A netizen shared how he rented a master bedroom at a HDB unit for $1,300 per month from a landlord, who was good and friendly at first, until the payment was made and the agreement was signed.

Here is what he said

This is to share awareness on a recent tenancy in Pasir Ris. Things turn horrid since the second month of staying.

It all started when I saw a listing on Facebook that there is a post that is renting out the Master Bedroom for SGD 1,300.00 per month. I made the arrangement to view the unit, and it was all good and friendly Landlord until payment and TA has been signed.

I have been a good paymaster (paying rents two weeks earlier that requested dates each month) and the nature of my job was to travel alot. Hence, I have only stays approximately 15 to 20 days each month.

It all started when I started washing clothes with a longer mode (1:04 hours) and the landlord came yelling saying that why did I need to wash that long. I have justified that the clothes were rather dirty due to me visiting outdoor sites and nature of my job. Then, after that, all kind of additional rules start coming out. I am only allowed to use air cond from 10pm till 8am weekdays and 10pm to 10am weekends. Washing clothes are only allowed after 7pm. Mind me, that I am staying less than 30 days there and all these additional rules were not in the TA. So I have questioned on all these new rulings and the landlord wasn’t happy about it.

Next minute, he evicted me with less than 30days notice, without any reason, for a merely 2 months’ stay. HDB minimum requirement is 6 months rent, but he said that he will deal with HDB that part. I decided to move out as I do not feel comfortable staying in a HDB with someone like that.

After that, when I was washing clothes after 7pm, I divided the load into two loads so that it will not burden the washing machine. He went through my clothings and then started throwing tantrums by slamming his doors so loud that the neighbours would be able to hear. He was expecting me to wash 7kg load of clothes each time, which again, it wasn’t stated in the Tenancy agreement.

Lastly, on certain weekends when I am staying in Singapore, he would blast his music as loud as possible and do all kinds of knocking and cleaning jobs at 10 in the morning. Indeed, this is by far the worst renting experience as I have rented other properties in other countries previously.

Currently, landlord is blaming me for the toilet grouting and request me to pay for the whole refurbishment. As I have stayed less than half of the time during the three months period and it seems like normal wear and tear. He is withholding the full security deposit and ready to go to court.

My advise to readers, try not to rent a room that is to be shared with landlord, especially a middle aged man who listed “prefer ladies tenant”. That is a red flag. I have learnt it the hard way, and I hope others do not need to experience what I had experienced.

What options do we have against inconsiderate smokers in public areas?

My biggest beef are with these smokers at bus stops. There are limited options that us victims can do. I have tried speaking to them nicely to outright commanding them to stop smoking within 5m of bus stops.

Most of them continue smoking, at most taking a courtesy step away like it makes a difference. Worse, they throw their butts on the ground since the bin is nowadays placed far away.

The worst are aggressive pos who confront u back like they are in the right.

Short of enduring the smoke, what can one do? Can I take photos or videos of them? Send them to police or something?

Netizens’ comments

1. Bring water gun and squirt at their cigarette. I think hard to get angry at someone doing that.
2. take a photo and lodge a complain via myEnv app. i done it once and it works. the dustbin ended up got shifted further away and i have seen enforcement officers walking the ground at my stated location at that specific timing when people smoke (usually rush hour morning crowd)
   even if it doesn’t, there is a continued record of the complain in the app. complain enough time then raise it to your MP
3. you could always walk 5metres in the other direction if you want an immediate solution.
4. Lol funny story, I once had MP walkabout in my estate and when I raised this issue of smoke from filthy smoker neighbours entering my house, the politician literally said “we’ll look into it. Here’s some little things for you and your family” – hastily shoved mosquito repellant bottles into my hand – “feel free to email my office if you have more concerns. Ok thank you bye bye take care!”

Does a good working environment even exist???

The question is what it is. All the 3 companies I’ve worked at before had bad bosses and poor management while lead to unhealthy workplaces. And based off the experiences from my friends and colleagues, it seems like healthy working environments and good work culture are just modern day myths. Has anyone had a genuinely good working experience anywhere?

