My mistake in selecting a wrong landlord

Everyone makes mistake in life but not everyone makes mistake and learnt from it.
What does I mean “learnt from it”?
If you can write down or list down how to avoid the same mistake again, you have learn from your mistake.
After your first mistake made, you learn how to do the same task/similar decision better and wiser. In fact the best method is learn first before you take a major decision.

Here’s my real world example
Before you rent a shop to do business (in my case, is Excel training business), learn first from few successful business owner, ask them how to select the right shop lot, right shop owner. Make sure you ask the right person who already own several successful business, not just any friend, colleague.
Spend some times or days to research how to select, attend a right seminar(if any, on selecting shop lot), the best way is to get advices from few property agents, not just one.
You have a better chance to rent and do business for long term. You would start your business today and want to close down on the second month, right?
Here’s my painful experience for not selecting wisely
I rented a shop lot in year 2013.
My director and I, both went to view a shop lot.
Both of us are newbie in selecting shop lot, we do have some success in helping corporate to learn Excel, but that doesn’t mean we are good at selecting shop lot too.
So, we met the property agent and an old man who we perceive as the landlord.
So, as usual, the landlord will says “OK”, “OK” for the question we asked during viewing the property. So we have a feeling that we can “trust” the landlord and we signed the tenancy agreement.
So, we moved in and we renovate the unit. It is an empty unit.
Every month we paid the rental on time. Everything goes well until challenge comes.
The unit is water leaking when heavy rain happened. So we told to the old man and the old man aid it isn’t his responsibility, and he pass the responsible to the real landlord which receive the rental month to month.
When we try to call the real landlord (named Allan), we have a hard time to reach him. He is not picking up calls or replying sms for days, whatsapp is even worst.
And after chasing him for weeks, he finally return call and he said that it is tenant responsibility to fix it.
The story goes on…
Remember we renovate the unit and partition it well, because of such incident, when the tenancy agreement is expired, he decided not to continue renting to us. He has his right, we beg him to extend few more months, but he refuse to do so.
We face nightmare, and we were busy finding a new shop lot to have our next Excel training. Luckily, we got a friend’s friend who happen wanting to rent his shop lot and that’s why now our training center is located at Bandar Puteri, Puchong. The new place is already well renovated. What a blessing we finally found.
My point is – when I selecting the shop lot, I didn’t consider well. I act on the spot.
I didn’t think. I didn’t carefully think
What is the best way to minimize my expenditure in renting a training space?
How can I best select the right training venue.
I learnt from my mistake, I become wiser in selecting.

Lesson learnt:
Ensure the landlord is the true landlord. Before I pay my deposit, I will want to see a Sales and Purchase Agreement with the landlord name written there, Else I won’t pay a single cent.
Don’t rush to make decision on the spot. The unit may looks perfectly suitable, but it cannot be the only one.
Renting a shop lot is also a big decision.
As a matter of fact, I just view two shop lot lately, but I didn’t take action although the landlord (again, perceive to be landlord) says “Please reply within few days time”, I just politely thank him. Then the other shoplot’s owner said “first come first serve. There is another one coming to view this evening”. Well, this kind of pressuring sales won’t work on me anymore.
I know how to select it well through costly education, but I do learnt from my mistake.
I am writing this to help those who in the middle of selecting shop lot to rent.

If leakage due to structural it's the landlord responsibility. If leakage due to ur reno it's ur responsibility.

Landlord can't terminate with immediate effect. TA has stated xx days or x mths in written notice which I suppose is sufficient for moving out.

M2c

in malaysia, there is no Act to govern for tenancy unlike sale of property under national land code.

we only baser on tenancy agreement (under Contract Act) which normally is sided to tenant. welandlord is to sue to evict the tenant, its very time consuming and costly.

