The Great Expat Rental Scam in Singapore

As told to RAC. Text messages have been verified by RAC. The written account has been edited for length and clarity. All names have been changed.
 
At this point in time, we’re still battling our ex-landlord in the Small Claims Court, but we now have sufficient information on how the scam works. We hope this can help other renters out there to be careful when they are renting. 

​What the Landlord is After

Ultimately, the landlord’s objective is to retain your two-month security deposit. This is not a small sum for anyone, no matter how wealthy you are. 

​Who is Ideal for the Scam?

Who is less likely to request for their deposit back, if what the tenant is facing is months of court and paperwork at the small claims court?
​
You’ve guessed it: Expats, who might need to leave the country and not renew the lease. Many expats also enjoy generous allowances for housing and might not be too concerned about losing two month’s rent. 

​Beware the Courtship/Love-Bombing Phase

Love it or hate it, landlords love having expats as their tenants, not only because they feel expats can afford their asking price, but also because of the reason mentioned above.

The agent will likely be very complimentary about your “profile”. They are very friendly, perhaps even suggesting you’d do things together outside of this transaction. They will tell you they are picking you out of many other renters because they really like you.

They make you feel so good you don’t even realise this is not normal. 

​Evidence of Your Happiness

Our landlord made sure he took lots of photos of us looking happy with the house on the day he handed over the property to us.

These photos are kept and later shown in court to demonstrate how happy we were with the house.
​
This is completely irrelevant to the case we later filed with the court when the landlord refused to return any of our 2-month security deposit. But it’s a nice story to tell the judge.

​Not Changing Their Mailing Address

As part of the scam, the landlord will need to take photos of how you are using the property. Any slight deviation from how they handed the property over to you will be documented, if they have an opportunity to enter the property.

For instance, one tenant had a weed that was growing on the fence/boundary. The landlord took a photo of that and later claimed the tenants were ruining the property.

What does this have to do with the landlord’s mailing address?

This is especially problematic if you’re renting a landed house. The landlord will use collecting mail as an excuse to visit the property and document “abuse” in their eyes.
​
Always insist on the landlord changing their mailing address. You have a right to enjoy the property in peace, as stated in the tenancy agreement. 

​Giving You Multiple Opportunities to Renew the Lease

In this scenario, you tell the landlord you’re not renewing the lease. You’d think that’s the end of it, but you’d be wrong.

The landlord will pretend you’ve never mentioned it and start telling you how they would love for you to stay. After a few more iterations of this, the landlord would finally stop offering.
​
This landlord will now be seething. That’s when the scam goes into full gear.

​Where Are You Moving To?

The scam relies on you leaving the country. The landlord will try their best to learn if you are indeed moving to another country.
​
Most expats leaving the country wouldn’t bother going to the small claims court to pursue a case to retrieve their 2-month deposit. 

​Reluctance to Do an Inspection 2 Weeks Prior to Handover

A good practice before handing over the property back to the landlord is to have the landlord do an inspection 2 weeks prior to the handover date. This is to give you time to get contractors in to fix things before the handover.
​
When a landlord is reluctant to do that, the landlord doesn’t want to give you an opportunity to fix what they perceive as defects so that they can use those defects as arsenal in their case against you.

​The 3-Hour Handover

The length sounds ridiculous, but this is a key component of the scam. In this article, we’ve documented how the 3-hour handover works in favour of the landlord. But here are the highlights:

• Landlord is mute or speaks very little
• Photos of each tiny scratch or mark are taken
• Landlord refuses to discuss defects on the spot

​Refusal to Return Security Deposit

The landlord usually has 14 days to return your 2-month security according to most tenancy agreements.

If the landlord doesn’t respond during the 14 days to your enquiries about how much the landlord is deducting from your deposit for defects, you would then know the landlord intends to keep the entire deposit.

You might get a response from the landlord after the 14 days has passed to tell you they won’t be returning your deposit, while producing “evidence” of you destroying the property.
​
To amp up the pressure, they might claim to have called the police on various unrelated matters. At this point, you will feel gaslighted if you’ve not committed any crimes. But the real objective is to make you feel fear and intimidation, and ultimately drop your request to have your deposit returned to you.

The Landlord’s “Defenses” in the Small Claims Tribunal

The time and effort required of you to make a case against the landlord is extensive and mentally exhausting. This is because the landlord will use a combination of magical thinking, character assassinations and threats to make their case, which you have to respond to, no matter how ludicrous their “evidence” are.

Again, the whole objective is to overwhelm both you and the judge with a barrage of irrelevant accusations so that you will feel like giving up the case.

At this point, if you do, the landlord has won and the scam has worked.
​
To prevent this from happening in the first place, read Red Flags to Watch for During Viewings for Renters and Why the Agent Shouldn’t Also Be Your Landlord.
 
Help advance the rights of renters: Sign our petition