You will be able to read the repair and handover clauses and protect your deposit.
A colleague of Meera's moved out of her rented flat in Tampines last year and waited six weeks for her deposit. When it came, it was S$900 short. The landlord listed a stained sofa, a cracked bathroom tile and "general cleaning". She was sure the tile had been cracked when she moved in. She had no photo to prove it, and the agreement said the tenant returns the flat in the condition it was received, fair wear and tear excepted. She paid.
A deposit dispute at move-out often turns on what you recorded at move-in. This lesson covers the clauses that decide who pays for repairs during the lease and what comes off your deposit at the end, and the record that protects you.
Most tenancy agreements say who pays for repairs while you live there. A common arrangement is a minor repair clause: the tenant pays for small repairs up to a stated amount, and the landlord pays above it. The amount is in your agreement.
The detail that matters is how the amount applies, because agreements word it differently, and the difference can be real money. Here are three versions, using a limit of S$150 as an example figure and a year with three repairs costing S$80, S$120 and S$400.
If the tenant pays up to S$150 of each repair and the landlord pays any excess, the tenant pays S$80, S$120 and S$150, which is S$350. If the tenant pays for any repair costing S$150 or less, and the landlord pays the whole of any repair above that, the tenant pays S$80 and S$120, which is S$200. If the S$150 is a yearly total for all minor repairs, the tenant pays S$150 for the year.
Read your clause and work out which version it is. If you can't tell, ask for the wording to be made clear before you sign. Also check what counts as a repair and what's excluded, such as structural defects or appliances that fail on their own.
Most agreements separate fair wear and tear from damage. Fair wear and tear is the decline that comes from normal use over time: paint fading, carpet thinning where people walk, small marks on walls, a mattress softening. That's normally the landlord's cost, because it happens no matter how careful you are.
Damage is something beyond normal use: a burn on the countertop, a hole in a wall, a broken door, a stain that wasn't there. That's normally the tenant's cost, and the landlord can deduct it from the deposit.
The line between them isn't always obvious, and that's where disputes start. The best defence is evidence of what the place looked like when you arrived.
On or before move-in day, make a dated inventory of the flat. Go room by room and list every item the landlord provides, from furniture and appliances to curtains, light fittings and keys, with its condition in a few words. Note every existing mark, crack, stain, chip or fault, however small.
Then photograph everything. Take a wide shot of each room, close-ups of each item and of every defect you listed. Make sure your phone records the date, or put something dated in the shot. Send the inventory and the photos to the landlord or agent by email, and ask them to confirm. An email gives you a dated record they've seen.
At move-out, repeat the exercise with the same list and the same angles. You'll then have two sets of evidence, months or years apart, and any change can be measured against the first.
Meera's colleague would have needed one photo of one tile.
Read the handover terms before you sign. Many agreements require the tenant to have the flat professionally cleaned when moving out, and some require receipts. Many also require the air-conditioners to be serviced at regular intervals during the lease, by a contractor, with records kept. If the agreement sets a schedule, follow it and keep every receipt, because a missing service record is an easy deduction for a landlord to make.
Then find the deposit return clause. It should say how long after handover the landlord has to return the deposit, and on what basis deductions can be made. If it says nothing about timing, ask for a time to be added. An agreement that lets the landlord return the deposit "after inspection" with no deadline gives you little to point to if it doesn't arrive.
On handover day, walk the flat with the landlord or agent, using your inventory. Note anything they raise, agree what's fair wear and tear, and get any agreed deductions in writing before you hand over the keys.
When they moved into the Clementi flat, Ravi and Meera spent an hour on move-in day going through each room. They found a chipped bathroom sink, a stain on one mattress and a window latch that didn't close properly, and photographed all three along with everything else. They emailed the list to the agent that evening and got a reply confirming it.
The bedroom was the slowest, with built-in wardrobes, a bed frame, a mattress, curtains, two air-conditioners and a ceiling fan. That's a good room to start with when you write your own checklist.
Write an inventory checklist for one room with condition notes and a list of photos to take on handover day.
Junxiong-WFG Organisation is an authorised representative of AIA Financial Advisers Private Limited (Reg. No. 201715016G).