Renting a house

[MMM]

After seeing the LOI that we signed, we need to refund in full. New learning.

[Atan]

Dear MMM,


I am sorry to hear about the potential tenant that U had. The Letter of Intent is usually quite simple and the one you had sign was obviously in the favor of the tenant. In general, the deposit would be confiscated by landlord if tenant is to change his mind. I have had 4 tenants over 10 yrs and so is quite experienced.

On quality of tenants, I had good experience w European tenant (Holland) who took v good care of my house. My worst experience was with an Indian couple, a Lawyer and a Doctor ( good looking Professionals with one kid, a maid n mother) who only rented my house for a year but turned it into a total disaster… 1cm dirt on fan, filthy walls, cooker covered with stains that could never be removed, broken furniture, etc… When we retained part of the deposit due to the damages, the lawyer even issued us a legal letter!! So, it was really stressful. I also have HK tenant who are in general picky and want their $$ worth, but they take adequate care of the house.

Since U r letting out yr place, it is important that you take photos and state down every details before rental, incase of dispute / claimds at the end of lease.

[MMM]

Hi Atan,


Thanks so much for sharing. I know this can sound abit racist esp on website but I think the intent here is not to be racist but rather identify the particular group that make bad tenants.

Concidentally? I do hear the same thing on indian tenants and it’s not just once but many times. In fact when agents call me, they would ask if I am ok for indian tenants. Eg the case on my ex-colleagues and also my aunt who is a housing agent also related to me an incident with her indian tenant who is a professional with a Int’l IT firm (eg. some director level). It was a brand new unit and when he handover after 1 yr as he was posted to HCM, there was a big scratch on the parquet flooring. He acted very hostile and in a rather barbaric manner when they wanted to retain part of the deposit for that & other things. Even pick up a fight with the landlord’s brother who was helping on the handover. I’ve been to India several times for biz and yes, culturally when there is a road accident people would get off their vehicle and do physically fighting other just got to restrain them… But I think we are not ready to do that.

Last nite, a indian tenant came to have a look at our place and though he offered us, we are like really hesitant as though our house is 8 yrs old, it is tenanted for the 1st time and the agents all grade it as excellent condition and quality furnishing so we are very concerned with the type of tenant we are getting too.

Have you heard anything on filippinos so far? So far I find that culturally, they seem to be nicer. I had a group on sat and they loved the house so much but they can only start in end Sept which is like financially we cannot be worse off by 1 month just for waiting for them.

Yes, the LOI when we read was more subjected to the TA being signed so we had "no rights" to forfeit. This was infact by ERA and somehow I saw the one from DTZ and it seems to favor the landlord more. I take it as a key learning for us when we sign the next LOI such as defining the stipulated dates much earlier. But in any case, we choose to believe that theirs was a genuine case so we also do not want to forfeit their $ either.

Thanks for the tips on the pics part, I will make sure I do that with every possible corner of the house I can think of and probably document that together with the TA?

[Atan]

Hi MMM,


U r right that the details of house should be attached to TA, so with this, any potential tenant would take better care of yr hse.

I agree that we are not being racist and we did not hesitate at all in renting our place to the Ind professionals, actually the lawyer is local and Doc is a PR, originally fm Srilanka. Before we handed over the hse, the Doc’s parents, who stayed at D10 actually inspected our hse, to make sure that the dwelling was good enough for their daughter… but our judgement was wrong…

We have not heard of Flilipino tenants but they should be home loving people? If you can get Angmoh tenants, they are usually good tenants…

[MMM]

Unfortunately no… the 1st guy who viewed our house is a Poland pilot who offered but we didn’t accept.


Haha i described this whole thing as like finding the right man. The 1st came along and you weren’t sure if he is the right guy (eg. can fetch higher price,etc…) so you let him go and then just wait and wait. So now, we are still here ; )

Anyway, we have a viewing with a local couple tonite. I am hoping we find someone good. I will definitely start to take pics this weekends and get it developed in time for any TA.

[ChiefKiasu]

MMM:

...Thanks for the tips on the pics part, I will make sure I do that with every possible corner of the house I can think of and probably document that together with the TA?

Just a small contrib, make sure the photos are dated not more than a few days prior to the handover. Even better... get the tenant to sign on them.