Contractor disappears after pocketing $145,000

[ikan bilis]

From AsiaOne/Newpaper

Contractor disappears after pocketing $145,000



By Najib Siddik and Alvin Lim

He was about to leave home for the office on Saturday when his daughter-in-law handed him a copy of The New Paper.
In it was a report about a nightmare contractor which made Page 1 of The New Paper.

Intrigued, businessman Albert Chew, 75, read on.

He stared hard at the picture of a house in shambles, its interiors hacked and rubble left all over the place.

He scrutinised the article to learn more about the plight of Mr Vincent Koh Keng Hin, 38, who had paid an $85,000 down payment to his contractor who became uncontactable since August.

The contractor had abandoned the renovation work midway at the insurance agent's inter-terrace house at Pasir Ris Heights.

It sounded too much like what happened to Mr Chew himself, who began to suspect that he had hired the same contractor.

"Call it a victim's instinct. When I read Vincent's story, I felt very frustrated because my family was cheated by this unscrupulous contractor," said Mr Chew.

Apart from Mr Chew, The New Paper understands that other clients and subcontractors who provided goods and services to the contractor also lost money.

The New Paper visited Mr Chew's two-storey inter-terrace house at Happy Avenue East off Macpherson on Tuesday. His house looked to be far from complete.

Mr Chew said he has paid about $145,000 to the contractor in progressive payment.

He was quoted $237,000 for renovation work on the house's structure,
attic floor and six rooms.

Mr Chew and his three adult children have three houses - the one at Happy Avenue East and another two in Sennett Estate. All three are inter-terrace homes.

Mr Chew bought his property at Happy Avenue East in 2007 at $800,000. Renovations began in October 2009.

Said the business owner, who earns about $6,500 monthly: "I was careful with my payment and did not pay him a lump sum.

"But no matter how prudent I was, he still managed to get away with delivering substandard work."

Mr Chew's daughter-in-law, Madam Anna Lim, 40, a manager in his company, said that after a payment of $12,000 was made, work progress slowed down before the contractor soon became uncontactable.

She said: "Until now, we can't find him, his manager or any of his contact persons since we last made payment of about $12,000 in April this year."
Mr Chew's house now has an unsafe structure.

An engineer whom the contractor had engaged to render services said the beams and pillars which the contractor left incomplete, are "not strong enough".

Mr Chew said: "As such, I have to engage another contractor to reconstruct the house. This would mean more money out of my pocket."
Mr Chew also said that in November last year, the contractor performed works on the attic floor without properly ensuring the cement's thickness.
He was told by the same engineer that the floor was "too thin", causing water seepage from rainfall and mouldy pillars.

Mr Chew first met the contractor in September 2009 when the latter was working on a house in Sennett Estate. Impressed with the house that the contractor was building, he asked for his name card and contacted him later.

Mr Chew, who made a police report, said: "We met again, and I was impressed by the drawings and pictures in his portfolio.
"It also helped that he's a very sweet-talker. He's very obliging and people-oriented."

Another client of the contractor, who declined to be named, had a similar story when The New Paper contacted him.


Impressed at first

Like Mr Koh and Mr Chew, the man was also impressed by the contractor at first.

The man, who declined to say how much money he lost to the contractor, claimed that the contractor "has a system in place".
He also understands from his own sources that there are at least "17 or more clients who were cheated".

The client said: "He would advertise in the newspapers to attract clients and quote offers much lower than other contractors in the market.
"Then he'll meet the client and drive them around in his BMW 6 Series to boost their confidence level."

He added that the contractor will take his client to see some of his completed projects.

"When the deal is finalised, he'll give many reasons to get more money from his client, usually to purchase building materials which cost over $100,000.

"Once money is collected, he'll hack and destroy the house, ignore all calls and slowly disappear," he said.

But that is not all.

The man believes that the contractor has his own "cost-cutting" strategies.

He alleged: "The contractor will throw other victims' house debris into his latest victim's hacked house to avoid paying the disposal fee."

