With rental rates increasing over 10% for HDB in 2021, it is expected that landlords might increase the rental rates.
A netizen shared a story on how his landlord demands a 25% increase in their rental rates.
Here is the story:
Hi, we have been renting a place for almost 2 years and would like to renew the lease. When we contact the agent for a renewal with our intention, he said the rent should increase by a minimum of 25%.
We want to negotiate with the landlord for a 20% increase but the agent refuse to budge and said he won’t let the landlord know about our offer at all unless we agree to 25%. Can the agent do this(not inform the landlord about our intention to renew)?? I don’t have contact details of the landlord sadly, and have been liaising with the landlord’s agent directly. So far he has been rude and hard to deal with… but we have no choice. Any advice? Thanks.
Rental facts:
According to 99.co, “There are, no regulations forbidding property agents to act as a landlord’s agent to some clients and as a tenant’s agent to other clients, so long as those clients are seeking deals for separate properties.”
In another word, the agent can be the landlord(secretly) as the rental contract is with the landlord and it does not matter if the landlord is working as an agent as well. Unless the agency has strict rules on this.
Therefore the answer is: “You will need to question the agency to find out, or you will never know”
Netizens pitch in:
- Are you sure the “agent” isn’t the landlord?
- Just saying, 25% is a great deal in this market. But yeah what the agent is doing is wrong. Tbh he can easily find any other tenant willing to pay 30-40% more now if he lists.
- Just move to another place. There’s no hard law saying he cannot do that. It’s just about ethics. You can try feedback to CEA, see if they can help you or not. Good luck