Asked by Anonymous
Hi everyone, hoping to get some advice or hear from others with similar experiences.
We’ve been renting our current unit for over 2 years and recently renewed the lease (June 2024 – present for our new TA). We’re foreign tenants and, only got our child’s confirmed school placement for p1 after the renewal. Due to the long daily commute (over 1 hour each way), we’ve decided to move closer to the new school for our child’s well-being.
We informed the agent and landlord immediately upon receiving the MOE letter and gave a full 6 months’ notice. At the start of discussions, the understanding was that we could get a full deposit refund provided we found a replacement tenant and covered the prorated agent fee — which we agreed to. However, we weren’t made aware of any specific tenant preferences at the time.
It was only after we began passing on confirmed leads that we were told certain profiles (e.g. only family profiles) were acceptable. This made things increasingly difficult, especially with the current soft rental market and the fact that the unit is unfurnished.
Despite the challenges, we’ve been cooperative and proactive throughout — advertising, arranging viewings, following up, and even offering to move earlier if needed. We also proposed a fallback option: forfeiting one month’s deposit if no tenant is secured by our planned move out June (timed with the school holidays to ease our kids into the new routine). Unfortunately, we’ve received no formal response to this proposal.
Our lease also did not include a diplomatic clause — something we’ve since learned is a common and fair inclusion for foreign tenants — and we are now worried about potentially losing both months’ deposit despite acting in good faith.
We’re now considering filing with the Small Claims Tribunal if no fair resolution is reached. Has anyone been in a similar situation or have advice on what’s typically fair practice in cases like this?
We genuinely tried our best and still hope to resolve this amicably. We also understand the landlord wouldn’t want to lose rental income, but we hope that the strict preferences, the unfurnished setup, and our proactive efforts are taken into consideration too.
Thanks in advance for any insight
We’ve been renting our current unit for over 2 years and recently renewed the lease (June 2024 – present for our new TA). We’re foreign tenants and, only got our child’s confirmed school placement for p1 after the renewal. Due to the long daily commute (over 1 hour each way), we’ve decided to move closer to the new school for our child’s well-being.
We informed the agent and landlord immediately upon receiving the MOE letter and gave a full 6 months’ notice. At the start of discussions, the understanding was that we could get a full deposit refund provided we found a replacement tenant and covered the prorated agent fee — which we agreed to. However, we weren’t made aware of any specific tenant preferences at the time.
It was only after we began passing on confirmed leads that we were told certain profiles (e.g. only family profiles) were acceptable. This made things increasingly difficult, especially with the current soft rental market and the fact that the unit is unfurnished.
Despite the challenges, we’ve been cooperative and proactive throughout — advertising, arranging viewings, following up, and even offering to move earlier if needed. We also proposed a fallback option: forfeiting one month’s deposit if no tenant is secured by our planned move out June (timed with the school holidays to ease our kids into the new routine). Unfortunately, we’ve received no formal response to this proposal.
Our lease also did not include a diplomatic clause — something we’ve since learned is a common and fair inclusion for foreign tenants — and we are now worried about potentially losing both months’ deposit despite acting in good faith.
We’re now considering filing with the Small Claims Tribunal if no fair resolution is reached. Has anyone been in a similar situation or have advice on what’s typically fair practice in cases like this?
We genuinely tried our best and still hope to resolve this amicably. We also understand the landlord wouldn’t want to lose rental income, but we hope that the strict preferences, the unfurnished setup, and our proactive efforts are taken into consideration too.
Thanks in advance for any insight
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