engaging you own professional property agent

We recently had a "wake up call" regarding renting in Singapore and I need to pre warn others that may find themselves in a similar situation at some stage.

Let me go back to the day we arrived in Singapore - Friday February 9 2007. We were to stay in a serviced apartment until we could locate a suitable apartment for ourselves.

(this is turning out to be a long posting, feel free to stop reading now if renting in Singapore is not of interest to you!)

We had no one to help us or guide us as to what to do, what the expectations were or what we needed to know about  renting in Singapore. We knew nothing about the process at all.

We 'assumed' we would just contact an estate agent and they would have a list of properties for rent, if we didn't like what they had we would then move on to another agent and keep doing this until we located an apartment that was suitable for us.

This is not the case in Singapore.

Most property companies share the same database of property listings in Singapore. Therefore you should only use only ONE agent at a time. If you approach many agents at the same time, very likely that they will show you the same property. Much confusion and embarrassment will arise if you engage many agents. 

Also by using one agent, you will save valuable time for yourself and the agent. He or she will then understand your needs and requirements after a few viewings. 

But the day after our arrival here we bought the newspaper to look for properties ..... we found a few that might be a possibility, so we got on the train at Orchard MRT going towards Jurong East MRT and stopped at stations along the way until we found an area that we felt comfortable with.

That was how we decided to start with the looking process. We already realised that we would need to be close to the Jurong East MRT as John was to work close by.

By the time we reached Bukit Batok MRT by late morning (Saturday February 10 2007) we felt we had found the 'area' we liked. We wandered around the MRT are and the West Mall Shopping Mall. 

Close by was the condo named THE JADE.

Now this is where we came unstuck, purely because we did not know the correct procedure of contacting an agent.

We liked the look of the condo so asked at the security gate if there were any apartments for rent. They didn't know but gave us the business card of an agent that was close by. They phoned him for us and he came over within 10 minutes with his wife!

He showed us two apartments and the one we liked was on the 18th level with a nice outlook. We said that we would like to rent it.

But it is not a simple yes or no.

First of all we needed to sign a "letter of intent" or LOI for short, is a letter proposing your intention to lease and your requirements to the landlord.  Never knew about this! Not that it was an issue, but comes in handy IF you know what is expected of you ahead of time!

He had to contact the owner who also needs to meet us and we needed to make an appointment for this. So the appointment was made for the following week. We needed to have with us THREE MONTHS RENT. That is a security deposit, one month as good faith deposit and one months rent in advance. This added up to $10,500.00 and we were certainly not expecting to part out with such a large sum of money at that point!

Our mistake was that we did not have our own agent. One that could have explained all this to us, why it was needed etc. But we still did not realise this at that time, we just assumed that this agent (named A) was helping us. Little did we know "A" was actually the owners agent and we had no 'claim' on him at all.

Anyway, we had the appointment with the owner (named "H") and his agent (named "A"). The cheque was given to the agent and we signed the contract for the usual two years.

We were happy at The Jade, we never asked for anything of "H" (The owner) nor of his agent. The owner used our address for private mail and we left it out for him to collect about once a month. One time the shower leaked and he repaired it immediately. So we really had no problem.

He put the rent up from $3500.00 per month to $3750.00 per month when the lease came up for renewal after the two years.

We expected this as most apartments were being rented out at similar prices.

Towards the end of the four years of us being at The Jade, we contacted "H" and "A" to ask what they intended to do as we would be happy to re lease the property if the rental amount was agreeable. But "H" had not decided what he was going to do and he would get back to us by mid December.

I was getting anxious at that point as I knew we needed to locate another place to move to if "H" decided not to lease the property to us again ...... this is also where an agent would and should have helped us. We were still relying on the owners agent.

The end result was that by December 18 the owner told us he wanted the apartment for himself and that we would need to move out. John was overseas at this time for work so I had to think about what we needed to do with moving.

By chance one of our friends here in Singapore is an agent and we made contact for her to help us locate an apartment, which she did. 

In the meantime we had other things to concern ourselves with .....

Moving out of The Jade.

