Kiasuism = Irrational threats?

Today has proved it. My Landlord is the most Kiasu person I know (or the most ridiculous) because he threatened to take legal action against me for not being available at 4pm today to let prospective tenants view the place! Or that's how it seemed... I'm rather offended actually, but also find it rather amusing . Now all of his past behaviours and him refusing me to leave one month early all kind of makes sense... especially now I know he's asking for a monthly rental of $2800 for the place (I'm paying freaking $3600!!!!!... Yes I know it's really expensive, I guess I got cheated and taken advantage for being a foreigner?)

I mean I know Singaporeans are very "Kiasu" but seriously? Legal action? What could I possibly be charged for? Having a life? Not being present in my own home? Or trying to reorganise a viewing for the prospective tenants?

Which brings me to think that the Singaporean "Kiasu" mentality makes them think and act irrationally and suffer from unnecessary paranoia? That, or my Landlord is just an arse.

Click the Post title to find out how/why my Landlord threatened me with legal action.


So here's the story:

Yesterday my agent messaged me to say there were people interested in viewing the property (my tenancy is up on June 15th) and says if 4pm tomorrow is OK?

I knew that I wouldn't be in at 4pm, so asked my other housemates if they would be free around that time. One of them said they would. So I replied to my agent saying that 4pm is fine.

Then, today, something came up for my housemate and he told me that he couldn't be home in the afternoon, so this meant that no one would be home for people to view the place.

So I messaged the agent telling her the situation and asked if it's possible to postpone or set another day? Then I was busy for an hour or so and was unable to hear and check my phone during this time. Then when I was free, I checked my phone and received 2 texts from my agent, 1 text from my Landlord and 3 missed calls from him too.

The agent's message said she had already confirmed with the other party, it's late notice to cancel, confirmation was given last night by both parties, please assist in viewing at 4pm if possible (something along those lines).

The message from my landlord said "KAREN. How can you turn down my agent appointment to view the house today at 4pm which u had agreed. They have group of 5 viewer as I told you in my email, at least 1 of u must be home. Hope it won't end up in legal action against u. Await ur phone call. Ong"

I never did receive an email, I checked it last night before I went to bed and first thing this morning when I woke up, then checked it again after I read the sms just to make sure. Still received nothing....

So I realised that word got round to my landlord pretty quick. I thought O.K. I'll ring the agent first because she deals with the other party, tell her that it was just an unforeseen circumstance and that I meant nothing by requesting to postpone the viewing. The only thing I could do is ask if 8pm is ok. She said she will have to ask the Landlord's agent and get back to me.

She didn't get back to me til 8pm, to tell me that people will be viewing at 8:30. I wish she had got back to me earlier, because I was going to ring the landlord after she confirmed and explained to him that there was some misunderstanding, I was not refusing to cooperate and offered a different time for the viewing. But it was probably too late by that time to have called him about it.

But really... LEGAL ACTION?! Seriously landlord, agents etc, do you really need to go to extreme lengths when you don't get your way and over something that has a very reasonable and logical explanation? Such a threat is just unnecessary! My landlord has just embarrassed himself because it's not like I was refusing entry or refusing to cooperate! I could have used legal action against him and/or the agents in the past over something unreasonable but decided not to because I thought that was too extreme and thought we could try and be civil. Obviously the Landlord doesn't think the same way.

I am truly disappointed in him.

*sigh*

Giving up your seat on the MRT

Yesterday I was on the MRT heading to the opposite side of the country with my room mate, as it was a long journey I was in a world of my own. Until my room mate said to me "Why is no one giving up their seat for that old man?" (we were standing in between the carts). So I looked to my right and there was an uncle in his 60's or 70s standing in front of a "priority seat" and holding onto the rail. The "priority seat" was taken up by a young female probably in her mid to late 20s... she didn't look pregnant, nor was she injured in any way... she looked perfectly healthy and probably should have given up her seat. After all the priority seats are encouraged to be given to the elderly, the pregnant, those with kids or the injured.

The woman in the priority seat actually got off a stop or two after the uncle got on the MRT. So of course she could have easily sacrificed her seat for 2 to 4 minutes?!

I remember reading in the paper once that this one person travels by MRT everyday and they have never seen anyone give up their seat for an Uncle or Aunty in their life. On the other hand, on many occasions I've seen people offer their seats to the elderly on the MRT. I've even been offered a seat by someone after they saw that my left foot/ankle was swollen and thought I had an injury, which was incredibly nice! Maybe the people that travel on the NEL are just nicer? Hehe.

Perhaps there was a diffusion of responsibility yesterday, or maybe Singaporeans aren't that nice after all, or their lazy, or their kiasusm reached an extreme as to where they got their seat and refuse to give it up?????

So here's the question, when should you give up your seat on the MRT or bus and to whom?... Actually maybe it should be what makes you give up/NOT give up your seat?

Bukit Timah Nature Reserve

The closest thing you'll get to a rain forest in Singapore is Bukit Timah's Nature Reserve. With different hiking trails and even a cycling trail within the forest grounds brings you into another dimension of Singapore away from all the city buzz and modernity. Although I must say, the residential district of Bukit Timah is rather lovely.

There are 3 different paths you can take each with a different level of 'intensity' and all lead you up 163m to Bukit Timah Summit. After that you can mozy back down or carry on walking around the rain forest and see if you can spot monkeys and squirrels on your way or weird twisting tree branches like the one we saw on our way up (pictured right). We also spotted monkeys out of the park on our way to the bus stop, there were more roaming around the residential area than actually in the rain forest!

