According to Maslow’s hierarchy, having a roof over one’s head is the most basic of survival needs. Working, paying bills━adulting is such a tough gig. One hopes that settling the matter of shelter is not another headache you have to deal with. That, however, was not the case for Elise*, a Singaporean whose 7-month-long master bedroom rental became a long, drawn-out nightmare.
*Names have been changed to protect confidentiality.
Finding a master bedroom listing for a landed house in the East
Since Elise was only looking for a short-term stay, at a rather short notice, she turned to home rental groups on Facebook. She found a listing for a generously sized master bedroom with an ensuite bathroom, located in a landed property in the East, which was going for $1,800 a month.
Image credit: Unsplash – Point3D Commercial Imaging Ltd.
Photo for illustrative purposes only.
Although there were a number of housemates she would have to share the property with, the landed house was large enough that they would get a degree of privacy. Elise began to negotiate the rental terms with Suzie*, who appeared to be the property manager, via text messages on Facebook Messenger.
These included discussions about Elise’s cats, which Suzie claimed to like, and that they “might be able to work [something] out if [Elise could] pay extra”━she was quoted $150 extra a month, which Elise accepted. Suzie also agreed that the cats could roam around the house on occasion.
Image credit: Unsplash – Lina Zore
Photo for illustrative purposes only.
Also discussed were extra payments that Elise would incur when her LDR boyfriend stayed in the room when he would be in town. According to Suzie, each housemate would be given 5 free days annually for letting anyone bunk in their room. Thereafter, daily rates of $30 would be charged per day, per guest.
Seeing as these terms were not unreasonable, Elise agreed.
Issues started to surface a few months in
Arbitrary billing of utilities
In one shocking chapter of staying at this property, Elise found that she and the other tenants were being billed for utilities in an “estimated usage” manner━estimated by Suzie, who “[did] regular checks by listening to [their] aircon compressor running and other methods”.
Photo for illustrative purposes only.
Of course, she would disclaim that her “calculations would be close but not accurate”, and that the tenants should “be prepared to fork out money on [their] own for investigative, forensic, or auditory work done by a professional for 100% accuracy”.
Because Suzie didn’t submit the monthly readings on time, the bills would never be accurate as well, leading her to frequently having to make adjustments to the costs of utilities, going so far as to send repeated messages, emails, and even threats to a former tenant demanding extra payments for the adjusted bills.
Water damage in room left unreported & house was poorly maintained
Issues such as water damage in the room were not raised to Elise until after she had moved in. Let this be a reminder to anyone who’s looking to rent a room: check the entire lodging thoroughly before taking any next steps. The haste with which Elise moved forward with agreeing to the tenancy meant oversights on her end about the state of the larger home that she was moving into.
Image credit: Petes Hardwood Floors
Photo for illustrative purposes only.
Rotting wooden floor planks in her balcony, and a malfunctioning stove, are just some of the problems which came to light after Elise had moved in. Other red flags included Suzie’s blatant disregard for hygiene, with Elise sharing that she would find uncovered containers of half-eaten fruit lying around, attracting all sorts of pests.
Toxic behaviour & constant threats
Initially, Suzie presented herself as friendly and welcoming, inviting Elise to “family dinners” with the other tenants. However, it quickly became clear that Suzie would not tolerate anyone who disagreed with her or became the focus of attention.
While Elise was away, Suzie sent a passive-aggressive email, expressing disdain over a comment Elise had made in passing during dinner, calling it rude and asserting that she was the head of the household. Even when Elise tried to remain professional and explain the situation, Suzie reiterated that she hadn’t invited Elise into the home to feel disrespected or uncomfortable.
She manipulated situations, picking on tenants in group chats, blowing misunderstandings out of proportion, and resorting to personal attacks. Suzie would escalate conflicts unnecessarily, accusing tenants of rudeness, mental instability, and even harassment based on things as trivial as a GIF.
Coercing tenants into footing repair costs & other “cleaning fees”
She created an atmosphere of control and intimidation, using passive-aggressive tactics, including coercing tenants into paying for repair costs, even when these were supposed to be covered by the landlord.
To make matters worse, in what might be a very laissez-faire management of the property, Suzie would coerce individual tenants into paying “hourly angpow” to her helper for supposedly cleaning up the house.
Later on, Suzie would blow up at another tenant, Tim*, who she threw off the property, and who went to the courts with Elise in an attempt to retrieve their rental deposits. What transpired included Suzie picking on Tim in group chats with the other tenants, blowing misunderstandings out of proportion, and going on in endless tirades against him, calling him “petulant” and “immature”.
