Doing some advert for my friend CK here. We’re featured in Wicked, a home concept bi-annual mag.
Also featured in the website of Equip Bathrooms, whom I had bought most of my sanitary ware from.
http://www.equip-bathrooms.com/projects.html
Do let me know if you have any design needs and I shall link you up with CK.
Nanoo nanoo, and a good day to you!
🙂
It’s been 4+ months since moving in. First month or so was spent dealing with all a lot of touch up work by the contractors … a lot of touch up work. Suffice to say that the subcon that did the painting was really bad and a lot of remedial works were necessary. And before we know it, CNY had come and gone and now just about started getting friends over for dinners and gatherings bit by bit.
Give that this blog is about life in and around happy street, I’d talk more about the food and surroundings, etc. in the next posts. For now, it’s time to reflect on the one year I had in a rental apartment, through 2013, and I’m glad I don’t have to deal with landlords anymore, or rather, this one at least.
Suffice to say, I had a blardly cheapskate landlord. In Hokkien, we call this very ‘chow kuan’.
When I sold my previous apartment at Jln Teck Whye back in late 2012, I didn’t want to rush into buying another unit. So I decided to rent. Back then, my agent was quick to give me a rental option, an apartment next to Punggol MRT station. It’s a 4-room flat. I could rent 2 bedrooms and the landlord would not be back often. For the price it was on offer, even with the inconvenience of technically not having the whole flat, it was an enticing option. Train from Punggol into town was only 35mins. I now get to office at Raffles Place, door to door, in 45mins thereabouts. Way better than slightly over one hour from Jln Teck Whye, where I had to take a LRT from Pheonix to CCK, then train from CCK to Jurong East, then Jurong East to Raffles Place.
I should’ve known from the start that this landlord is ‘chow kuan’, cos the day before we were to meet to sign the lease agreement, he suddenly asked my agent to say they wanted us to take the 2 other bedrooms, not incl. the master bedroom. I of course could not agree. The master bedroom was to be for my dad. So he used the opportunity to raise the rent slightly. As it was still below market rental, I reluctantly agreed. I expressed my unhappiness to my agent, but decided not to prolong any negotiations since the landlord is my agent’s friend, and the landlord wasn’t gonna pay him any commissions as it assumed his friend was gonna do him a favour.
The agreement we had was that he was only gonna come back maybe once a week, probably only on weekends. The day we signed the agreement, we mentioned this point as well. I remembered joking that I’d be happy to share a beer with him watching football, he being a scouser fan (another point that should have alerted me … hahah). My agent can bear testament to this. The reason why he said he was renting this unit out was because he had been staying with his parents while waiting for his flat and in the meantime, his kid arrived and he didn’t want to change the situation as they are used to having their parents help take care. So I thought it was a win-win, thought he was trying to do best by his kid while not losing out on a mistake he didn’t forsee, while I save a little (not a lot) on rental, short term, as I had not intended to stay more than 6 months to begin with.
However, from the very start, he was coming back a couple of times a week, on weekdays, not weekends as they’ve said. It was a huge inconvenience as we definitely did not have the privacy as agreed and they definitely had habits I didn’t like, such as walking into the flat with their shoes (which meant I had to always f****** clean up after them) and their toilet habits were not to my liking and always left the toilet door open after use. I made noise to my agent, who was only able to offer pitiful excuses. Whenever they come back, husband and wife, they lock themselves in their room and only come out to go to the toilet. Sometimes they came back one evening and stay in there for 48 hrs at a go, aircon on. I ever knocked on the door to pass him some letters and peeked inside to see that they had a TV and fridge in there. Definitely prepared to camp and not be back only once a week as they had said.
After a few protestations to my agent, this piece of shit finally sent me a text to ask if he needed me to share part of the cost of utilities. That was in March. I said its ok, and wanted him to feel bad and not come back as often anymore. Unfortunately, I am still not very ‘Singaporean’ according to my agent, for this piece of shit couple started coming home even more often. From 2x a week average to 3x. I was about to confront him when in April, the notice from the HDB to start season parking in May appeared. I knew there and then that they would come back even more now for the month of April and true enough, they increased to 4x a week average. But come 1st May, voila! The frequency dropped to 2x a month. The savings on electricity did not outweigh the parking costs. Blardy cheapskates. I really wondered what kind of parents they were. Most parents could not leave the sight of their kids when they go to work in the mornings, and these scums were happy to not see their kid for days just to take advantage of a few extra bucks!
By then I was already in the process of buying my new place and I told my agent to not tell my landlord, as I don’t want him to start finding ways and means to come back and stay to take advantage of the utilities costs, while more importantly costing me my privacy and annoying me to no end. My agent also finally admitted to me that he knew that this ‘friend’ of his is a cheapskate bast*** who never pay for the coffee or food ordered. His favourite trick was when the coffee or food at the coffee shop was about to be delivered, as the server walks over, he’d pick up the phone to make a call and walk away, while his friends make the payment, and he’d conveniently forget to pay them after.
Fast forward to late Aug. I told him finally that I bought a place and will move out in 2 months. They then started coming back average 3x a week ever since. No point arguing with such a**holes, though I wondered how he is avoiding paying for parking to offset costs savings … or maybe he figured he could gain an advantage if he stayed and used to appliances more for there were a few days they seemed to be in there for more than 48 hrs at a stretch. So I decided to adopt the loanshark tactics (having been victims before). Harass thy neighbour! I texted my agent so frequently voicing my displeasure and threatening to ask for rental refund that he got the message big time and confronted my landlord. Apparently landlord still made excuses … but he stopped coming back … or rather, cut it back down to once a week. We’ll see … agent said, ‘you are too nice, he takes advantage’ … well, no more Mr Nice Guy! I’m pissed and sick of being taken advantage of, just because I am ‘NICE’!
In any case, I’m glad in outta there. 🙂
Ciao for now.
Nb. An interesting point Shan and I observed was that we had met the landlord’s wife in the first meeting to sign the agreement, but the lady whom we have had glimpses of when they came back together didn’t seem to match our recollection. I’m not saying anything … Shan and I are probably mistaken … but just saying … 🙂
Time to open some of these nice old whiskeys for after dinner parties …
Living In And Around Happy Street 