by Elysa Chen

IT is time we come down hard on cheating landlords. The call comes from none other than prominent lawyer and former district judge Edmond Pereira.

Responding to queries from The New Paper on the increase in such cases, Mr Pereira has suggested harsher sentences to act as a deterrent to these landlords.

These cheats prey on unsuspecting tenants, collect rents from different parties and then vanish before the tenants can move in.

Five such cases were reported in the media recently. A couple from India was cheated twice, by two different landlords.

In a recent case, one rental cheat made away with more than $6,000 in rent paid to her by two parties. (See report at right).

Mr Pereira said: 'We have to get tough on them and take some hard measures, otherwise, innocent tenants will lose out.'

Some measures suggested by Mr Pereira included not allowing such landlords to acquire another Housing Board unit for the next five to 10 years and confiscating their flat.

He said: 'Hopefully, such measures will wake them up. With the possibility of losing their property, perhaps they will think twice before cheating people.'

Mr Seah Seng Choon, executive director of the Consumers Association of Singapore, agreed that such landlords should not be let off easily.

He said: 'In the most recent case, the new tenants should have spoken to the existing tenants to verify when their lease would expire, and confirm whether the claim made by the agent and the landlord tallied with what they were told.

'They should also have asked to see documents proving the ownership of the house, and in this case, a lawyer's letter authorising this person to rent out the house.'

Mr Jeffhery Foo Chee Keong, council president of the Institute of Estate Agents, urged property agents to 'do their due diligence to check on landlords', as that is the recourse for tenants if they were to fall prey to such cheats.

Lawyer Luke Lee, who was with the police as an investigator for eight years before leaving in 1989 to practise law, said: 'This is definitely a police case. It's a crime under section 420 of the Penal Code.

'If the police do not do anything about this, it would encourage crime.'

The punishment for such a crime, Mr Lee said, is mandatory jail of up to seven years.

He suggested setting up a registry for all landlords intending to rent out their property. Tenants who wanted more accountability from their landlords could then request for proof of their registration with this body.

But Mr Mark Goh, another lawyer, viewed such cases as nothing more than ordinary civil disputes.

'It is very unfair for the tenants, but they are entitled to legal redress, even if they do not have money to find their own lawyers,' he said, adding that victims could seek help from the Law Society's free legal services.

This article was first published in The New Paper on August 25, 2008.