Then, she would accuse him of violence and harassment because of a GIF he had sent, then claiming he was mentally unstable, and calling the police to the property. Suzie evicted him, confiscated his deposit, and then reached out to his colleagues in a bid to force a response to her threats. Later, she would charge him for further utilities and supposed repair works, all of which were billed without contractor invoices.
Constant harassment via text about her cats being let out of the room
Elise’s cats did not escape unscathed either━for all that Suzie had initially agreed they could roam freely around the house at times, she began to find issue with the cats and Elise’s care of them.
She would accuse them of being noisy and disrupting her sleep at night, insisting that Elise keep them in the room for periods of up to 12 hours overnight. This, even though any time they were let out of the room during these nocturnal hours were supervised by Elise, and brought back into her room after they’d had a jaunt outside.
Just a small portion of the kind of accusatory messages Elise would be bombarded with over her cats being out of the room.
Things would then blow out of proportion, with Suzie sending barrages of text messages to Elise about how she was disrespecting Suzie’s “need [for] quality sleep”. She questioned their health and gaslit Elise into thinking she was a bad pet owner who wasn’t responsible for or concerned about the cats━all under the guise of being concerned about Elise and the cats.
“If you have lost capacity to take care of your animals, we can always reach out to SPCA or the like.” As if the harassment over her cats wasn’t enough, Suzie would even threaten to call SPCA on Elise, to ensure the cats were not mistreated by her━or so Suzie claimed.
Ultimately, Suzie would blame the cats for scratches to the settee in the living room, and withhold Elise’s security deposit.
Red flags that should have been heeded from the very beginning
Rushing to sign agreement & get deposit transferred
On hindsight, Elise would look back and realise how sus it was that Suzie went by various names in different scenarios. It was also odd that the room was listed as available, yet Suzie had said she needed to ask the current tenants if they were able to move out early, pressuring Elise to transfer 1 month’s deposit and sign the lease agreement in a rush.
When Elise got in touch with these tenants when she was gathering evidence against Suzie, she would find out that they had been forced out of their tenancy, and had their deposit similarly withheld.
They had caught Suzie bringing prospective tenants to view their room, lying to them about it until they confronted her with CCTV footage; they were also charged for damages that had been there before they moved in, and only managed to get half back after filing a police report.
Taking Suzie to court but not getting any recompense
Gaslit & disrespected in court
Photo for illustrative purposes only.
Elise and Tim jointly took Suzie to the Small Claims Tribunals in an attempt to reclaim the deposits that they were owed. Throughout the multiple hearings, Suzie is said to have tried to control the narrative of the proceedings, twisting Elise’s and Tim’s words and repeatedly interrupting the magistrate.
When quoting her claims for items such as aircon maintenance bills, painting works, and cleaning, she would submit what she claimed were “market rates” screenshotted from websites, rather than invoices for the supposed services rendered.
It reached a point where the magistrate would tell Suzie to refer to Tim by name, and to stop interjecting to give her personal opinions on him and his family, as well as the quality of his evidence.
Being counter-claimed against for causing Suzie distress
Suzie’s behaviour towards the tenants escalated to the point of legal absurdity. After they brought her to court to reclaim their deposits, she retaliated by submitting counterclaims for even larger sums than initially quoted for repairs, plus an outrageous $50,000 each for “physical, emotional, and mental distress” caused by the lawsuit.
She even included claims for medical expenses related to the supposed stress of the legal proceedings.
In an even more laughable turn of events, Suzie also submitted a request to the magistrate requesting that the court fine Elise and Tim $20,000 each “for using public resources to exact a personal vendetta”. She even presented a list of outcome options to the magistrate, all of which culminated in Elise and Tim paying large sums of money, and then explaining her preferred outcome of the options.
Winning the case, but walking away empty-handed
It’s no surprise that Suzie did not win her claims against Elise and Tim, except for a token 3-figure amount for some of the supposed damages to the property.
On the other hand, she was issued a court order to pay Elise and Tim between 78-85% of the amounts that they were owed, but this could not be enforced until they engaged a lawyer to get another court-issued order for garnishee proceedings, a.k.a. to direct the bank to release the money to them.
However, this required that Suzie’s bank account number was known to them, and this account was found to be almost empty of funds—meaning that Elise and Tim were not able to get anything that they were owed, after what little was in the account had gone to paying their lawyers.
