ST Reports: Housing lease expires but 10 families stay put By Derrick Ho
by Property Edge on Thursday, January 3, 2013 at 8:11am ·
Housing lease expires but 10 families stay put
Tenants of Boon Lay rental flats were told in Sept to leave by Dec 31
Jan 03, 2013*
By Derrick Ho
*
Their neighbours have already moved out, but some 10 households are staying put in a block of rental flats in Boon Lay, although their lease expired on Monday.
Some said they cannot afford other forms of housing, while others complained that their landlord had not given them enough time to move out.
The 200 units in Block 189 and Block 190, Boon Lay Drive are run by private operator EM Services, which had been leasing them from the Housing Board since January 2007.
The flats are rented to tenants who need temporary housing. They pay about $1,500 a month for the three-room flats, not including utility bills.
The HDB said in a statement that tenants of the two blocks had been informed by EM Services in September last year that they needed to move out by Dec31, as the operator's lease would expire on that day.
The HDB also said that EM Services had offered to help the tenants look for alternative accommodation.
By Monday, all had moved out except the 10 families.
Yesterday, some tenants said they have been offered other rental flats in Woodlands for about $1,900 a month.
But, they said, they would have to also pay a deposit and the first month's rent, which amounts to about $3,800.
One tenant, who wanted to be known only as Mr Ho, 53, said he could not afford this amount even though he earns $5,000 a month as a production supervisor at a factory.
Much of his income already goes into footing the medical bills of his elderly mother and an adult daughter who is mentally ill.
He and his wife have two other daughters.
"Moreover, the new lease is for only six months. I need something more long-term for my daughter," he said in Mandarin.
Taxi driver Hari Singh, 53, who lives with his fiancee in Block 190, claimed that he was not made aware that the operator's lease was going to expire when he signed a six-month lease in May.
"If I had known... I would have rented some other place," he said, adding that he now had no other place to live in.
Another tenant, who wanted to be known only as Ronald, said he tried to apply for the Housing Board's Interim Rental Housing scheme, but was rejected.
This scheme is for households currently in the queue for public rental flats, but which need urgent accommodation.
The 47-year-old security guard said he had been told by EM Services yesterday to leave his flat by Friday morning.
Other tenants said they had not been given a second deadline to leave.
Said Ronald: "If I have to leave, the rest also have to leave. How can you ask me to leave and they can stay?"
The area's Member of Parliament, Mr Lawrence Wong, said he has been in touch with the residents and is helping those who face difficulties. He also said that the HDB is assisting them to find alternative accommodation.
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