If i am the tenant, landlord don't repair, i just send out the email and get my contractor to repair and the money deducted from my rental.

few advises :

1) Read ur tenancy agreement properly before u sign them. If not happy, ask to amend terms inside
2) A tenancy term of 2 + 2 or 3 + 2, or 2 + 2 + 2 yr or any variation of similiar sort is very common that give tenant option to extend if condition met.
3) tenancy agreement clearly state it is ur responsibilty few months ( usually 3 mths) before term end to either inform landlord whether u intend to extend or want to nego a new agreement again. So both have plenty of time to act upon, in ur article u didnt seem to be doing that
4) be in contact with ur landlord or person in charge regularly , if u think the damage is due to building defect, give ur landlord a notice to repair with a timeframe. Failing which inform him u will engage ur own people to quote and repair and deduct from ur monthly rental. This is the common practice as landlord most of the time do not want to be bothered with small repair issue.
5) again , read the agreement properly. U have ur right and landlord has their right too to do whatever that didnt contravene the tenancy agreement.

I will consult you next time before I rent a shop lot. Don't worry you will get paid for your service : )
I valued your service much.

This is a minor problem. The bigger problem is when you leave, and the landlord refuse to refund your deposit. Some will even claim damages you didn't make (pre-existing faults before you move in, or exaggerated, and they get their friends to make up bills for repair/cleaning). Some landlords simply hide from you and claim they are overseas everytime you phone them. If the amount is too small, most people wouldn't sue.

Tenants retaliate by (1) taking photo and noting down defects, they then get the landlord to sign for these before they move in (2) creating "handover letters", where they get the landlord to inspect, sign and confirm the premises are returned in good condition when they return the shop. Obviously this means making an appointment to meet at the shop. (3) "using up" their deposits. When they decide to leave, they do not inform the landlord properly. Instead, they start to delay their payments. And by the date that they are actually leaving, they've used up all their deposits.

The UK system is a lot better. The landlord don't simply keep the deposit in their own bank account. There would be times when there are landlords with serious cash flow problems who've used the tenant's deposits for other things, and simply can't come up with the money when they need to refund it. If the shop gets a new tenant immediately, they can just take the new deposit and use part of it to pay the old tenant. But when there's a gap of a few months, the tenant could simply lose their entire deposit.

This post has been edited by zeb kew: Dec 6 2015, 11:47 AM

Ts,

Dealing with the Landlord's agent is pretty common. Even if you carry out your due diligence to ensure that the landlord is who he say he is or your landlord may project a courteous demeanor (as in easy to deal with), at the end of the day, it all boils down to what you have in the agreement.

Having a nice landlord mitigates half of your problem but if you don't read or understand it, you will get into trouble sooner or later.

Tenancy is a fairly simple document but almost always the tenant is victimized by the landlord.

I have summarized and identified some of the issues in a guide, i hope you will find it useful in ur future tenancy.

https://forum.lowyat.net/index.php?showtopi...l=tenancy+guide

Aurora97, I remember you. You are highly knowledgable in tenancy issue, would you want to consider become this as a profession?

i consider this as a hobby. sharing knowledge and solving problems are fun.

Well, I will call you out when I want to rent my next shop lot, I will treat you a good lunch and dinner for doing so, since you consider as a hobby : )

The beauty of a forum, you have an infinite amount of people exchanging knowledge with other people so that one can learn from others new ideas, problems and perspectives. The answers given are quick references that enable you to solve a problem, however it doesn’t necessarily mean the answer is complete, accurate, timely or even correct. You should always cross-check with a reliable source as well before committing to the answer/solution.

Now what I am trying to point out is, I float an idea, solution or perspective without any obligation or liability to anyone. “Compensation” (to me at least) may imply a deeper meaning or even an obligation, in which case I am not prepared to undertake especially in the event the answer turns out to be wrong.

As a matter of principle, I politely decline your treat to a good lunch and dinner.

That being said, I hope yourself or anyone in forum will continuously feed me with your problems and I will attempt to churn out the best answer/solution that I am aware of or able to produce.

I recommend that you simply ask him to pay it forward.