Not photography related but need help about greedy landlord


YeHein

New Member
Mar 7, 2010
103
0
0
Hi guys I'm a foreign student here and I dunno where to ask about these things so i posted here.. hope somebody can give some advices

I wanna ask a question regarding to after home lease expiry, now the landlord is going to minus general cleaning $350, furniture disposal -240 and varnish 6 doors -180, total $770 from deposit. Is it legally valid to do so? We already cleaned the home before hand but they said not satisfactory but now charge excessive amount from us.

thanks in advance
 

Hi guys I'm a foreign student here and I dunno where to ask about these things so i posted here.. hope somebody can give some advices

I wanna ask a question regarding to after home lease expiry, now the landlord is going to minus general cleaning $350, furniture disposal -240 and varnish 6 doors -180, total $770 from deposit. Is it legally valid to do so? We already cleaned the home before hand but they said not satisfactory but now charge excessive amount from us.

thanks in advance

get a contractor/agent down to take a look and see if really got such thing.

i dun see a reason why general cleaning, furniture disposal and varnish need cost so much. unless they steam clean (which is also not so ex), furnuiture disposal (i give 5 bucks angbao to the cleaner at my hdb, we all clear), and varnish (thin layer. they use what varnish? gold?), i dun see how it amounts to so much...
 

get a contractor/agent down to take a look and see if really got such thing.

i dun see a reason why general cleaning, furniture disposal and varnish need cost so much. unless they steam clean (which is also not so ex), furnuiture disposal (i give 5 bucks angbao to the cleaner at my hdb, we all clear), and varnish (thin layer. they use what varnish? gold?), i dun see how it amounts to so much...

If you live in HDB furniture disposal not an issue, town council will take care. If you live in private property than you need to engage someone to throw it for you. If you leave on road side on near garbage bin MCST can charge you for disposal. It worse if your furniture has big glass/mirror on it for sure it will cost $$$ to dispose.
 

Last edited:
I never heard landlord can charge those expenses to the tenant....reasonable wear and tear of fix asset is expected.....they can't be at the same condition after using for a few years.....and normally the 1 mth deposit is to offset the last month's rental......when the time is up....the tenant will handover the key and move out amicably...that's it :sweat:
 

If you live in HDB furniture disposal not an issue, town council will take care. If you live in private property than you need to engage someone to throw it for you. If you leave on road side on near garbage bin MCST can charge you for disposal. It worse if your furniture has big glass/mirror on it for sure it will cost $$$ to dispose.

but pretty much tahts all right? i find the other charges ridiculous. somemore give u free furniture u still wanna complain:angry:
 

Sounds like they are trying to squeeze more $$$ out of you. It's B.S.
 

I never heard landlord can charge those expenses to the tenant....reasonable wear and tear of fix asset is expected.....they can't be at the same condition after using for a few years.....and normally the 1 mth deposit is to offset the last month's rental......when the time is up....the tenant will handover the key and move out amicably...that's it :sweat:

Depending on agreement, there are cases where the deposit is not used for final month of tenure.

Rather, the tenant will still pay during the last month, the landlord will refund the deposit at the end of the stay, minus expenses deducted for "damages".

However, fair wear and tear shouldn't be charged to the tenant. Unfortunately, "fair" is a subjective term, an amicable compromise is needed.

Without more information, it does seemed to me that the landlord is overcharging.
 

Hi guys I'm a foreign student here and I dunno where to ask about these things so i posted here.. hope somebody can give some advices

I wanna ask a question regarding to after home lease expiry, now the landlord is going to minus general cleaning $350, furniture disposal -240 and varnish 6 doors -180, total $770 from deposit. Is it legally valid to do so? We already cleaned the home before hand but they said not satisfactory but now charge excessive amount from us.

thanks in advance

Everything is in the contract.

Don't you know this?

Based on the usual, the landlord *can* charge you for any general repairs and cleaning required beyond normal wear and tear.
 

I never heard landlord can charge those expenses to the tenant....reasonable wear and tear of fix asset is expected.....they can't be at the same condition after using for a few years.....and normally the 1 mth deposit is to offset the last month's rental......when the time is up....the tenant will handover the key and move out amicably...that's it :sweat:

Wrong.

The 1 month deposit is to cater for such a circumstance where the tenant refuses to pay for any damages.

1 month deposit is already mild, when I was a student in Europe, some landlords had asked for up to 3 months' deposit.

By the way, when I signed my contract I changed so many things, even stating a clause that the cleaning charges had to be agreed upon by both parties before done.

You can never be too careful. If your signature is there agreeing to certain terms and conditions, the law binds you to the contract unless the contract was done up unreasonably in the first place. Even then, most people are not going to go to the trouble to pursue otherwise.
 

Last edited:
The landlord is just trying to squeeze a few hundred dollars more.

Where is our in house counsel when we need him.

My previouys landlord tried the same thing. I asked her to send me the quote. I went to the same company and asked for similar quotes which came back 60% less.

I confronted the agent, and told her to fly kite. I want 100% of my deposit back or else. She said, or else what ... well, I told her she will just have to find out.

I got all but $100 back, which is about $2K less than the greedy landlord/agent tried to squeeze from me ... too tired to fight that.
 

but pretty much tahts all right? i find the other charges ridiculous. somemore give u free furniture u still wanna complain:angry:

Hello, sometimes the free furniture you don't want to use, or the furniture is super cui...