The man, who is concerned that the contractor may strike again, said: "The money I lost can never be recovered, but we hope the authorities can do something to help us. We want some closure."

Checks with legal portal LawNet revealed that four companies had issued writs of summons against the same contractor over the last two years.
An employee from one of the companies told TNP that the contractor had owed them about $8,000.

She said: "We tried going down to their premises, but there was nothing left to claim."

"From what we understand, another company had gone down to the premises before us, and they also left empty-handed," added the employee.

A sub-contractor told TNP it had worked with the contractor on several projects for more than a year until he became uncontactable. The sub-contractor said he's "owed about $100,000".

The sub-contractor added that his company was still determining the final amount before deciding their next course of action. He declined to say more.

Police confirmed that Mr Chew made a police report and they are investigating.


[email protected]
This article was first published in The New Paper (http://www.tnp.sg/).

[ikan bilis]

Eralier news.... :D

Dream house ruined by nightmare contractor http://business.asiaone.com/a1media/site/common/blank.gif

By Najib Siddik

With six rooms, a sea view and just a walk from Pasir Ris Park, it was to be his dream house.

But insurance agent Vincent Koh Keng Hin, 38, had his dream hacked down, literally, and he has been living in a nightmare since earlier this year.

His contractor allegedly took a down payment of $85,000 and failed to deliver.


The renovation works were abandoned and his contractor could not be contacted since August.

No wonder the executive director of Vincent Koh and Associates is frustrated.

He is married to IT analyst Belle Wong Roo Pee, 38, and they have two sons, who are six and nine years old.

They jointly earn between $20,000 and $30,000 monthly.

He said: "My entire family has been inconvenienced this entire year.We were hoping to move in by July, but it's impossible now."

When The New Paper visited Mr Koh's two-storey inter-terrace house at Pasir Ris Heights last week, the basic structure was still intact.

But that was about it.

There were yawning gaps where walls had been hacked away.
Rocks, rubble and wood were strewn all over the place.

There were also puddles of stagnant water with mosquito larvae.
Mr Koh, who bought the house for about $1.3 million, said: "There's no way anyone can live here. We're left with one big mess of a house. People now think I've no money to pay for my renovation."

Mr Koh first met the contractor in October last year when he viewed the house with a property agent.

Mr Koh's friend, a 39-year-old cargo officer who declined to be named, took the contractor along for the viewing at Pasir Ris Heights and recommended his services to Mr Koh.

In a phone interview last Friday, the friend said he was a secondary school friend of the contractor.

"I've seen some of his works and they were good, so I told Vincent about him. I'm really sorry to hear about what happened between them. Frankly, I didn't gain anything from this and I don't know where he is now."

Mr Koh, who has represented Great Eastern Life Assurance for 16 years, completed his purchase last November, and took out a 30-year bank loan at about $3,000 a month.

At present, Mr Koh rents a terrace house at Still Road for about $3,000 a month. Good first impression

He said of the contractor: "I had a very good impression. I was impressed by his professionalism, his mannerisms and even the BMW 6 Series which he drove.

"My friend kept telling me that he's a 'steady' contractor. So I trusted him and the deal was on almost immediately."

Mr Koh then requested a quotation at a meeting in last November.
They met a few more times and the contractor explained the payment process.

Said Mr Koh: "We're supposed to make payment on a progressive basis. Once a job is completed, we have to pay him based on work done."
Mr Koh was quoted $320,000 for the project. When he asked for a discount, the contractor said that if MrKoh could pay $85,000 upfront, he would reduce the quotation to $300,000.

"He said he needed the $85,000 to buy materials," said Mr Koh, who agreed to the deal.

On Dec 28, Mr Koh engaged the contractor's services for a "full reconstruction" of the house, and handed him the house key and a cheque of $85,000.

The contractor started work in January but by the end of February, the work had slowed down.

Said Mr Koh: "From March onwards, nothing was done, so we kept calling him to find out what was going on. He kept saying he was waiting for approval from the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) and the Building and Construction Authority (BCA). I suspected that he didn't submit anything for approval at all."

