Help! How To Sue Hdb Owner For Breach Of Otp?

[bengbeng 0]

Hi all,

I need your kind advice.

We signed OTP and paid $5k deposit in mid-Nov 2012, bought from a single seller. We went for our first appointment in Jan only to find out the seller's wife (although she's not an owner) refused to sign the consent form of selling the house & "disappeared" from Singapore as she's a foreigner.

However, even though the husband came for 1st appointment, HDB cannot proceed with the sale. They just wash hand and ask us to sue the owner.

Has anyone engaged a lawyer before in similar situation (i.e. breach of OTP)? How much is the lawyer's fee and how long does the process take roughly?

Do you think we can win the lawsuit since the owner is also a "victim" in this case?

And worse, the owner has no money. He has history of loan shark harassing although now he has cleared his debt (so as he claimed). Even if we sue him for Liquidated Damages, he will be declared of undischarged bankrupt rite? Can I sue him to sell the property instead?

Many thanks for your help!

[xyz 3]

Hi all,

I need your kind advice.

We signed OTP and paid $5k deposit in mid-Nov 2012, bought from a single seller. We went for our first appointment in Jan only to find out the seller's wife (although she's not an owner) refused to sign the consent form of selling the house & "disappeared" from Singapore as she's a foreigner.

However, even though the husband came for 1st appointment, HDB cannot proceed with the sale. They just wash hand and ask us to sue the owner.

Has anyone engaged a lawyer before in similar situation (i.e. breach of OTP)? How much is the lawyer's fee and how long does the process take roughly?

Do you think we can win the lawsuit since the owner is also a "victim" in this case?

And worse, the owner has no money. He has history of loan shark harassing although now he has cleared his debt (so as he claimed). Even if we sue him for Liquidated Damages, he will be declared of undischarged bankrupt rite? Can I sue him to sell the property instead?

Many thanks for your help!

bro..take back your 5k deposit and look for another house.

loanshark? wife disappear? something is very wrong with this house. Fengshui is not good. There are many other better houses around.

[therat 18]

ask the owner to return the $5k.

No point sueing the owner.

[dexterou 0]

Hi all,

I need your kind advice.

We signed OTP and paid $5k deposit in mid-Nov 2012, bought from a single seller. We went for our first appointment in Jan only to find out the seller's wife (although she's not an owner) refused to sign the consent form of selling the house & "disappeared" from Singapore as she's a foreigner.

However, even though the husband came for 1st appointment, HDB cannot proceed with the sale. They just wash hand and ask us to sue the owner.

Has anyone engaged a lawyer before in similar situation (i.e. breach of OTP)? How much is the lawyer's fee and how long does the process take roughly?

Do you think we can win the lawsuit since the owner is also a "victim" in this case?

And worse, the owner has no money. He has history of loan shark harassing although now he has cleared his debt (so as he claimed). Even if we sue him for Liquidated Damages, he will be declared of undischarged bankrupt rite? Can I sue him to sell the property instead?

Many thanks for your help!

Most probably yr lawyers fee is ard a few thousand so no point sueing him. think you need to chase him back the money yrself.

[bengbeng 0]

Hi!

Thank you all for your suggestions.

Unfortunately since HDB has not cancelled our case, we cannot look for another house. The owner gets extension 3 weeks to get the wife's signature (although the situation now looks bleak and seems it's gonna be cancelled anyway).

**** it. Waste time only!! Worse still, I'm renting a place now after my wedding end of last year, thinking it will be a short-term stay before getting our house key. My agent suggested to sue the owner for breach of OTP since he has caused all the inconveniences (especially the time wastage n additional rental). And he said it's surely a win-case?

We actually rather sue and get the house than $5k back (I doubt he has the money as he cashed in the cheque the same day we paid the deposit). Anyone has any friends who have gone through similar experience? Suing the seller for breach of OTP?

We're still hopeful since we like the house for its good location.

[lazyman 0]

If i were you, i would rather give up the $5K and seek HDB to cancel the deal (or get back the deposit if possible).

If the owner took another loan shark without changing his address, you run a high risk of the loan shark coming to harass your family.

Hi!

Thank you all for your suggestions.

Unfortunately since HDB has not cancelled our case, we cannot look for another house. The owner gets extension 3 weeks to get the wife's signature (although the situation now looks bleak and seems it's gonna be cancelled anyway).

**** it. Waste time only!! Worse still, I'm renting a place now after my wedding end of last year, thinking it will be a short-term stay before getting our house key. My agent suggested to sue the owner for breach of OTP since he has caused all the inconveniences (especially the time wastage n additional rental). And he said it's surely a win-case?

We actually rather sue and get the house than $5k back (I doubt he has the money as he cashed in the cheque the same day we paid the deposit). Anyone has any friends who have gone through similar experience? Suing the seller for breach of OTP?

We're still hopeful since we like the house for its good location.

[Bento28 0]

Hi bengbeng

I understand that u might be pressed for time to get the house n amount of money wasted. But the troubles get from an ah long flat is definitely not worth. Imagine every night to have to keep watch jus in case your door was splash with paint, in rare cases, set fire!

