Chapter 3: My Rented Home in Sg Story

We found the house on Property Guru, where the agent initially listed the price at SGD 2400. After some negotiation, we agreed on SGD 2200. The landlord, whom we met for the first time during the contract signing, was very friendly. She even offered to buy us a bedframe and mattresses to settle in. We requested one bedframe and four mattresses for the five of us. Three bedframes were built-in, and the remaining one was from Anna, who brought it from our previous house. Another super single mattress is ready in a single bedroom.

Initially, we were looking for a room for two people, but after considering our options, we decided to rent the entire house, sharing one bedroom ourselves while subletting the other two. I was tasked with finding three new tenants, as I preferred renting to Malaysians. I managed to find three tenants: two nurses, Sandra and Jace, sharing the common room for SGD 900.00/month, and Cynthia, who worked at a Big 4 company, taking the single room for SGD 550.00/month.

Remember I mentioned that we had brought a bedframe from our second home? Well, it turned into quite a mess. After our tenant moved in, we started assembling the bedframe but quickly realized we were missing some corks and only had the screws. Thinking the corks from Ikea were the same size as the ones from Daiso, I bought one to try, but it didn’t fit. I decided to go to Ikea instead. Since I used to work at E-center @Redhill, the Ikea Alexandra branch wasn’t too far from my office—just three stops away. I went to the information counter, showed them the bedframe model, and they kindly gave me the corks for free.

When we tried assembling the bedframe again, we noticed that we were missing screws this time. I spoke with Anna and asked Lynda if she could check our second home for the screws, but she said everything had been cleared out.

With no other option, I went back to Ikea to get the screws again. I handed them to Miss Jace, but she said we were still missing something. At this point, I was frustrated—if we couldn’t solve this, I’d have to go back to Ikea for the third time. I asked Miss Lynda again, but she wasn’t happy, insisting everything was cleared out during our move. She did mention seeing the screws in a yellow plastic bag at the time, but I hadn’t been present for the dismantling, which was arranged by Anna with the help from Lynda.

I sent a screenshot of the conversation to Anna, asking if she knew anything about the yellow plastic bag. Her response? “Oh wait, let me check,” and she sent me a photo of the yellow bag inside her luggage! 🤬🤬🤬 Thankfully, it was all finally settled, and Jace got her bedframe assembled.

During my first six months living with Anna, I had some trouble sleeping. She would sometimes talk loudly in her sleep, waking me up. We tried different solutions, including supplements to help her relax, but nothing worked. Despite this, we got along well, especially when it came to keeping the room tidy. As long as she did her part during her turn to clean, I didn’t mind doing a little extra during mine—it didn’t have to be perfectly clean for me.

We kept the same house rules as in our previous place: tenants had to clean up their hair after showering, and we had a weekly cleaning schedule. Miss Jace was great—she would clean the toilet with bleach every 3-4 weeks. However, one issue I couldn’t stand was finding someone’s pubic hair left floating in the toilet bowl because it was really disgusting. What if male friends came over? It doesn’t look good for anyone.

Later on, Miss Cynthia told me she was moving out because her friend had just come to Singapore, and the place she rented could accommodate two people. I saw this as my chance and discussed it with Miss Anna. I told her that I wanted to move into the single bedroom—at that point, the price wasn’t an issue; my sleep was more important. Miss Anna also realized she didn’t want to share a room with someone she didn’t know, so she suggested converting the utility room into a small single bedroom to rent out. We quickly found a new tenant, Miss Wendy, who agreed to rent the room without a viewing, as she was in Malaysia at the time.

About a year later, Miss Jace decided to move out due to a conflict with Miss Sandra. She mentioned that they had stopped talking and wasn’t sure why. Additionally, Miss Jace’s cousins were coming to Singapore for work, so she wanted to find a place to stay with them. Originally, she had planned to ask Sandra to move with her, but because of their falling out, she decided against it. A month later, Sandra also informed me she was moving out to stay with her brother. I had no choice but to let her go too.

One benefit of renting an entire house is that you can adjust the rent for each room, making it more affordable. However, the downside is that if a room is left vacant, you have to cover the cost. Since Anna and I were sharing the responsibility as the main tenants, we both had to bear the financial burden when tenants moved out.

For nearly a month, we struggled to find new tenants, so Anna tapped into her Vietnamese rental group and found a brother and sister to rent the rooms. The sister, Gina, was a nurse, and her brother was a student. Unfortunately, the brother had issues with his student pass and couldn’t move in. Coincidentally, Anna's colleague, Miss Nancy, was looking for a room, so she moved in, and we finally filled all the rooms.

After some time, issues arose. Gina texted me while I was at the office, letting me know that she was working as a nurse during the early stages of COVID-19, handling tests from the dormitories. Nancy was shocked and asked Gina to inform me. Since I wasn’t sure how to handle the situation, I discussed it with Anna. Nancy became scared and informed her company, a well-known cosmetic brand. They warned her that she might have to move out or work from home. Nancy, feeling anxious, decided to temporarily move in with Anna.

I suggested they discuss the situation with their management, emphasizing that Gina’s work was critical for public health, and we should respect her role. After some discussions, Anna pointed out that it wasn’t fair for Nancy to stay in a shared room while paying a single room’s rent, so we asked Gina to contribute more. However, Gina misunderstood and thought she owned the room, asking if her friends could come over to study and even stay overnight. I explained repeatedly that this wasn’t allowed in an HDB, but she kept insisting. Anna and I sat down with her again, showing her our tenancy agreement, which limited the number of people staying in the property. Gina eventually became frustrated and in tears said she would move out 🫠🫠.

