AFTER they signed an agreement to rent a five-room Housing Board flat, the landlord refused to let them move in.

The dispute then took a bizarre turn - the landlord died.

This has left the four students from China poorer by $3,000, despite having a Small Claims Tribunal ruling in their favour.

Miss Liu Yu, 21, and three friends - two men, both 21, and a woman, 26 - are studying business-related courses in private schools here.

In March, a property agent showed them a flat in Serangoon.

Miss Liu said they liked it, and paid the landlord $2,000 as a one-month deposit and the agent $1,000 in commission.

They checked the landlord's proof of ownership before signing, she said.

The landlord, a divorcee in her late 30s living in the flat with her daughters, promised to move out before 1 Apr, the tenants' move-in date.

On 1 Apr, the students arrived with their belongings, but nobody answered the door, Miss Liu said.

FLAT NO LONGER AVAILABLE

When they called the landlord's handphone, she said she was in hospital, and that she no longer wanted to rent out the flat.

Miss Liu said that she ignored their demands for the return of their deposit. They also failed to get back the $1,000 commission from the property agent, she claimed.

Friends advised them to go to the Small Claims Tribunal.

On 16 Apr, the tenants attended the tribunal hearing, but the landlord did not turn up. What they didn't know was that she had died by then.

The tribunal awarded them $4,000, as the contract had a clause specifying twomonths' rental as compensation in the event of a breach of agreement.

When they tried to claim the money, a woman claiming to be the landlord's younger sister told them over the phone that her sister had died.

'We didn't know whether or not to believe her,' Miss Liu said.

A police spokesman told The New Paper that they found a dead woman in the flat on 4 Apr, after receiving a 999 call. They have classified it as an unnatural death.

When told of this, Miss Liu said: 'If that is the case, then it's really tragic. I guess we can just count ourselves unlucky.'

Lawyer Amolat Singh said that, under the law, debts do not go away with the debtor's death.

Creditors can sue the estate of the deceased debtor to enforce repayment of debts.

Miss Liu said a lawyer told her it could cost them as much as $1,000 to recover the money.

She and her friends are still mulling over what to do next.

This article was first published in The New Paper on August 2, 2008.