A few months back our landlord appointment her nephew who is also a lawyer to take over from her son who we've been dealing with all this while with no problems. So we had to agree to deal with new person. By the way our tenancy agreement has expired but both parties forgot to highlight. Agreement does not specify who has to prompt upon expiry.

Anyway, in the midst of reading the new agreement, we were surprised to find a new legal fee that we've never had to incur. And we decided not to pay because we did not request for the lawyer. So we decided not to renew tenancy and move one month from now on 23 Aug.

During our very first agreement (with landlord's son who is very nice) we were told to pay every 21st of the month. And this is what we've been doing every month so far for years without any problems. So for our last month here, we have paid full from 21 Jul - 20 Aug. And we have calculated a prorated rate for 21-23 Aug. However lawyer nephew has demanded that we pay full price for 21 -23 Aug, he said no prorate allowed. Does he have a right to ask this? We feel he is taking revenge on us for refusing to pay lawyer fees and deciding to leave. What should we do? Bear in mind they are holding our 2 months deposit.

Thanks in advance.

This post has been edited by vocalize: Jul 25 2016, 01:03 AM

tell him to f**k off as the the agreement was not signed with him. just ignore him

I know u r probably fighting base on prinsipal. but is it really worth all the anger n effort to escape a 3 days rent?

Thanks for your reply. We are not trying to escape the 3 days rent. We have calculated a prorate of the 3 days and have offered to pay the prorate. E.g.: if rent is rm2000 we will pay rm200 (2000 ÷ 30days x 3 days). But landlord is asking for full rm2000 for the 3 days. Is that right? Do you think paying rm2000 for 3 days is something we should just agree to?

Haha I wish I could do that. But he still holds our 2 months deposit. How? Can I report him to any tribunal?

Oh sorry. I missunderstood your first post.

ah...forgot that part. try talking to the owner's son. it's unreasonable for them to ask you to pay the whole month for another 3 days stay.

Firstly, it has always been the tenant's obligation to prompt for a renewal of the tenancy agreement upon expiry which is why they are called "Option to Renew". The landlord cannot force upon the tenant to take up a tenancy in which they do not want.

Secondly, you signed an agreement which contains an unfavorable costs clause but too bad, you're bound. As uncompassionate as it may sound, you should have read the agreement before you sign so basically, there's no one you can blame by yourself. Be a man and stick to it and make life less difficult for everyone.

Thirdly, is this "lawyer nephew" fresh? Fresh lawyers have the habit of doing everything "by the law" to show that they "know the law" and often forgot about commercial goodwill. Have you tried talking to the landlord's son and informed him about the whole situation (which i think you should).

Fourthly, in respect of rights. That "lawyer nephew" can do anything (if he is authorized by the landlord). If the tenancy agreement has expired and not renewed, they can even claimed that you are trespassing. Arrears claimed is as of right but they cannot forfeit money more than what is owed from your deposits. If the previous tenancy agreement is the standard kind, they need tor refund you everything once the tenancy agreement has expired provided you have not breach any terms.

Lastly, don't be lazy to read agreements.

It's not right to pay a full monthly rental when you are only in occupation for 3 days. Pro-rate is the way to go. Ask for a written justification for their demand and ask them to make reference to the previous tenancy agreement. if they can't and decided to go "cowboy" on you, threaten to bring all of them to the Small Claims Court.

Thanks for your reply.

Could you explain further what you mean by ''unfavorable costs clause''? We have actually not signed any new agreement, and we're effectively not covered by any agreement right now as the previous one expired a few months ago. We actually read the previous agreement (agreement with son) in detail, the previous agreement (expired) has no clause for renewal of tenancy term. We did not know that it should have this at that time, as we are not legal experts.

Unfortunately, the lawyer nephew is a middle-aged man who is out to make us suffer for refusing to pay his legal fees (we did not agree to appoint him why should we pay him).

If we go to Small Claims Court, what are our chances? We are worried he will find other ways to slap us with legal suits.

Our other thought is to give in reluctantly but ask him to minus off from the 2 months deposit, we don't want to pay him anymore as we're worried he finds other excuses not to return our deposit after we pay him one more month for that 3 days. Can he take any legal action?

Why cann't TS just move our 3 days earlier... Solve all the problems.