Some examples of common bad experiences would be:

1. always promising a pay increase/more benefits but never following through
2. higher ups not taking responsibility (and always blaming teams for all mistakes)
3. micromanaging
4. bosses and managers gossiping about employees to other employees all while saying that “we’re a family”
5. praising people who work OT (and not providing compensation) and therefore expecting others to do the same
6. tracking employees’ online activities
7. bosses using company money for their own side ventures
8. limiting when employees can go on leaves/ expecting employees to work even while on MC

Netizens’ comments

1. Good working cultures exist, but you have to keep looking. Personal experience, the list you stated has applied to every locally owned company I’ve worked for, in various degrees. The last one irks me especially. Currently in an MNC, and they’ve kept every promise they made regarding promotions, pay raise and don’t need MC as proof. And when you’re on leave, NOBODY is allowed to bug you for work. It just took me over a decade of work to find this place
2. Places with happy employees, their turnover rates are much lower, hence the odds of even having a vacancy for you to apply for is similarly low.
3. No workplace is perfect since toxic people are everywhere but I think my workplace is pretty decent, all things considered.
   Not only do they not limit when we can go on leave, but we’re actually nagged to clear all our leaves that cannot be carried forward (we can only carry forward 15 days) since any leave forfeitures is considered poor management rather than the reverse.
   We don’t do OT. If someone is consistently staying back they get looked at as low performers with difficulties coping with their work load rather than praised for it.
   Increments and bonuses are declared annually with clear KPIs for bonuses that are tracked and announced quarterly so there are no unpleasant surprises in that regard.
   Gossiping and pushing blame is sadly, still prevalent human nature being what it is, but it’s possible to not take part.

Will I ever see my money again?

I have a close friend whom I loaned >10k five years ago for their startup. The business is open today but apparently making very little profits. I am in no real desperate financial need as I have adequate savings, but I am just wondering about the chances I will ever be repaid.

I also loaned 2k to another friend who got scammed two years ago; they swore to pay me back but yeah, I have yet to see the money too.

Am I just a sucker for not demanding IOUs? How often do you all loan money to others? Did your friend pay you back without asking?

EDIT: Conclusion is that I am a succccccccccker.

Netizens’ comments

1. I’m afraid not. You’re a kind person but a bona fide succccccccccker.
2. my dad was the same way. even partially paid for his girlfriend’s HBD. lent his friends money even though he was struggling with 2 jobs.
   in the end none of them were there for him when things went downhill. sure some came to the funeral but the money gone with him to the grave. generosity is overrated.
3. Well, i am in need of few k.. how do i apply for ur friendship ?
4. For the 10k business that’s still open till today, u probably can ask them to include u as 1 of the owners and then get probably profit sharing till u have recoup ur money. Once recoup, from there, u can either juz leave (since u got back ur 10k) or juz continue being a sleeping shareholder loh.
   For the smaller 2k personal loan, I think it’s as good as gone also.
5. Why don’t you ask them to slowly pay you back $100 – $500 every month. If they can’t even do that count it as your money is gone and they have no intention of ever returning it. Don’t be a sucker in the future.
6. Stop lending people money. As a personal rule I am only willing to lend to immediate family and my best friend. Everyone else, no matter how close, is off the list.
7. One rule especially when you enter working life + for me to learn also:
   NEVER lend money (especially large amounts) to others.
   Have heard of many cases exactly like yours where someone lent like a lot of money to their friend and their friend disappeared/ghosted them and didn’t want to return the money.
   If I were in your situation, I would probably make a police report? I don’t know. What’s the best course of action for this?
   Off topic: The most money I’ve lent to a friend was $1 back in primary school when they forgot to bring money for recess 😂 and when I borrowed from them, I made sure to write down what I owed and pay them back the next day.

Sg landlord’s 3 year old daughter drew on my bedroom wall and they falsely accuse me of doing it

The apartment was full of scribbles on the wall when i moved in the common room to live with my landlords and their 3-year-old kid, so it was a norm for me to find scribbles on any wall.

6 months later, my landlords decided to repaint the walls and they warned their 3 year old daughter not to draw on the living’s room wall.

So surprising not surprising, the kid ended up to go into my room, drawing on my bedroom wall and also destroyed my stuffed toy.

I informed my landlords about the stuffed toy being destroyed (and they denied it, saying their kid is a “good and respectful kid”) but i didnt inform them about the scribbles on the freshly painted wall because again it was a norm to see scribbles on the wall and also i thought they were aware of that.

Fast forward, i moved out today and that is when the mom found out about the drawings on my wall, and she has been going after me forcing me to admit it so i could pay for the repaint.

Also she is trying to force me to admit of causing blood stains on the mattress cover (which were already there when i moved in) so i could also pay for it to be professionally cleaned out. And so far they haven’t returned my deposit. What should i do?

Also when i was oversea for 1.5 month, my landlords wanted to paint my bedroom wall. After they painted the walls they left my bedroom door unlocked and that was when the daughter sneaked in.

I was on vacation oversea for 1.5 month and my landlords wanted to paint my bedroom wall. So i let them paint the wall. And they did not lock it so then their daughter went into my room without them knowing.

This happened around 7pm earlier.

I (18F) was walking on the way home from a shopping centre.

It was going to turn dark + it was raining and I was tired so I wanted to get home quickly.

I noticed there was a man walking behind me and I thought nothing of it.

