49 year-old Mr Tan, a logistics manager with a local company, had wanted to earn some extra pocket money, so he rented his 5 room Housing Development Board (HDB) flat at Block 714 in Woodlands to a PRC couple from China.
But he soon started to suspect that something was amiss when they tried numerous times to try and prevent him from visiting his own house to collect rent.
When he finally did pay a visit to his flat, he was shocked and enraged to find that the couple had illegally rented out the unit to 20 other PRC sub-tenants within 3 months of their renting the flat from him.
Mr Tan found double-decked beds stacked up in close proximity to each other in the master room, as well as all the other rooms. Hygiene conditions were deplorable, with cockroaches, human feces and dirt cluttered on the floor.
When confronted by Mr Tan and his wife, the PRC couple even had the cheek to lie and claim that nobody slept on those beds as they were only for show.
Mr Tan has since lodged a police report and requested that HDB cancel the lease between him and the PRC couple. The lease has since been cancelled.
Under the law, it is illegal for tenants to sub-let HDB flats without the consent of the flat owners.
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