Some work resumed in April.


Mr Koh said: "In April, he claimed that the URA and BCA had approved the works, so he started hacking the house. At one point, I became suspicious.

Usually, when reconstruction is involved, a board stating the names of the owner, builder, engineer and other parties will be placed outside the house to show that the works are approved by the authorities.

"However, there was no board. Not wanting to get into any trouble, I kept chasing him for it. He kept telling me the board was coming soon.

In mid-April, the board was put up, so Mr Koh felt reassured.
The couple made occasional trips on weekends to check on the progress.

Although it was slow, they still trusted their contractor.

On July 26, the authorities inspected the house.

Shortly after, to his dismay, Mr Koh received information from a BCA officer that it had discovered that the Project Reference Number on the board was registered to another property, which was also undergoing renovation.

The officer advised Mr Koh to lodge a police report, which he did on Aug 14 at Marine Parade Neighbourhood Police Centre.

The police confirmed the report and said Mr Koh was advised on his legal recourse.

Mr Koh said he confronted the contractor in early August at the house.
That was their last encounter.

Mr Koh said of that encounter that the contractor insisted everything was on track.

But when Mr Koh asked him about the board, the contractor told him that all the licenses were approved.

Mr Koh said he was very convincing and kept his cool. He didn't elaborate further.

TNP called all the phone numbers listed to the contractor but received a "not in service" response. Invoices provided by Mr Koh and his wife listed addresses in Clementi, Queensway and two along Balestier Road.

TNP went to the offices last Friday at Balestier Plaza and Shaw Plaza, both on Balestier Road.

A security guard at the former said the company had closed down while tenants at the latter said the office there had been closed for a month.

While an invoice listed a third-floor unit in Balestier Plaza, our check showed that there were no retail units or offices on the building's third floor.

The contractor also could not be found at residential addresses provided by Mr Koh at Zion Road and Teban Gardens.

A check with the Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority showed that the business was registered to an address in International Plaza, Anson Road.

But TNP was unable to contact the contractor at that address as well.
A BCA spokesman said: "Since June 16, 2009, the Building Control Act requires builders carrying out works to have a builder's licence from BCA.

Case: Contractor woes among top 10 complaints </STRONG>


Failure to honour promises made.

Contractors disappearing halfway through a job. Shoddy workmanship. Defective goods and misleading claims.

These are some of the complaints against renovation contractors received by the Consumers Association of Singapore (Case) this year.

A spokesman for Case said that complaints against contractors usually fall into the top 10 category of complaints it receives.

So far this year, Case has received a total of 986 complaint cases, of which 65 were filed. Filed cases are those where the complainants authorise Case to handle the case on their behalf.

Non-filed cases came in the form of feedback and enquiries where consumers decided to deal with their vendors directly after seeking advice from Case.

Last year, 1,313 complaint cases against renovation contractors were reported, of which 87 were filed.

Case executive director Seah Seng Choon said that trends such as property booms have an unwanted side effect: A spike in complaints against renovation contractors.

As to why contractors fail to meet the standards they have promised, Mr Seah said: "Some contractors face the problem of not having enough skilled workers.

"Poor communication between home owners and contractors or unclear contractual terms are some of the other reasons."

A Building and Construction Authority spokesman said that during construction, the builder must display a project signboard at the construction site.

He added: "A sample of the signboard is provided in the Conditions of Permit appended to the permit issued to the joint applicants."

Details stating clearly the project title and contact details of its developer or owner, architect, professional engineer, expected date of completion, and hotlines of the relevant authorities should be included.

Case will mediate real estate cases - for a fee ranging from $35 for members with a claim range of below $5,000 to $400 for non-members with a claim range of above $40,000.

Consumers can also approach the Renovation and Decoration Advisory Centre (Radac).

They are also advised to request quotations from more than one design firm and pay their contractors progressively for work done.


This article was first published in The New Paper (http://www.tnp.sg/).