Friday, February 6, 2009

Hocus pocus in this HDB flat

It's not really the house itself but rather the agent who looked for this house. Right now the things that I am about to say are pure speculations or can be considered as hearsay.

We actually assumed and thought that the house we got is legal - that's it period. And right now we are very much in doubts.

When we I arrived in this unit, my first complaint was that my bed is really hurting me. I can feel the steel bar on my back everytime I sleep. So that was a major concern for me. I then told our housemate about it and we planned to discuss it with our agent. She actually came to our flat. We discussed issues that were actually valid in a customer's point of view. There was a confrontation and I hated it. She kept on saying that fully furnished unit would not mean new furniture or appliances. She has appoint but the thing is, it was not comfortable for me or with my other housemates. We were actually complaining about the sink that they have installed, my bed and another housemate's noisy bed. We were complaining of the couch they provided us. After the confrontation, she agreed to buy some bed foam and promised to fix the sink. She then informed our other housemate who were the main tenants that, she did not like me or us who talked to her. She said that we were disrespectful. To my defense, I was not disrespectful, she was just doesn't want to listen nor help us relay the message to the actual owner of the house. The comments that we had was not for her to answer but rather to relay to the owner our concerns.

Well after two weeks she did bought the foams for the bed. They actually fixed the sink which was not what we wanted. But for the effort of making the sink at least stable was a little fine with us. She did not consider the noisy bed of one of the housemates to be replaced. She even told us that the foam purchases for our bed was from her pocket. To my curiosity, why would she have to buy the foam, it should have been the owner doing that. Anyway, I was a little mad and don't want to deal with her anymore.

Few weeks passed and we had another issue. The light in the shower room got faulty and the washing machine was leaking. Come on, after a month of stay things were getting faulty. Based on the contract, minor damages are to be shouldered by us so we followed that. And the leaking washing machine? Hmmmm. We called her attention about it and she told us someone will fix it. And indeed after a week someone fixed it. One thing that got our nerves already is that, that someone could just come in and out of the unit without us present in the house. And another thing is, the utilities or equipment or appliances they provided us were not in good condition. If during end of contract we will be replacing and paying for those things that were damaged which by the way will be sourced from our deposit.

We still had one issue actually. And sorry for making things so negative today. We were asking about the receipt of the rental for the month of January and owner can't provide one. We kept on following up the owner about it and he has so many alibis. We then asked our agent about the receipt. She told us to buy a receipt at a bookstore and then let the owner sign it. I was amazed at how she had the nerve to suggest that. It could be an honest suggestion but it was distasteful to me. So what I did was asked her number from one of the main tenants and sent her an SMS. To be specific, this is what I asked her:

"Good afternun. Sori 4 disturbing u at this time of the d day. This is genesis 1 of d tenants. I would just like to knw f bakit kami pa ang bibili ng receipt kasi gusto ko po yung official. Pag nagkaganun hindi makabigay ng resibo there cud be somethng wrng na sa business na kaduda which cud lead me to ask f registered ba yung flat as 2-1-1 pls po Paki enlighten para po walng doubts at klaro po. thanks and god bless".

For the benefit of those who would not understand what I just wrote above, below is the translation:

"Good afternoon. Sorry for disturbing you at this time of the day. This is Genesis one of the tenants. I would just like to know if why are the ones to buy the receipt. What I want is an official receipt. If in that way, a receipt can not be presented then there could be something wrong of that business which is suspicious, that could lead me to ask if this flat is registered as 2-1-1. Please enlighten so that there would be no doubts and things are clear. Thanks and God bless."

I hope I did the translation understandable.

Anyway, she did not reply to my SMS and instead, sent an SMS to one of the main tenants. She actually told the main tenant that she does not want to talk to us except the main tenants and if I really wanted an official receipt, she suggested that I go directly to the owner's agent. She added that if I want friction, she bets I will have it.

Actually I got so dismayed about it. I was then beginning to think of really looking for a new place and I was asking my housemates about it. I was asking them because if I decide to move out on my own, I need to look for a person that would replace my slot. It can be done actually but it's going to be a hassle as I have work and it's difficult. So I proposed if they'd like to also get another flat for us and I was suggesting that if the majority would decide yes to the idea then we will look for a place. We are at a losing end in this actually because we won't get back the money we deposited and we would again shell out some cash is really difficult at this time.

We are actually planning to scheme and that is a last resort. To entrap the agent we hired to say the words that this unit is not approved so at least we have a proof that we were cheated. The thing is it's their words versus ours and that fact could be twisted and used against us.

I hate these things as I don't want any kind of this mess. But justice has to be served. The agent that we hired who we trusted to look for a unit, if she really was indeed had a bad scheme, conspiring with the owner's agent, just to get a sale or money, then she or they have to be stopped. We were easily cheated if were really cheated just by the plain truth and an admission that we did not expect there are things like this in Singapore. And the biggest mistake we had was trusting everything to the agent we hired.

Next time, we need to be very careful and really asked questions about the background of the agent and the certification of the house and just really check documents.

One last thing, I will reveal the identity of this agent in the near future, if we can see evidence that she was playing us in her palms, to warn others about her acts. I was actually getting paranoid about this. In fact, I was reading about legal stuff about the issue. Too bad I don't have the luxury to hire a very good lawyer. Waha$a$a$a! Wish I had :P Then my lawyer can take care of any legal remedies to this issue.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'm sorry to hear about your bad experience.. My advise is to ask for her agent license if you are suspicious of her.. And I wanna know if you have any bond with her.. If not, please go out and find other place. I'm sure there are a lot of better offers out there.

Anonymous said...

Thanks for the advise Cashmere. I think I will consider that. I am going to ask for the license of this agent. Actually, one of the housemates has a hold of these documents or cards of her.

Anonymous said...

If she is legal, I suggest find a better place.. Really.. Better somewhere else than to put up with a lousy service that you've paid for.

Anonymous said...

Oh btw, u didn't reply to my EC msg.. I hope you read it. Don't forget to drop EC on mine.. :)