Looking at the latest round of numbers, it appears as if more and more
expats are becoming victim of dodgy landlords, bogus lease agreements,
deposits that simply disappear and a host of other rental issues that leaves
fresh arrivals swindled even before they had a chance to settle down in
their newly adopted home.

In fact, Consumers Association of Singapore, CASE, a consumer advocate
organisation there that keeps track of complaints logged by people that have
been duped, found that in the October 2008 - March 2009 period foreigners
lodged 32 out of the total of 365 complaints against realty agents. This
constitutes a 23% increase from the 26, out of 516 complaints in the same
period a year before.

Meanwhile, the Institute of Estate Agents in Singapore
received five complaints from foreigners since last October. Perhaps
tellingly, none the agents involved was IEA registered. The most common
complaints were overcharging and not honoring agreements made, especially
when it came to returning deposits and advanced payments.

Another ruse you see here is the fake landlord. Recently, the Singapore
Straits Times reported on a suspected fake landlord who claimed to be the
owner of an apartment on 14 Scotts Road and was looking to rent out his
unit. However, this address is actually the location of a shopping centre
called Far East Plaza. After pressing him for more details, he hung up and
never replied to the paper's inquiries again.

As expat populations grow, conmen like this are seemingly becoming ever more
numerous and ever more brazen, targeting foreigners in particular who are
looking to rent a property. New arrivals are especially easy targets because
obviously they're not as clued in to the property industry as the local
population or long-term expats.

Posing as condo owners, these conmen send potential tenants fake addresses
and pictures of well-furnished homes to entice unsuspecting foreigners into
transferring security deposits to them. When these tenant hopefuls request
for a meeting, the "landlord" simply claims to be overseas for business.
Eventually, as in the case above, the tricksters are never heard from again.

The good news is that in the past few weeks several fake landlords have been
tried and convicted for cheating. In addition, the Singapore government has
introduced a bevvy of new laws aimed at discouraging dodgy agents and
landlords from trying to swindle new expats.

Still, the lesson to be learned here is to always make sure that the
landlord you're dealing with is indeed the owner of the property you're
interested in. Better yet, enlist a realty agent with plenty of local
knowledge to filter out the bad apples for you so you have one fewer
potential headache to worry about.

Bryannn