Singapore Property Weekly Issue 321

Issue 321
Copyright 2011-2016 www.propwise.sg. All Rights Reserved.

CONTENTS FROM THE
EDITOR
Welcome to the 321st edition of the
Singapore Property Weekly.
p2 4 Types of Tenants from Hell and How
Hope you like it!
to Deal With Them Mr. Propwise
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SINGAPORE PROPERTY WEEKLY Issue 321
4 Types of Tenants from Hell and How to Deal

With Them
By Property Soul (guest contributor) Try again.If you have been a landlord before,
you would agree with me that having no
tenant is still better than having bad tenants.
As the saying goes, being single is far better
than being stuck in a bad relationship.
Another tenant from hell
Last month I went for a haircut with my usual

hairdresser and opened a can of worms by
mistake.
Whats the biggest headache of first time How long do you want to cut at the back?
landlords?
Around 1 inch.
A slow economy? Soft market? SIBOR rise?
Bad agent? No tenant? Sure.
Back to Contents Page | 2

Are you still staying at Jurong East? I Thats how the new landlord started the
shouldnt have started this. It was all my fault. endless complaints.
No, Ive moved to Toa Payoh did I tell you Since he didnt bargain, I agreed to pay for
that I finally bought a flat? the utility bill. But whenever hes at home, he
turns on the aircon at full blast. When he
Congrats! Its nice to have your own place.
takes a shower, he leaves the water running
I have a spare room so I decided to rent it non-stop for at least 20 minutes.
out.
Never mind the fact that his room is a big
Good to have a tenant helping to pay the mess. But my living room, corridors and
loan. kitchen are all fully stuffed with his personal
Thats what I thought too. This young guy belongings. Its difficult for anyone to move
coming for flat viewing has good manners around the flat.
and a decent job. Whats more, he didnt I felt my hair at the back being trimmed from
bargain about the rent. left to right. Then the pair of scissors moved
Thats good. Its difficult to find a good again from right to left.
tenant, isnt it? Hes like a 10-year-old leaving behind left-
You are right. Its only after he moved in that over food, used utensils and dirty clothes,
I realized what a big mistake Ive made. waiting for others to clean up after him.

Dirtying and messing up the place are his mortgage, management fee, utility bill, cable
routine. Cleaning and tidying up become my TV, WiFi
duties.
The scissors went non-stop and I could feel
My tenant enjoys listening to music and more hair has gone.
watching TV at the loudest possible volume.
Could you stop
Not to mention his friends who like to visit any
time of the day I cant just stop the contract. Its one-year
fixed. To be honest, I cant even stand him for
As my hairdresser continued to whine, I felt
six months!
another round of trimming from left to right.
Oh no, save some of my hair! By the time the grumpy landlord was finally
done, I lost at least five inches of my hair.
I think its enough
I really cut a lot this time. The hairdresser
Enough? Ive had enough. I put it clearly in
said this while looking at my hair on the floor.
the contract that rent must be paid on the last
day of every month. But he has never been Yeah. I think I dont have to come back for a
punctual. He has a different excuse every few months. Thanks for helping me to save
time. You know I am the one who pay for the money.

Solutions to tackle common types of Sounds familiar?

difficult tenants
Which landlord is not complaining about
Many first-time landlords think its a simple declining rentals and rising vacancy rates
thing to buy a property and lease it for these days? Who is to blame for too many
passive income. What they fail to see is: The newly-TOP projects and too few good
moment their role changes from an owner to tenants?
a landlord, the problems have just started.
Solution: Knowledge is power. Check theURA
I have been a landlord since 2002 and have website for recent rental transactions in the
my fair share of experiences handling difficult same condo or nearby projects. Use it as a
tenants. Below are four types of tenants from neutral fact for negotiation.
hell commonly found in Singapore:
Ask potential tenants to prioritize their
1. Tenants who like to bargain requests. Consider any ask with a valid
reason.
They want to pay the lowest possible rent but
need a king-size bed, a 3+2 sofa set, a 43- Keep rental properties in tip-top condition.
inch LED TV and a new washer-dryer. With strong competition, poorly maintained
properties are only giving tenants excuses to
They ask for 30 percent discount of the
bargain for lower rent.
current rent to renew the rental contract, but
can only commit on a month-by-month basis.

