A month after renting out her two-room Jalan Batu flat to a foreign student, a woman returned to find the unit in a mess, and new bunk beds and mattresses brought in.

The 60-year-old landlord, surnamed Luo, told Shin Min Daily News that in February, a property agent had connected her with two students claiming to be from Sri Lanka and visiting Singapore for their internships.

Luo, a cleaner, was informed there would be four people living in the Kallang flat. The tenants subsequently paid a month's rent and a month's deposit for a one-year tenancy contract.

A maximum of four tenants are allowed to rent a two-room flat, according to HDB regulations.

The landlord then gave the tenants the keys and left any follow-up matters to the agent as she was leaving for an overseas trip.

When Luo returned to Singapore later, she noticed the tenant had not registered themselves with the authorities.

During an impromptu visit to the unit about a month later, however, Luo was taken aback to see three new faces leaving the flat.

"I got a shock the moment I walked in as the house had completely changed. The existing furniture had been [thrown out] and the whole unit was extremely dirty and messy," she recounted.

According to her, there were three single-sized mattresses in the living room and four bunk beds in the bedroom. The kitchen area was split by a wardrobe, with another queen-sized mattress behind the furniture.

The shocked and enraged woman immediately requested the strangers to move out that day, to which they obliged.

She added that the three occupants she met that day had looked worried and were apparently unaware the flat had been subletted.

Luo told Shin Min that by sharing her story, she hopes to remind homeowners renting out their flats to be more careful.

lim.kewei@asiaone.com

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