landlord is F****ing retarded

Update:

Turns out SP services doesn't charge for the reconnection fee, so Landlord was making it up? Well actually, no, SP services charges reconnection in an emergency case, but they reconnected 3 days after so it wasn't an emergency so there was no charge... but the landlord told us there was?? ¬.¬

But, today, when my housemate met with the landlord once again for the assessment, the "damages" didn't amount to a lot of money, something like $100-$200 for miscellaneous things. BUT, instead of the $360 extra rent that my housemate initially told me, the landlord decided to charge us $250 per night for the delay of the assessment, so that's $750 extra rent!!!! WTF?! His argument was that this is not written in the contract so he can do whatever the hell he wants!! &#%@#~&^&&%@@!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So my housemate said that if he continues to be unreasonable she'll go to the small claims tribunal. He said that she can but he'll increase the amount per day until an agreement is reached. A second "contract" had to be signed to show that the "damages" are agreed upon, so if my housemate didn't sign it the handover would not be complete and there'll be a daily charge until an agreement is made, so if she went to the small claims tribunal without signing anything, we would have risked losing everything or paying out more. He even said that he's had tenants before who sought legal help against him and none of them were successful. That doesn't scare us,it just tells us that he's a complete dick and likes to bully his tenants and is an unreasonable landlord.

I mean come on Singapore! I know the contract is usually made in favour of the landlord, he has more to lose if tenants don't behave, but why does a contract still back the landlord if they abuse their power? It provides no flexibility for tenants if unforeseen problematic circumstances come into play. Why do you make it so that they can bully their tenants, show no responsibility/DOC and forcing them to agree to unreasonable terms?

My non-Singaporean friends say that my landlord sounds typically Singaporean. It's people like him that give Singaporeans a bad name, which is such a shame.

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So On the 15th June 2009, the tenancy for my place ended and told my landlord that my housemate would be doing the handover on my behalf as I can't be in Singapore and she will collect the deposit too.

I receive an e-mail from one of my housemates. Here is what they wrote to me:

"Karen!!!!!... ok basically the utilities were cut off yesterday [the 15th] and none of us knew about it so I arrange to meet ONG at 730, but it was cut off at 6 - apparently from what [housemates] said. So ONG would not do the hand over because he cannot check the aircons and fridge and leakages etc.
ONG thinks we did this on purpose just so he cant check anything and give back more money than he should.. but apparently they have to turn it off when the SP office closes for the day - i.e. 6
We tried to arrange for ONG to do the handover on Sunday [I'm guessing they mean the 14th June?] but he couldn't make it so we had to do the last day instead...

...So he tried to get SP services to switch it back on for one day (at a cost of 50 sd or something) to test it out. But SP cant do it until Thursday then [&@^'*#] ONG however will CHARGE us for these three days (which is 360!! even though he knows we are not living there since we have all moved out and returned the keys (he says he knows we have duplicates and will try to come back and stay or something even though there is no [#£^$%@] water or gas or electricity, how can we [%$"£*#] COME BACK, IDIOT!!!!!)"

O.k. first of all, we don't have duplicates of the keys, why the hell would we make more copies of a key that serves us no purpose or use? Besides, it would cost $25-$30 PER KEY because they're not just any old type of key. We're University students, where we buy things that are cheap and don't waste money on making duplicate keys that cost more than our t-shirts.

I admit I cocked up on the utilities bit because I asked for it to be cancelled on the 15th but I had no idea that SP Services would cut off at 6pm! It would have been nice to have been told, but then again I admit that it was probably wrong of me to assume that they would automatically cut it off at midnight somehow, so I don't mind being charged the $50 reconnection fee. I'm sure that's a common newbie mistake?

BUT TO CHARGE US 3 DAYS RENT OF SD$360 WHEN THE LANDLORD HAS ALREADY TAKEN THE KEYS IS JUST WRONG!... I'm willing to compromise at one day's rent for the day that the utilities gets switched back on, but for the full 3 days? Seriously, can he do that? He's already taken our keys, he just can't do the assessment without water or electricity. By contract, the tenancy has ended, we have no access to the house because HE'S TAKEN OUR KEYS, but he's charging us rent for 3 days? Days which have no water or electricity running to because SP services cut it off. Oh and did I mention HE TOOK THE KEYS! So how does that work out to be rent?? He has the keys, he just hasn't done the flat assessment.

The way that I see it is that he can only charge us $360 if he can prove that the 3 days actually are "damages" in the sense that he loses out on $360 worth of rent by delaying the assessment. The only costs I see at the moment is the reconnection fee at $50 in order to do the actual flat assessment which is the standard process. If he has had to delay new tenants moving in, then ok, I'll accept the rent charge, but I really don't think he has otherwise he would have made a point about it. I'm sure that I have a better picture of what my landlord's character is like than he has of mine, because whatever he thinks that I'm/we're doing, he's got totally wrong and is completely paranoid and delusional.

I've had a lot of problems with my landlord and agents involved, we've had our differences, but to be honest, I've never really won a battle with them. So part of me just wants to let him do whatever the hell he wants to get it all over and done with... but the thing is, it's not just my money involved, the money comes out of our deposit which comprises of money from all my housemates so it would be unfair for them too.

I've been trying to look at it from his point of view, tried to understand where his thoughts and assumptions came from but I really can't figure it out. He rents out a lot of properties so unless he's had previous tenants sneak back into property after their lease finished or other people have tried to figure out ways to scam him, he has no reason to think such absurd things. We're young and naive in a different country, why would we risk our deposit on silly schemes after all the problems we've been through.

For me personally, it's no longer about how much money he charges because I get it, he's a landlord, he will try and milk as much money as he possibly can, it's about whether he's being fair...I can't help but think that charging us 3 days extra rent is wrong?

Help and advice anyone?
=(

If by any chance you're reading this and can't comment or whatever, please email me: karen[dot]ht[dot]wan[at]googlemail[dot]com