spent in an intimate relationship.
Moreover, due to his marital status, Mr Ng could not marry Ms Wu, leading both of them to consider the prospect of the relationship ending.
With that in mind, Ms Wu claimed that Mr Ng regarded his contribution as a “betrothal gift”.
Furthermore, Ms Wu reportedly asserted that she had given Mr Ng S$130,000 and S$4,000 in separate amounts to help cover the property costs.
She thus concluded that he only contributed S$139,098 instead of S$273,000.
In court, the judge validated Mr Ng’s case about the pair’s agreement to buy the house together and later sell it.
However, he rejected Ms Wu’s claims that the monetary contribution was a present, noting that she first referred to it as a “gift” before calling it a “dowry” for marriage.
Moreover the pair’s messages apparently did not show that the property was a gift.
The judge also found that Mr Ng indeed contributed only S$139,098 to the condo because of the S$130,000 Ms Wu gave him.
Coming to his own defence, Mr Ng tried to explain that he would give Ms Wu S$5,000 cash monthly from early or mid-2012 to end-2013 for ‘safekeeping’.
He also wanted to hide his income from his wife and set aside money in case he wanted to make big-ticket purchases or investments.
Hence, he declared the S$130,000 Ms Wu gave him as his money that she was simply returning.
However, the judge rejected his claims, saying that the numbers did not make sense. His claim was also supposedly inconsistent from his earlier statement as evidence showed that she gave him the money for the condo.
Subsequently, the judged ordered the sale of the property, with 15.4% of the proceeds going to Mr Ng.
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Featured image adapted from Google Maps.
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