Incurring further fees with no guarantee of success
If they wanted to, they would have had to track down any other bank accounts that Suzie had, engage their lawyers again, and go to court—again—for another court order to the relevant banks to freeze Suzie’s account(s). None of this would guarantee that they would successfully get their deposits back, even if Suzie owed it to them on paper.
According to the Singapore Courts website, “courts are not responsible for the commencement of enforcement proceedings”, and even before that, one should consider “whether it is worthwhile to pursue enforcing the order”, and “whether you are willing to pay the fees for enforcing the order”.
In Elise’s case, she had reached a point where she had lost faith in the system being able to help her get her money back, without being bogged down by even more lawyer fees that would put her even more into the red. And so, she gave up the fight.
Advice for people looking to rent
Speaking with us about her unfortunate experience, Elise shared some advice for those who are looking to rent, whether it be a room or flat:
Have an airtight and detailed tenancy agreement
Photo for illustrative purposes only.
To start, be as detailed as possible with regards to everything you want, and have all the terms stated out at length in the tenancy agreement. These should include items such as, but not limited to:
- Rent and rent collection schedule.
- Fees for utilities, including how they’re calculated.
- Items that the landlord is responsible for, including plumbing and electrical repairs.
- Specific instances in which the tenant is responsible for maintenance fees, if any.
- What the rental deposit can be used to pay for at the end of the tenancy, and terms for its return to the tenant.
“The tenancy agreement should not be a measly 1-2 pages long—it’s a red flag that leaves loopholes for the landlord or property manager to exploit,” Elise shares.
Get the help of a trusted agent or real estate lawyer
Photo for illustrative purposes only.
Image credit: The Smart Local
As laymen, or especially if you’re on your first rodeo, it’s not easy to parse and ensure that you’ve signed an airtight tenancy agreement. You might not even realise that you’ve not protected your rights entirely.
Engaging the help of a property agent or lawyer is your best bet at navigating the legalese of a tenancy agreement, and “don’t rush into it,” Elise suggests, “Make very sure that you’ve checked and documented everything to safeguard yourself against unwarranted claims from dishonest landlords or property managers.”
Other rental tips to consider
Ensure that the agent that you use is verified
Apart from Elise’s suggestions, it’s worth noting that there has been a significant rise in rental scams in Singapore—at least $2.7M was lost to property rental scams in 2024. In many of these cases, scammers would list their contact details on listings shared on social media platforms or rental sites, get the victims’ details, and ask for payment via bank transfer or PayNow, before disappearing.
To avoid falling victim to these ruses, the Singapore Police Force advises that you always verify the identity and registered contact numbers of property agents against the CEA Public Register.
Deals that are too good to be true are unlikely to be real
As the adage goes, “there’s no such thing as a free lunch”, and that stands true when it comes to renting. A deal that sounds too good to be true is probably exactly that: not true. It screams scam when the property that’s advertised is priced much lower than the market rate for the area.
View properties in person
Another tip is to ensure that you personally view the properties that you’re interested in, failing which the next best option would be to have a walkthrough on video call. It’s an immediate red flag if you’re told that you cannot view the property. Check that the agent who’s showing you the property is a verified agent, and not their “colleague” or “assistant” who’s standing in.
Pay landlords directly through verifiable payment modes
Before we get to the matter of rent, here are some very red flags that you should take note of when it comes to matters of payment:
- Do not pay a fee for viewing of properties.
- Do not pay a rental deposit before viewing the property.
- Do not entertain being pressured into making payments.
- All payments should be made directly to the property owner AKA landlord through verifiable modes of payment, such as crossed cheques and direct bank transfers to the landlord.
Go through verified platforms
Most rental scams come about from properties that were listed on platforms such as Facebook Marketplace, Carousell, or other social media platforms. There are no verification checks conducted on these platforms which can provide an extra layer of protection from scams, unlike on property listing sites such as PropertyGuru, 99.co, Rently, and so on.
A tenant’s nightmare with renting in Singapore
Elise had thought that she could live with Suzie’s red flags since she was just renting for a short term—she thought wrong. The milk, in this case, has long spilled, and all the crying in the world will not bring it back. But it’s a PSA to all about the tribulations that could happen if you don’t cover your bases, and ignore the red flags.
For more rental reads:
- Hidden costs of renting in Singapore
- Painfully expensive lessons I learnt from renting out my flat as a first-time landlord
- Guide to renting in Singapore
Cover image adapted from: Unsplash, Petes Hardwood Floors
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