30 YEARS OF TENANT EXPERIENCE
I see things from both sides. Although I am both a home owner and landlord, in Singapore I was a tenant in 5 properties over a 30 year period. Our first flat was centrally located. It was brand new.
TENANTS' CHALLENGES - WILDLIFE
However, it had cockroaches. In the kitchen.
Which is worse, creatures you can see, chase, spray? Or creatures which come out at night and leave behind droppings, trails, holes, smells, or make noises behind the walls.
In England we hear the saying, you are never far from a rat. What about snakes in Singapore? In the USA we were told on a tourist trail though a national park that snakes are scared of noise. You can march heavily, sing, and throw stones ahead to frighten them off the path.
Snakes - invisible
A girl downstairs in our newly built block of lats near central Orchard Road discovered in her school bag a snake skin, which local snakes discard annually. Singapore has 70 species of snake.
In 30 years I never saw one in the city, except a large one on the fence at a noisy party. It obviously hadn't read that small snakes are scared by noise.
Neither had the London snakes learned to beware of humans, noisy nor silent. My parents in London, England, had had a breeding pair of adders in their garden backing onto woodland in Stanmore in 1978. The snake basked in the sun happily beside our neighbour who had been snoozing in a deck chair. Maybe she should have played the radio, quietly.
Apart from wildlife, in Singapore, I had three main problems.
TENANTS' Problems
1 Mould PROBLEMS
As tenants in Singapore, we had mould, from tropical rain running from the flat roof down the outside walls of the skyscraper.
Mould Solutions
Painting over was a temporary solution. The problem returned the following year. Another company had a more expensive but effective solution of removing plaster and adding a waterproof lining.
In the UK the maintenance company rep showed that a device for detecting damp could show the damp from the top corner, being a ceiling leak from pipes or broken guttering. A mould patch half way could be foliage or an overflow pipe from a kitchen boiler.
Mould alongside a bed meant that the one pint of water which every adult, two children or two pets breathe out, was going onto an adjoining wall.
Walls should be free of leaning furniture and furnishing to allow airflow.
So curtains should not rest against windows and walls.
Bedding such as headboards and duvets should be a gap away.
Cupboard contents should be inside racks away from the back wall. Fifties style furniture on feet is best to allow air flow.
CHAIRS
The oriental and Middle eastern style of living, with cushions around the walls and on the floor is fine for hot, dry climates, But the lack of air flow produces moisture turning into mould.
Also windows should be opened.
TENANTS PROBLEMS
2 Missing Furniture or furnishing
We went into the new property and a shelf was missing in a kitchen cupboard.
My family said, don't complain, we don't need it.
When we moved out two years later, our leaving inventory showed a missing shelf, so the letting agent charged us for the replacement. Tenant's loss.
The new curtains didn't quite meet. My family said, don't complain.
3 Street Noise - Tenant's Problem
DAYTIME NOISE
In little India we backed onto a busy street with an Indian temple. We could drown out continuous noise from traffic by playing music.
However, we had loud intermittent noise from processions. Indian processions for example, Thaipusan. And noise from lion dances at Chinese New Year.
Night NOISE
In Singapore you can report noise at night.
A friend of ours with a pilot in the family told us they had been disturbed by builders digging by the road nearby late at night.
The family went out to remonstrate.
The foreman shrugged, and lied. 'We have to dig now. It's a gas leak.'
The family retorted. 'We have already reported you to police who are on their way. It's not a gas leak. This street is on bottled gas.'
The workmen quickly threw their gear into the truck and drove off.
To conclude on Good Tenants' BEST PRACTICE
-ENDS-
