Update to the hearing I attended recently…
The tribunal court looked similar to the court you saw in TV but in smaller scale… The audience were basically the plaintiffs and defendants of other cases.
Of course the claim of deposit by the tenant was rejected…
I was entitled to claim loss of incoming as I was on leave to file the Borang 2 and attend the hearing, and also the transport expenses incurred. Even though it was stated in writing in the counter claim “tuntutan balas” section, probably the judge didn’t see it…
The hearing was conducted in a rush… about 20 cases by a judge in 3 hours time. One have to be well-prepared and put forward the important and precise points to the judge so that the verdict is in favour of you…
It’s an experience…
There were shocks and surprises lately…
I am back after more than 1 month hiatus… But it is an unplesant surprise…
I was being served a notice to attend a hearing at Tribunal Court, of course as a defendant.
Reason?
Being kind to others…
I rent out an apartment unit to a tenant, En. MAJ. During the signing of tenancy agreement, he requested to reduce the usual 2 month security deposit to 1 month as he said he was financially tight. I did him a favour by accepting only 1 month security deposit. It was clearly stated in the tenancy agreement.
It was middle of March 08. I did not receive the rental which is sopposed to be paid early of the month so I called to find out the reason. Only then he told me he wanted to move out end of the month, ie in 2 week’s time. It was a 2 year tenancy but En MAJ decided to moved out before the tenancy due. He served less than 1 month notice and he has yet to pay the rental for the current month.
According to the tenancy agreement which is quite standard, if a tenant moves out before the tenancy expires, the tenant shall pay the rental up to the expiry of the tenancy and the security deposit shall be forfeited.
From humanity aspect but not contractual aspect, I find this condition a bit rigid and “maybe” a bit unfair to the tenant as sometimes tenant needs to move out due to unforeseen circumstances. So I said it is fine that he can shift out without any penalty being imposed even he gave only short notice. I asked him to settle the outstanding utilities bills so that utilities deposit could be refunded to him.
He argued that I should refund the 1 month security deposit + utilities deposit to him. How could that be when he didn’t pay the current month rental and the 1 month deposit was already used to offset his current month rental.
He didn’t seem to understand that so I told him politely that we could discuss about the security deposit refund when we meet face to face during the handing over.
Few days later, I was surprised being served the notice to attend a court hearing… Don’t you think it is ridiculous?
There is a Chinese saying, 恶人先告状…
How true is that if you are kind to someone, the helpfulness may not be reciprocated? Or worse, he/ she may take advantage of you? 人善人欺? 欺善怕恶?
Maybe I shouldn’t have been too kind to HIM… I don’t wish to but if he is pushing too hard, maybe I should demand for the remaining rental up to the expiry of tenancy and the security deposit to be forfeited at the tribunal court.
I am not really worried about the case as I have proper document and record keeping of the payment made, but I hate going through this troublesome, just waste of time, energy and money. I would rather use them for a more constructive and productive purpose. It is really sad having this kind of jxxx in this universe… How life would be more peaceful and easy without them…
By the way, does tribunal court hanlde this kind of case? As far as I can remember, the court is meant for cases of disputes between a business owner and consumer.
