House buyer cheated of S$5,000 deposit

[mr funny]

House buyer cheated of S$5,000 deposit

By Channel NewsAsia | Posted: 20 March 2008 2157 hrs


SINGAPORE: A house buyer was cheated of S$5,000 when she was buying a five-room resale flat in Woodlands.

Wong Git Siow said: "Since I was already buying the house, and... she (the flat owner) said she did not have enough money for the New Year, I did not mind giving her the $5,000 deposit."

Ms Wong claimed that the flat owner changed her mind after receiving the S$5,000 deposit, and never returned the money.

She also said that the owner failed to bring the relevant documents on two separate occasions when she tried to seal the deal last November.

The owner has been missing in action since then.

Ms Wong had applied for a house loan and if it is cancelled, she will have to pay a penalty of S$2,000.

She added that the seller had taken a S$2,500 loan from the property agent and did not pay back.

Both Ms Wong and the property agent have filed a police report and reported the matter to the Consumers Association of Singapore (CASE).

But CASE pointed out that this case is not within its jurisdiction as it only deals with companies and agencies. It advised Ms Wong and the property agent to approach a lawyer instead.

The transaction period for the flat expired earlier this month. - CNA/ac

[Unregistered]

House buyer cheated of S$5,000 deposit

By Channel NewsAsia | Posted: 20 March 2008 2157 hrs


SINGAPORE: A house buyer was cheated of S$5,000 when she was buying a five-room resale flat in Woodlands.

Wong Git Siow said: "Since I was already buying the house, and... she (the flat owner) said she did not have enough money for the New Year, I did not mind giving her the $5,000 deposit."

Ms Wong claimed that the flat owner changed her mind after receiving the S$5,000 deposit, and never returned the money.

She also said that the owner failed to bring the relevant documents on two separate occasions when she tried to seal the deal last November.

The owner has been missing in action since then.

Ms Wong had applied for a house loan and if it is cancelled, she will have to pay a penalty of S$2,000.

She added that the seller had taken a S$2,500 loan from the property agent and did not pay back.

Both Ms Wong and the property agent have filed a police report and reported the matter to the Consumers Association of Singapore (CASE).

But CASE pointed out that this case is not within its jurisdiction as it only deals with companies and agencies. It advised Ms Wong and the property agent to approach a lawyer instead.

The transaction period for the flat expired earlier this month. - CNA/ac
Than is there any solution to help Ms Wong and the agent to recover the money? If no, may I suggest that, in furure the deposit should be deposited to the HDB account to prevent home owners from holding the deposit and disappear, especially for this sort of cheating cases. The HDB may want to help to look into this system that I suggested.

[Unregistered]

1. the agent shld have done his homework of checking out the owner's profile whether she is a bankrupt or something
2. The fact that the owner is lending money from the agent is already suspicious enough. Maybe the agent is so keen to close the deal tt he/she was sidetracked for a while...it's not easy being the agent too...u get blamed for everything practically and on top of that, ur commission also mus discount...

From my point of view, the agent shld have never transacted the suspicious deal in the first place...n also the 2 wk cooling off period with rgds to the exercising of option shld have been observed instead of exercising the option immediately with the payment of 5k...that is the WRONG thing to do....