Landlord in Hougang evicts tenant saying she uses toilet, washes clothes too often

Renting a room in Singapore can be tough, but for a Malaysian woman, her troubles began after she signed the tenancy agreement.

Wong's unpleasant experience with a landlord in Hougang came to light after her younger sister made a post in Facebook group Let's Go, Singapore on June 19. The post has since garnered 1,200 reactions and over 600 shares. 

With her sister's help, Wong, 38, rented a room in a flat at Hougang Ave 10 she found on a Carousell listing on April 30.

However, things started to go south after she signed on the dotted line.

The landlord told her there were two CCTV cameras in the flat — one facing the bedrooms and another in the kitchen. He explained that he installed them for safety reasons as the oven nearly caught fire after a previous tenant forgot to turn it off.

Although she wasn't comfortable with the cameras, the woman had no choice but to move in on May 2.

Wong's sister claimed in her Facebook post that the landlord monitored her every move in the house. He confronted her for using the toilet every two to three hours and told her to reduce her toilet visits, citing the need to conserve water.

"He said the water bill will go up because I used the toilet every two hours," Wong, who suffered from urethritis, told Shin Min Daily News.

The landlord started to limit the number of times she could take a shower, wash her hands or use the toilet, and even took issue with her doing the laundry twice a week, she said.

But that was not the end of the "house rules".

Wong added the landlord also forbade his tenants from interacting with each other and asked them to stay inside their rooms if they heard someone in the common area.

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The woman endured the overbearing landlord until he blew up at her while she was doing laundry on June 18.

"He asked me why I was washing my clothes again after three days and threatened to raise my rent. I didn't want to argue with him so I pointed out that doing laundry twice a week was written in the tenancy agreement," Wong said.

The man got so angry he tried to evict her on the spot and even called the police.

Even though both parties agreed on Wong moving out within the next three days, the landlord was incensed after she took a shower that night.

"He banged on my door and told me to get lost," she said. His actions frightened her so much she had to call the police for help.

Wong has since moved out of the flat, and in the Facebook post, her sister warned others not to rent a room from this landlord, adding that he has yet to return the deposit.

The Chinese daily visited the flat twice to speak to the landlord but no one answered the door or phone calls.

The police confirmed with AsiaOne that a report was lodged. 

mardhiahhaslan@asiaone.com