After we packed and moved everything, we still had a month left on the lease, so we spent that time making sure everything was super clean. Even to the extent of employing two cleaners for 8 hours to wash all the walls, windows, doors, floors etc .... we requested that they make the place look like new!

Which they did.

On February 19 we had an appointment with the owner and his agent (A and H!) at the apartment to hand over the keys. They went through everything with a fine tooth comb. 

We were stunned.  

I think what amazes us firstly is that both owner and agent need to be there with us!

We have properties we lease out in Australia and we know what it is like to lease them, but we NEVER interfere with what the agent needs to do. This is why we pay the agents fee's. We NEVER meet the tenant either. So we find it odd here in Singapore that they 'have to meet the prospective tenant'. 

Why do they have an agent then?

Same when we leased the place where we are now, the owners had to come and meet us!

Anyway, I digress.

The owner and agent continued going over every square inch of that apartment. Then they said "what happened to the spa" as one of the plugs was not working. So we explained that we had never turned it on so have no idea. 

Then they went in to the kitchen, one of the gas burners wasn't lighting.  It was when we left a month ago ... maybe it is clogged?

This went on and on for over an hour.

Then the key was handed back, we were told we would receive our deposit in the mail next week and we left.

 BUT ..... we recieved an email from them saying they would deduct $2000.00 from the deposit to pay for the damage!!!

Here is the email with my comments as well:

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a)Deep scratches on the parquet flooring in front of the  bedroom no 1  ( entrance)  (nearest to the master bedroom) and deep localised  scratches below the beds of bedroom no  2, master bed room    and  front of wardrobe ..

I accept the one small surface scratch in study area done by the cleaners ..... I do not know of ANY scratches on the floor in the master bedroom. None at all.

b) Cooker hoob at kitchen  - one  main burner cannot be lighted up and missing part with holes - see photos  

Accept burner not working as it was not working at inspection. It WAS working at time of leaving the apartment on Jan 14.

The 'missing part' I accept as I threw it out. It was the small manufacturers label, it never stayed on ... ever. Every time it was cleaned (from day one) it fell off. It NEVER was fixed. It was loose.

c) Spa Bath at master bathroom  - One Pump jet,  strainer and pop up waste not working

Do NOT accept this, but I have to as it did not work at time of inspection. We NEVER EVER used it. It probably did not work when we moved in. But we have no proof.

d) There is a crack at the edge of wall color glass - bedroom 2 -see photo

I see this and have seen it there for 4 years. It was not done at time we lived there. Certainly not done by us. That I know. It may have 'happened' due to shift in the building. Again, no proof!

e) Scratches in the  front main door - see photo

Yes ... I know about this. The very small surface scratches have been there for 4 years. The reason they now 'stand out' is that after the doors were 'repaired' by the management at The Jade (re rusting of metal strips) I cleaned the doors down thoroughly and then used furniture polish to brighten them up. Unfortunately, the scratches became 'visible' due to the polish on the doors. Perhaps I should NEVER have cleaned them or tried to make it look nice!

These should have all been picked up while we were there during inspection time.     Not AFTER!!!!
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My reason for bringing this up is to pre warn others about leasing / renting in Singapore. We had no proof that the damage was not done by us, we felt we were badly treated over the whole issue.

The most important lesson we learned over all this is that you MUST ENGAGE YOUR OWN AGENT and not rely on the owners agent as his priority is to the owner not you. 

Unfortunately we never realised this, not once were we told that he was the owners agent and by being so, he could not stand by us or support us in any way.

By engaging you own professional property agent in Singapore who will assist you and protect your interest throughout the purchase, secure the offer for you at the best possible price will you be treated fairly. With a much better knowledge of Singapore, the agent will be in a better position to recommend and advice on the choice of property. He or she will also ensure that all documents are in order and you are dealing with the rightful owner of the property.

Only if they are incompetence, unresponsive or not showing the correct property you wanted, then start to look for another agent.

They are there to help YOU where and when possible.

I know this is a long posting and in part a bit of a gripe from me, but if it helps just one person here in Singapore obtain their perfect apartment with the help of a good agent, then I am happy!

Feel free to contact me if you would like the name of the agent we used for the apartment we now live in. We were very happy with the service provided and felt that she was there to support us through the whole procedure.