A few days later, the government imposed stricter COVID-19 restrictions, banning visitors to homes. I showed the news to Gina, and she reconsidered moving out. Despite this, after reflecting on the situation, we decided it was best to let her move out. We also found a new tenant, Rika, a Malaysian auditor in her 20s, who was quiet and introverted.

Rika didn’t have bedsheets when she moved in, so I lent her a set, but she didn’t return it until the day she moved out. Despite that, the time with her and the other girls was fun. We helped Rika improve her style, introduced her to dating apps, and even had small parties during the COVID restrictions. We had movie nights and picnics at Sentosa. Eventually, Wendy decided to move back to Malaysia, as her company allowed her to work remotely. She found Emma, another Malaysian, to take her place.

Soon after, Rika also decided to move out, as her aunt offered her a room. I tried to convince her to stay because she was happy staying with us, but she was set on saving rent. I asked her to find a replacement, but most of the potential tenants were from my own efforts. Rika became anxious about her deposit, but eventually, I found a new tenant, Lucia, a mom in her 40s working in Singapore.

Rika moved her things out gradually, day by day. There was even an instance she has to use curtain to cover herself because she had taken her own blanket and pillow to her aunt’s house. As a result, my housemate lend her a blanket for a week.

Nancy felt stressed living in the same room with Miss Lucia, as she often complained a lot of things. Around that time, the landlord’s agent contacted us, saying the landlord wanted to sell the house and wouldn’t be renewing our contract which is ending soon in 2 months time. I discussed with the other tenants whether they wanted to move together or separately. They agreed and decided to move together. Lucia seemed keen on becoming the main tenant of the new place but secretly discussed this with Emma without including the rest of us. Emma told us regarding this and we decided to go for room viewing together instead without her. Anna found a house in Thomson and took charge of communicating with the agent and scheduling the viewing. Initially, she informed us that the appointment was set for 7 p.m. Around 6 p.m., I checked with her to confirm the time, and she told me that she had asked the agent to push it to 7:30 p.m. instead. As we walked from the bus stop to the building, I noticed that the location was quite far, which could be inconvenient if it rained heavily.

We arrived at the condo promptly at 7:30 p.m., and Anna called the agent. She mentioned that Agent 1 had given her the contact information for Agent 2, who was handling the viewing. When Agent 2 answered, he abruptly said that we were late, and he needed to check with the landlord to see if we could still view the room. He then quickly hung up, which felt rude and dismissive.

I called Agent 1 to complain about Agent 2, and he insisted that we were late. I explained that my housemate said they had agreed on 7:30 p.m., and we were already outside the condo. I asked how he could turn us away. He questioned if I was sure about the timing, as he believed it was 7 p.m., but promised to double-check. After hanging up, I asked Anna to show me their conversation. The last message, sent that afternoon, was Anna requesting a time change to 7:30 p.m., but there had been no reply from Agent 1. When I asked her if the 7:30 p.m. time was confirmed, she confidently said it was, through a phone call. As her friend and roommate, I trusted her.

A few minutes later, Agent 2 called Anna back and allowed us to view the rooms. We ultimately decided not to rent due to the agent’s attitude. Nancy deliberately spoke loudly about filing a complaint against them when we walk out from the house, which was exactly what I had in mind as well.

The next day at the office, I texted Anna, asking her to send me screenshots of the conversation and the phone call records as evidence to file a complaint against the agent. She only provided the message where she had asked about changing the time and the call records from 7:30 p.m., when we arrived at the condo. I explained that I also needed proof of the phone call she made earlier in the afternoon. However, she read my message and didn’t reply, which made me suspicious.

Around 6 p.m., she finally responded, saying that she had gone to her friend’s house and used their phone to call the agent. At that point, I decided to drop the complaint, as I had a strong feeling that she never actually received confirmation from the agent and had been dishonest about it. It felt like a dead-end since she claimed it was a house phone call, and I didn’t want to keep pushing the issue if you know what I mean

I told Nancy about the situation, and she felt embarrassed because she had spoken loudly about filing a complaint when we left the condo.

I eventually found another house near Toa Payoh MRT station, but the rent had started to increase, and the asking price was SGD 3,300 per month. After some discussion and careful calculation, we decided to proceed and signed the contract with the landlord. We informed Lucia about the room arrangement: Nancy and Emma would share a common bedroom, while Anna and I would each take a single bedroom. The master bedroom was left available in case Lucia wanted it. However, she chose not to move in with us, explaining that she had found a room in a unit located behind our third home, and she decided to move there instead.

On our move-out day, we received help from Emma’s colleagues, and my boyfriend came to assist as well. He drove me, Emma, and Nancy back to the third house to check on the labours Emma had arranged. While Emma and Nancy went to buy drinks for them, I went up to our third house. When I arrived, I noticed some labours packing and moving items for Lucia. At first, I assumed Lucia had hired them herself. However, when Emma returned, she was furious, realizing that Lucia had taken the liberty to instruct Emma's labours to move her belongings instead. Emma eventually instructed the labours to put Lucia’s belongings aside and focus solely on moving our items.

While there were certainly ups and downs, my experience at the fourth house was the worst compared to all the other places I’ve lived. Stay tuned for my next post to find out what happened in my fourth house.

**

The names and identifying details in this story have been changed to protect the privacy of individuals

**

Do check out my first 2 chapter here:

Chapter 2: My 2nd Rented Home in SG

Chapter 1: My 1st Rented Home in SG

Continue with Chapter 4 here:

Chapter 4 (Part 1): My 4th Rented Home in SG

#storytime #myrentinsgstory #rentinsg