2. Tenants who attract complaints State clearly in the rental contract that the
tenant is to be responsible for all minor
Ever receive any complaint about your tenant
repairs and routine maintenance of the
from a neighbor or the management office? It
premises not exceeding $150.
can be making too much noise, or cooking
curries too often. 3. Tenants who are always late
On the other hand, some tenants have a When landlords check with tenants for late
tendency to call their landlords every other rental payment, replies can range from I
week for all sorts of things unfriendly thought I had paid to sorry I forgot, let me
neighbors; how-to-use problems; aircon/water check with my company, very busy lately,
heater/light bulb/door lock not working currently out of town or having financial
difficulties.
Solution: Whatever the cause of complaint
about or from your tenant, landlords have the Whatever the excuse is, once the tenant is
responsibility to settle them immediately. allowed to slip payment once, it is very likely
Gather all the facts and find out the source of to become a repeated offense.
the complaint. Have a trusted property agent
Remember: The most important task of a
to act as the intermediary.
landlord is to collect the rent from the tenant
File and pass to the tenant the instruction on time. Any late or missed payment will
menu of all the appliances in the property. directly impact the ROI of the property.

Solution: I have an article in my book No B.S. sublet to 10 other tenants.

Guide to Property Investment on How to
Or the tenant may want to make some pocket
avoid late or missed payments from tenants.
money by listing the rented flat in Airbnb for
Ask tenants to settle rent by automatic short-term stay of foreigners traveling in
transfer. Payment by cheque must be sent 5 Singapore.
days in advance. For multiple property
According to URAs rules on renting out
landlords, standardize payment date on the
private residential properties, it is against the
1st or 15th day of the month.
law to rent out a private property (including a
Allow a grace period of 5 days before sending room) for less than 6 months on a daily,
a reminder. Remember to mention interest weekly or monthly basis. Any partitioning to
charged on late payment (12 percent per create more rooms in a rented flat is illegal.
annum for rent unpaid for longer than 7 days Each occupant must have at least 10 sqm of
or as specified in the contract). Never let any space. The maximum number of occupants in
tenant get behind rent for more than 30 days. a residential unit is 8.
4. Tenants who break rules Solution: Always check the passport,

employment contract, business registration,
The landlord thinks that his property is leased
etc. of new tenants to avoid housing illegal
to a single or a couple, only to find out later it
immigrants.
has been partitioned into 5 smaller units to

Specify in the contract to disallow Before signing up a new tenant, always

unauthorized subletting or alteration without conduct a thorough background check
written consent of the landlord. Also state that employment letter, credit report and
if the tenant uses the property for subletting, references from the previous landlords.
alteration or illegal activities, the landlord will
One last thing: If your tenant has broken any
exercise immediate eviction.
rule in the contract and you need an eviction,
Keeping trouble-making tenants at bay sooner is better than later to get rid of him
before he can do further damage to the
The above are not isolated incidents and can
premise and the ROI of your property.
happen to any landlord. Prevention is better
than cure. We would like to believe that most By guest contributor Property Soul, a
tenants are good ones. Thats why it is the successful property investor, blogger, and
responsibility of landlords and their property author of the No B.S. Guide to Property
agents to screen that one percent of black Investment.
sheep in the rental market.


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Issue 321

Copyright 2011-2016 www.propwise.sg. All Rights Reserved.

4 Types of Tenants from Hell and How to Deal

Another tenant from hell

Last month I went for a haircut with my usual

Back to Contents Page | 2

Back to Contents Page | 3

Back to Contents Page | 4

Solutions to tackle common types of Sounds familiar?

Back to Contents Page | 5

Back to Contents Page | 6

Solution: I have an article in my book No B.S. sublet to 10 other tenants.

4. Tenants who break rules Solution: Always check the passport,

Back to Contents Page | 7

Specify in the contract to disallow Before signing up a new tenant, always

Back to Contents Page | 8

Back to Contents Page | 9

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