A lovely peaceful day out for the family or just for a walk and some exercise that doesn't have to be boring. Entrance is FREE!

Happy Mother's Day Singapore!

It's Mother's Day in Singapore today so here's wishing all the Mother's a lovely day and I hope their families show their appreciation and love to you for all the things you've done!

...

Maybe I'll ring my own mum wishing her another Happy Mother's Day later today (it was Mother's Day back in March for the UK).

When you're looking for accommodation in Singapore

So recently I've had a really stressful time with my accommodation situation due to a mixture of a bad agent (ours), the landlord's arse of an agent, a rather suspicious landlord, ungrateful/selfish/uncaring/misunderstanding/uncooperative bad housemate(s), and my virginity to house hunting in the "real" world. So, for the new house hunters, pushovers and the naive, here are a few pointers for when you're looking for a place in Singapore:

1. If your new to house hunting (like I am/was) it's important to fully understand that property is where people can get a lot of money from, fast. Yes Singapore is a lovely country, and yes, Singaporeans are generally lovely people too. But when it comes to estate agents, they're money grabbing whores they're still after a sale and will do what it takes to get it. So Just keep an eye on your agent and don't be afraid to ask for exactly what you want. Some will tell you lies about the landlord's position, some will disclose information from you, and some will try to push you to sign things. How you deal with your agent will depend on which one of the above you come across. You're incredibly lucky if you get a nice agent or even one that does everything well and then disappear after the contract is signed and after you pay them their agent fee (because they're not much use after that anyways). Which brings us to the next point.
   
   
2. The agent fee. This is only paid if they successfully find you a place and you agree to sign the contracts. The agent's fee is normally half the property rent. Make sure you check with them first as some do charge a full month's rent.
   
   
3. Negotiate negotiate negotiate. 1st thing to negotiate is the rent price, this is just so you get a better deal, even if you think it's cheap compared to what you're used to back in your home country. If they won't budge, try to get some other deals instead. You're paying the agent half your month's rent, make them work for it! That's if they're not doing their work properly in the first place. If you're a student, a good one to ask for is that you're deposit will be used to pay for the FINAL months rent. Only do that if you don't need the deposit at the end. Make sure you get this in writing in the contract, or if not, speak to the landlord and see if you can have a mutual agreement on this. (This is where most of my problems came from)

4. Read the contract carefully. This may sound like common sense, but sometimes the wording of the contracts are so formal and archaic with lots of "herein to" appearing two or three times in the same clause with some other old fancy sounding words that confuse the hell out of you and detracts your attention away from the main point of the clause. So under confusion you end up agreeing to it without understanding fully what it means.
   
   
5. The biggest estate agencies in Singapore such as ERA are not necessarily the most reliable. My agent was an ERA (Electronic Realty Associates) representative and she was nice... at the beginning. Then she turned sour when things got complicated. But that's not to say all ERA agents or general estate agents are like that, I know some students had great agents and delivered everything that was asked for. It's easy to think that because they're from one of the largest realty companies in Singapore they should be more reliable. WRONG! You should be aware that their representatives can be any Tom, Dick or Harry because they accept and hire pretty much anyone.
   
   
6. Make sure you have housemates you can rely on. Not exactly relying on them in the sense that they'll take a bullet for you, just rely on them enough so that they'll pay rent (the right amount of rent) and that they understand that a shared house means shared responsibility. I found that this is something that is personally very important to me, not only from the past year but from the past 3 years since living away at University.
   
   
7. Speak to your landlord. Not only after you've moved in but during the negotiation and pre-moving in stage too. Sometimes agents may say straight up that something is not possible without even going to the landlord, but if you actually ask the landlord yourself, who knows you may just get what you want. A friend had an agent who would tell them stories about the owners such as their landlord was some big shot guy who bought the house for his son but his son didn't want it so is now renting it out and doesn't really need the money anyways. Turns out their landlord worked in a store in Sim Lim and actually does need the money. Make sure you know your landlords so you know who they are and building some sort of relationship can be helpful especially if you're gonna have to deal with them in the future anyways. They're the ones who have the final say, so it's better to go straight to them and try your luck.
   
   
8. It's o.k. to be a bitch/arse. After all, these are the terms and conditions that you'll be living under. Might as well be selfish and make sure they're the terms you're happy with. Obviously don't be too mean or too aggressive because that's just general bad practice and you might lose out in the end, and obviously don't make too many requests or be plain uncooperative.
   
   
9. Get everything in writing. Everything that your agent says you can do or should be able to do, get it in writing or have it in the contract.Well this should have been done in my case but it helps for future reference.
   
   
10. If the building is old, check that it's not going to be demolished after a few months. This happened with a batch of Fall 2008 exchange students where they found a place at Killiney Road only to be told that it was to be torn down after 3 or 4 months... Singapore has a tendency to build over old things to keep the island modern.

If you're an SMU exchange student and you're not looking to stay in the student hostels and want a place of your own, then do refer to the white list of agents you'll be given by the international office before you get here. Take note of the ones on the black list too, just in case you might come across them as they might represent your landlord. (Both our agent and the landlord's agent made it on the black list, but our agent no longer works for ERA now so who knows if she's still in real estate).

For hassle free accommodation then stick to the hostels that are suggested by your school. They're recommended for good reasons!

So don't be too naive when you're house hunting (like I was), and stand your ground when you need to. Don't let the greatness of Singapore cloud your judgements and remember that not ALL Singaporeans are nice.

Hope this helps and good luck! =)