We want to, but lawyer nephew is unwilling to grant us that because we sent him our 1-month notice of ending the tenancy on 23 July. So it's until 22 Aug. For that few days from 20-22 Aug he is not letting us go without paying full. He is finding ways to punish us.

After we leave and I tell all my neighbours and friends can he sue me for anything? I want to warn people to be careful of him.

So in the previous contract, does it state that one month written notice is needed and can be penalize?
So if he die die want to penalize you for 1 month, stay until 20 September then only leave

Unfavorable costs clause isn't a specific terminology. It's just a phrase reflecting an unfavorable clause in respect of costs, to be taken literally. It's quite odd for your previous tenancy agreement to not have an option to renew clause because then it would have stated clearly who bears the costs for the renewal.

Middle aged man doesn't mean he could be a senior. Many people passed the Bar exams much later in their lives. Get his name and do a search in the Bar Council directory but that is besides the point. How much is he charging, get a Tax Invoice from him and share it here and see if he charges exorbitantly. A tenancy agreement for a RM2,000.00 monthly rental isn't going to cost you a limb, neither the stamp duty. I'm assuming it should costs less than RM1,500.00.

At the end of the day, it boils down to how much you want this transaction to go through. Although you did not appoint the lawyer but commercial practice is that tenants bear the costs for the tenancy agreement. If it's not unreasonable then just pay and get on with your life. No point haggering.

If costs is really an issue to you then propose to the landlord that to use the same template as the previous tenancy agreement. Legally speaking, you don't need a lawyer to prepare a valid and enforceable tenancy agreement.

If you didn't breach any terms of the previous agreement then your chances of winning is very high provided that you have been truthful here.

In tenancy agreement cases, landlord usually goes for a distress action unless of course you have damaged the property in one way or another.

He has his own firm. The law firm is under his name. So I'm assuming he knows how to make it difficult for us.
Lawyer fees he wanted to split was RM350 + RM50 disbursement (RM400 each party) for RM1800 monthly for 3 years.
But we have already decided not to stay on because we are not happy with him and feel angry to stay here even though we end up paying less if we stay. What made us want to move was when he did not highlight to us that there would be legal fees until we saw it in the new contract and asked him what fees is this? He then said we should have known since he is a lawyer. So we asked him, who are you representing? He said both landlord and tenant, as it is standard to use same lawyer. We asked isn't this a conflict of interests? And how come we did not know you are representing us? We did not appoint you. He was rude to us when he said all this.
So because of this we feel that he is very unreasonable and unethical and we don't want to stay here anymore. I am losing sleep because I'm so upset.

And honest to God we are good tenants and did not breach the contract except for the lapse which we did not know to highlight. Previously, when dealing with son, he always highlighted. When lawyer nephew took over just a few weeks before our earlier agreement expired, he did not even make an effort to follow up with renewal.
As further proof that we are good tenants, lawyer nephew actually sternly told us 1 day after we sent him our notice of ending tenancy to say that he spoke to his aunt/our landlord and she has agreed to absorb the fees for this term because we are good tenants for years and have been no problem. We said thanks but no thanks. Why didn't he check with her 1 day ago when we were negotiating this? At that time, he arrogantly said you can leave if you don't agree and so we did.

Sorry, I needed to rant. haha..

Obviously this nephew lawyer is trying to take advantage of you, did you try talking to the landlord directly? If you have been a good tenant as you said you are, I'm sure the landlord should be more than willing to help resolve this without involving that @$$hole lawyer

We have not spoken to her. Unfortunately, we do not have her phone number as we have always been dealing with her son. We did think about calling son up but lawyer warned us not to call either of them as he said he has already spoken to them.
And since he still holds our deposit, we are worried he will spin up something to keep it.

Anyway, my family has decided to agree to all his terms and then wait for his deposit as he promised to return to us one month after we leave. Let the evil snake win. If he doesn't return it we will try to file a complaint with the small claims court.

We will ask him to come and check the place together on the last day and hand keys over. Pray that he does not become difficult and say that he will only check it after keys handover.

now august redi, so who win?

Landlord won. We are good tenants and don't want to fight even though he is unreasonable. We will just pay as he requested and leave. We're comforting ourselves that it is short term gain for him as it is going to be hard to find new tenants. And our new landlord seem nice.

This post has been edited by vocalize: Aug 10 2016, 12:47 AM

U make full payment ?

Extra 3 days but demand for full month payment it's unfair.