I left everything in there that was in there when I moved in, got rid of everything else I added. Why give people an excuse to levy charges on you??? Some of my schoolmates' furniture have really seen better days - why would the landlord want to keep it around?
 

Last edited:
My previouys landlord tried the same thing. I asked her to send me the quote. I went to the same company and asked for similar quotes which came back 60% less.

I confronted the agent, and told her to fly kite. I want 100% of my deposit back or else. She said, or else what ... well, I told her she will just have to find out.

You can do that, but some landlords put a clause in the contract to specify that cleaning will be done by professional cleaners at cost of tenant. Here if contract lies in favour of landlord, tenant can only dispute the fairness of those charges as you had done.

Everything's in the contract, suggest TS just look at it, see if he screwed himself over by signing the document happily without a second look and arguing some changes...

I have experienced landlords who try to sneak in a clause about "inventory checks" being done by a professional company... :bsmilie:
 

Last edited:
Does the general cleaning includes air con servicing and curtain washing ? Typically if you have air con units and curtains , you will need to do a clean up before you hand over unit. Aircon servicing is not ex la around 20 bucks per unit. The curtains cleaning will be very ex . One time cleaning will cost 100 plus depending on the weight of the curtains plus installation after cleaning.

The painting on the doors is off la unless you scratched it hence they need to varnish it .

As rightfully pointed out the deposit you place is not meant to offset rent but for the landlord to hold the amount until they inspect the house and see if there's any damages made to the premise. This also include cost of removing any installations you have made.

In singapore ," if the lease term is lesser than 12 months , landlord will ask for 1 month deposit. If it's 2 years then it will be 2 months. Etc

I suggest TS to talk to your landlord and verify the charges. Ask them to give you a itemized billing for all the services. The doors you can argue la if you didn't damage them at all.

Furniture disposal you can volunteer to clear it , I think the cost is around 100 plus and not so ex.
 

Last edited:
Hello, sometimes the free furniture you don't want to use, or the furniture is super cui...

I left everything in there that was in there when I moved in, got rid of everything else I added. Why give people an excuse to levy charges on you??? Some of my schoolmates' furniture have really seen better days - why would the landlord want to keep it around?

yea, i guess self dumping those stuff would be a smarter choice:think:

but still, it feels like a rip off, the prices:rolleyes:
 

general cleaning $350- too ex
furniture disposal -240- a bit high
varnish 6 doors -180- fair
Is it legally valid to do so?- yes

its not greed n its mild compare to the likes of NYC or HK.
to those who insist its greed, u r either never a landlord or u r a foreigner,
AND we hv not even hv a look condition of the place now.

TS, show us a pic or 2.
 

AND we hv not even hv a look condition of the place now.

TS, show us a pic or 2.

I remember my friend ranting to me about what his tenants did to his place...

I have been to his place, before he leased it, the kitchen was beautiful.

After 2 years of tenancy, where he probably took a too hands-off approach, he was handed back a kitchen with water stains all over the place, wet cabinets with mould, and to top it off, the ceiling had sustained too much steam or something, I'm not sure what they did... Basically one portion of it had been ruined and was dropping little bits of ceiling now and then. The tenants had very thoughtfully hammered a few nails into his built-in cabinets to hold a cloth stretched to collect the bits of debris in case he wanted to cook there. :bsmilie:
 

I remember my friend ranting to me about what his tenants did to his place...

I have been to his place, before he leased it, the kitchen was beautiful.

After 2 years of tenancy, where he probably took a too hands-off approach, he was handed back a kitchen with water stains all over the place, wet cabinets with mould, and to top it off, the ceiling had sustained too much steam or something, I'm not sure what they did... Basically one portion of it had been ruined and was dropping little bits of ceiling now and then. The tenants had very thoughtfully hammered a few nails into his built-in cabinets to hold a cloth stretched to collect the bits of debris in case he wanted to cook there. :bsmilie:

my house was worst. My 2nd floor parquet near the bathroom area was totally soak with water and all the wooden pieces mouldy and a lot of them came off. Hall's lights fixtures was gone and my water tank burst.

Thats after 4 years of renting out. The 1 month's deposit is not even enough to clean up the mess let along repair the whole house. (Landed terrace house)


There are always 2 side of the story. When i was renting a house when I'm studying, we make sure we maintain the place in tip top condition. Landlord happy and we also happy.
 

Always 2 sides to the story but yeah that sounds very excessive. I've always received my deposit back living in so many countries because I made sure I could trust the landlords first. I know I'm already a good tenant but I'm always worried about getting scammed in this way.
 

but pretty much tahts all right? i find the other charges ridiculous. somemore give u free furniture u still wanna complain:angry:

If someone wants to give you something that you do not want and that you have to spend money clearing later, will you still sing this tune I wonder?
 

I never heard landlord can charge those expenses to the tenant....reasonable wear and tear of fix asset is expected.....they can't be at the same condition after using for a few years.....and normally the 1 mth deposit is to offset the last month's rental......when the time is up....the tenant will handover the key and move out amicably...that's it :sweat:

I hope you practice this when it is time for you to rent out your property, then you will understand the impossibility of what you suggest.