'Don't get tricked': Hougang landlord allegedly throws tenant out a day after she moved in

Less than a day after she moved into a room in Hougang, a woman rushed home to find her landlord demanding that she move out immediately. 

The woman, a Malaysian working in Singapore, uploaded three videos of her heated exchange with her landlord on Facebook last Thursday (Jan 27). 

According to the woman and her boyfriend, they had moved their belongings into the room on Jan 18 but only moved in on Jan 25. 

On the next day, he received a call from the landlord who threatened to throw their things out of his house. 

"I came home and found my belongings outside, [the landlord] even accused us of bringing drugs into his home. In the end, we chose to call the police. But he pretended not to understand anything, so the police couldn't do anything," the woman wrote in Chinese. 

"I hope you can share this Facebook post so that others don't get tricked," she added at the end. 

In an 11-minute-long video, she could be heard accusing the landlord of entering the room and touching their belongings without permission. 

"I am allowed to look at your belongings, if you bring drugs in then I'll face the death penalty," the landlord bit back. 

Besides insisting that the couple move out, the landlord also refused to return the $800 they had paid for the room, including a $550 deposit. 

The woman later clarified in a comment that she managed to get $700 back from the landlord. She said that her boyfriend called the police after he heard the landlord accusing them of bringing drugs into the flat. 

In one of the video clips, the police could be heard warning the landlord against making baseless accusations about drugs. 

The couple retrieved their belongings from the room that same night. 

The police told AsiaOne on Monday (Jan 31) that they were alerted to a case of dispute at 8.55pm on Jan 26. "The parties involved were advised on their legal recourse. No further police assistance was required." 

Last December, a Chinese couple also faced issues with their agent-cum-landlord after forking out $48,000 to rent a condo unit in Marina Bay for two years.

Although they were told that they would have the entire unit to themselves, the couple had to deal with unannounced visits from the landlord who brought potential tenants to view the unit. 

ALSO READ: Tenancy tips for those with nightmarish landlords and horrible housemates

claudiatan@asiaone.com