He continued walking behind me for a while so (me being a paranoid person) I decided to test him and sped walked. When I sped up, I could hear his footsteps speeding up behind me. I kept increasing my speed and his footsteps became quicker too. I started to panic.

I kept turning my head to the sides to watch how close he was using my peripheral vision. I had a very bad gut feeling about him.

Now, I know that people might just be walking in the same direction as me to get to their destinations and I might’ve been overthinking. However, this is the first time where someone (walking behind me) gave me a bad feeling.

Luckily, in front of me, there was this young couple (looked like they were in their late 20s). I happened to be going in the same direction as them also.

When they got further I started walking faster (I was rlly scared ATP) in order not to lose sight of them and “stay close to them” just in case the man behind me tried to harm me or wtv, and I could scream for help (and they’d hear it).

The young couple went to a different direction and I ran with full speed to my block.

When I went into the lift, I quickly pressed the lift buttons and some buttons above the floor I was staying at to be safe.

Was I being stalked or was I just overthinking?

Edit: Forgot to mention that at first, I was walking slowly, and the man didn’t overtake me. He just walked behind me.

The thing that I was worried about was that he sped up when I sped up.

I am not 100% sure if he was indeed stalking me. The only thing that points to him being a stalker is that he sped up when I sped up.

I’ve watched a stalker YouTube video before and they said in such situations, I need to test the stalker more like e.g. walking around some blocks/areas a few times to see if he follows. I didn’t manage to try that method on him as I wanted to get home quickly.

Edit no.2: I wasn’t wearing anything revealing. I was wearing an oversized t-shirt and long shorts that went right above my knees. The typical “xmm” outfit.

My (31M) boyfriend says I’m (31F) too masculine and I don’t let him be a “man.”

I admit, I can have a strong personality and like “masculine” things according to him. Things like playing pool, studying engineering, and listening to comedy are some. I do like to voice my thoughts and don’t mind a debate. I’m a “modern woman”.

Anyways, he’s been ranting often about letting him “be a man” and to stop being so dominant. Small things like buying and carrying a huge bottles of drinks up to our apartment was a power move. Or doing things on my own is showing I don’t need him. It’s a bit much.

There’s something that just doesn’t let me be feminine around him because I feel like if I don’t take action, things either don’t get done or fall apart.

He’s so fixated that he wants to be a “masculine man” in the relationship yet he’s the more emotionally unstable one, can’t support me financially, and irresponsible at times.

If he wants to fulfill that “traditional male” role but doesn’t put the effort then how can I even support his ask?

Netizens’ comments

1. He needs to see a therapist, not blame his insecurities on your hobbies, interests, and abilities. That can become, if isn’t already, straight up toxic.
2. When tf did playing pool and listening to comedy become male only ?!
   Engineering, I know a girl who studied this, only girl in the class, they were all horrible to her.
   She now has a very lucrative job and flies all round the world and loves it. She says even now she finds those a-holes who don’t think she should be in her job.
3. I feel like you’ve presented the problem perfectly. He can’t be a man if he still behaves like a little boy.
   Also, welcome to the 21st century, where women have to assume “both traditional roles” because the average man is as useless in the house as a hundred years ago, and then some.
4. The only men who say entering, playing pool, getting the water you need etc isn’t fine is men who don’t want the option it poses when women are allowed (and clearly can) do these things.
   So now he is trying to guilt you into not doing these things he clearly can’t or won’t do by designating these actions as masculine and you abnormal for successfully completing them

I [23M] shot my shot with a waitress [22F] and got a positive response only to get ghosted later.

Okay so, I was a restaurant eating dinner and noticed a cute waitress. I hesitated a lot at first but then walked up to her when I noticed she was free, introduced myself, and asked if I could get her number. She refused, so I apologized, and turned around to go back to my table.

But then I heard her say something but couldn’t make out what it was, so I turned back and asked her, she said “-Her instagram tag here-, this is my Instagram account.” I was surprised so I asked her “do I DM you there?” And she said yes.

We were stealing glances at each other for the rest of the time I was at the restaurant so I thought I was going good.

Later on that night I give her a follow and tried to DM her, but it turns out she doesn’t allow people she doesn’t follow to send her DMs.

So I give it time thinking she’ll just follow me back and we’ll be able to talk then. She doesn’t, and ends up uploading a new story.

I thought maybe she just didn’t recognize me. I check her story and notice I can actually reply to the story even though I can’t outright DM her so I do that introducing myself and asking her how her day went as a reply to the story.

It’s been two days and she has not replied to me.

I honestly have no idea what to make of the situation; on one hand it seemed like it was really smooth sailing and everything was going well, but then this happens.

Did I mess up somehow? Am I missing something? Should I be doing something about it?