my tenants from hell

9.16am

joh eun achim (good morning, in korean). hows it going people? everything ok with you? well i hope so.

i'll be heading back to singapore tomorrow and i have been tying up some loose ends regarding my property that i sold almost a year ago. and let me tell you, its not an easy task. i want to get back my deposit from the utility board and its been taking a while now. i dont know what the problem is with these people who are working at the utility boards. (water and electricity). sigh. these people are just so slow. on top of that, they are so unorganized. seriously!

anyways, after going from one place to another, filling in forms and whatnots, now i have got a problem with my ex tenant. i dont know if they are thick or what, but i had to inform them that i have gone to close my accounts and to kindly change the name to their own names as im no longer the owner of my property. can you beat that? wouldnt that be the first thing that you do after you have purchased a property(if its not new). nooo...i had to spoon feed them. yet, they are rude to me!! via sms!! i really cant stand people like this. i have been a very good owner and never bothered with my tenants as long as they paid on time. on the bright side, the 3 tenants that i rented my property out to were good paymasters. unfortunately, my mother and i have had seen the "other side" of them just before they moved out. as i do not live in my hometown, my mother is the one that is handling the situation(if anything) because she lives here. and yet, they were disrespectful towards her. imagine that.

i wont go into details but just let me tell you, they were mean people. and only recently, my last tenant who bought my house, was rude to me via sms! well basically, i was informing her that i went to the electricity board to close my account and they told me that after the last reading which was late last year, they had deducted some money from my deposit(as the name on the bill was still under my name, i hadnt gone to change it then). so fine. but obviously, i dont live in that house, therefore the right thing was that the tenant should refund me back from whatever amount the electricity board had deducted off from my deposit, right? so, after informing her on this and speaking to her over the phone, she had the cheek to tell me to liaise with the electricity board as its not her problem and she had paid a certain amount, which wasnt the right amount that one puts in as a deposit.(it was under paid).

sigh. i was really mad. and after talking it over with family, my mother told me to just leave it and there wasnt any hope of me getting a single cent from the ex tenant. so i left the matter. and my mother, bless her, wrote in to the electricity board asking them to clarify the matter and asking for past bills. that too was a problem. alot of run around.

i really give up. and now the electricity board has informed us, that the tenant went to change names and under paid the deposit(usually its fixed but i have no idea how come they were allowed to get away with it) but instead gave the old billing number. now, that isnt right. they have to have a new billing name and address. so currently, their money is basically stuck in between. neither here nor there. good, they deserve it!! the way i see it, its the electricity board's problem for not informing them that they should be paying the right amount and also that the old account has been closed by me and that they should have a new billing number instead of the old one. and its the tenant's problem for not knowing what to do and what not to do. nobody told me what i had to do when i first bought the property, i had to find everything out on my own, with the help of my mother of course.

so thats really that. what a way to end my chinese new year. tenants from hell! previous tenants sent my mom rude and mean smses(almost towards the end of their tenancy), which she didnt deserve as she was only the middleman doing me a favor and helping me as much as she possibly can, as i do not live here. and yet my mother never once complained about it, but only informed me on what was going on and  showed me the smses which she kept. i mean, how can these people be like that? it amazes me at times about peoples behavior. i bet you that they are not rude or mean to their elders or friends/family.

as a owner of the property, i have never harassed them in any way for anything. i let them be happy as long as they dont destroy or deface my property then im fine. but  if there was any problem, they would quickly ring my mother up and get her to solve the matter.(if i was in town,i would be doing it of course). so every little issue, was solved as soon as possible, that was our way. fast and efficient. but turn the tables around, they became nasty. this makes me wonder, is it any good being nice when the other party isnt? being mr nice guy sometimes just doesnt cut it. yet mom keeps on instilling in me, to be calm and patient, no point in getting upset or mad with these type of people. she says - "if you get mad, they wouldnt know if you were mad, so whats the point? and if you were to voice it out to them, you dont know what they would end up doing to your property."

alas, i think of the saying - what goes around comes around. i believe in that. one day, all these people will get their comeuppence. just wait and see. and so folks, i really hope you dont get tenants from hell like i did and i do wish you all the best.

have a great week!! will definately check in sometime next week after i've settled back in singapore.

ttfn


10.10am