Moving House

Moving House

After agreeing to extend the lease of my current place for another 2 years, the new landlord (he acquired the shophouse from the former landlord, who, for personal reasons, had to sell the place) reneged on his part of the verbal agreement.

The landlord told me that his wife wanted to sell stuff at the shop space below and use the flat above as her "office". Initially, he said he would give us three months to look for a new place (i.e. move out by Aug 06), then when we called him again regarding paying HIM for utilities, he said that he wanted us out by the end of contract (i.e. mid Jul 06). This left me with no choice but to look for another place to stay. And fast!

So, the viewing began. After viewing enough houses and getting enough of uninhabitable places at exorbitant rental rates, my housemate and I decided to bite the bullet and go for a slightly more expensive place. The environment is a vast improvement over the current place, the place is about twice as big, the air is fresh and crisp, and the house is bright and airy. The rent is higher, of course, but it is just a tad more than what I would have to pay if I were to rent a place that is of the same floor area now. Go figure. I did and I reckoned this is a good deal. I guess I'll just spend less, travel less, eat less lavish stuff to top up the rent. (Fortunately, it is not really *that* bad.)

Just an aside: I only recently figured out that there are houseowners who actually rent their flats out to foreign workers. A three-room flat (68 square metres) on top of a shophouse (where I am putting up now) can command a price of $1200, accommodating 12 foreign workers. Don't ask me how but according to a four-room flat (91 square metres) owner, she used to rent her flat to 8 foreign workers (in name, but in reality, it's more like 16). What they did was: Morning shift sleep in house, evening shift work outfield; evening shift sleep in house, morning shift work outfield. Basically, the house is used by workers from 2 shifts. And she used to collect about $1300 for the place.

I've visited the place and it really looked like a refugee camp. How could almost everything be in shambles? Even the sides of a porcelain squatting toilet pan were shattered. The wall tiles cracked and hung precariously off the ceiling. And she tried to rent the place to my housemate and I for $1100. We both freaked out.

For posterity's sake, I'll briefly mention another case of a flat co-owner who backed out after the other co-owner, a 80-plus year old woman, said she wanted to go back to her place (to die?). And to make up for this unexpected twist of events, the housing agent sent us to view a house whose occupants left an oil-slick in the kitchen, and they left their house stinking so badly I could smell it 3 units away. I ticked the agent off and told her that I won't even rent the place for $300. I'd rather die homeless in the streets!

We've even checked out flats from commercial property management companies. The properties were not bad at all and better still, their rents are very reasonable. But our desired place (the rent is what we are paying now) did not have vacancies. So, we dragged ass till we simply had no time to leave bum prints on the ground any more.

Anyway, this flat that came along was a god-send. It just came on the papers for the first time, we were the first caller and we nailed it. Although it could do with a fresh coat of paint, some of the switches and handles are in need of replacement, and new SCV points needed to be installed, the landlord agreed to foot the bill for most of these (painting labour is on us, the tenants, but what the heck!).

In all, we're pleased with our new place and it gave us a new "lease of life". The landlord is a pleasant lady and who knows, one of us might end up owning this place in the end.

Sometimes, it is really true that "when god closes a door, he opens a window". In this case, I think he closed a shutter but made available a whole new world outside.

Afternote: Just last Saturday, I saw that the shophouse landlord had posted notices to invite rental for the entire shophouse. What a failure. Or is it henpecked, spineless amoeba? If he feels our rent had been very low, then discuss rental adjustments. Why evict us? But thankfully to him, we've found ourselves some place that is really great for living. And may I wish him no success in getting anyone to rent that place. May he pay finance instalments in vain for the next 100 months before he finds a willing taker! (I wonder if this AT LEAST matches the Arabic curse "May the fleas of a thousand camels infest your armpit" in terms of viciousness!)