[esca01 0]

Why give up your 5k? maybe you can consult with the lawyer to get your compensation for your time and your 5k back and also the payment of your lawyer fee from the seller because the OTP is a valid contract. If the seller is unable to pay, he can declare bankrupt and do a financial restructure with the bank and pay you back?

My 2cents and only my thoughts. Just wonder why arent we protected with the contract and the law, since money is involved.

[bengbeng 0]

Why give up your 5k? maybe you can consult with the lawyer to get your compensation for your time and your 5k back and also the payment of your lawyer fee from the seller because the OTP is a valid contract. If the seller is unable to pay, he can declare bankrupt and do a financial restructure with the bank and pay you back?

My 2cents and only my thoughts. Just wonder why arent we protected with the contract and the law, since money is involved.

Hi,

Thanks for your advice! Actually, I am also wondering how are we protected by law? HDB officers also cannot help. I'm not sure how much is lawyer fee. Haiz, this resale transaction is such a hassle. Some more the process takes so long around 4 months. We bought resale coz want to move in earlier instead of the long wait of BTO. Moreover, no recent BTO project near my preferred area.

I think it's the seller's agent fault who did not do a proper check on the seller whether he has the wife's consent although she isn't the owner. ****! My agent luckily quite dependable..at least he followed through this tiring process!

Anw thanks all for your advices n suggestions.

Have a nice day all!

[esca01 0]

Good luck to you in getting your dream house, this may be a message that this house is not suitable for you and you will get a better one!

and please let us know how it goes and this can set a good reference for others who face the same problem. Thanks!

[EdmundTan 0]

beng beng,

i have similiar encounter before with my client. 8 years ago, i just enter the property industries, it was my 2nd deal at that time, my client brought a PR house whose wife is staying oversea. the seller (husband) forge the wife signature and go thru with the 1st appt....eventually the deal did not go thru and buyer was left with no house to stay.

point to consider:

lawyer will surely tell you that this is a sure win case, but at what cost?

on paper now, the total cost that involve on your end is only 5k, how much more can the lawyer help to get from you?

all agent will tell you that you can sue the seller for specific terms, however, there must be a comparison to show that you have no choice but to buy a more expensive unit and the unit for comparison must be apple to apple comparison.

Loan shark unit is a no no. they had clear their previous loan, that only means that the current loan shark has not approach your unit yet.

lawyer and agent say win win, but i look at it as lose lose situation, time and money on the law suit will delay your next buying. the compensation that you get from the law suit is very unlikely to offset your next higher buying price.

Hope that help

[bengbeng 0]

Hey all,

Thought of updating here and I hope this serves as a warning to those who are buying a resale flat!

Background story:

We're first timer buying resale flat. As we could not wait for the long wait of BTO & there's simply no BTO at our preferred location so we went to buy a resale flat with the high hopes we could move in soon (within 4-5 months). We found a good deal and exercised OTP. Since we had gotten our HLE, we immediately exercised our OTP & paid the $5k deposit to a Chinese Singaporean owner who seemed genuine to sell.

We went for our first appointment (got all our documents ready), only to find out the HDB Officer could not proceed with the case as the seller's wife, NOT an owner, a foreigner (PRC under long-term visit pass) refused to sign the Spouse's consent. However, the seller and the seller's agent pleaded the HDB Officer to postpone the case for 2 weeks, so HDB gave our case 2-week extension.

FYI, Remember this! Although your seller is the sole seller of the house, he/she still must get the consent of the wife/husband. So better ask your agent to check properly. We know this is the seller's agent's fault as he was the one who reassured the seller was eligible to sell & was super serious about selling the hse.

Anyway, cut long story short, we went for our re-scheduled appointment and both the seller & seller's agent didn't turn up. ****ty as you must say. The HDB Officer then cancelled and revoked the case. We wasted 3 months waiting (waiting for 1st appointment & 2-week extension). We needed the hse soon as we currently are renting a place (thought it'd be just a short stay before we move in to our new hse).

No house, nothing. The seller has no money to pay us back (although we're still threatening him to pursue legal charges or at least do whatever we can do to get our $5k back).

Funny, when we asked HDB Officer whether she could help us do the paperwork so we can get the $5k deposit back, here was her reply:

1. Deposit is between buyer & seller. HDB has no control over it. We should pursue it legally should seller refuses to return.

2. That's why the deposit is capped to $5k max so people won't lose out too much $$ (WHAT NONSENSE!!! Don't you think $5k is precious to you?)

Anyway, I just wanna share my painful experience to all and hope you guys can be careful. They keep on saying it's buying from the Open market so there will be risks involved. I hope nobody else experiences this.

P.S. The officer said this case (the cancellation due to spouse's consent) is getting more common these days (it used to be rare case in the past). Mostly come from PRC wives (they wanted $$$ from the husband so they made the process difficult). It is weird coz these women are not even PRs, they are here under Long-term visit pass with husbands' sponsor.

Thanks to all who replied & shared your thoughts on this. It's encouraging to know that.

[bengbeng 0]

I seriously feel that HDB has to do something about this.

They need to protect SERIOUS BUYERS who are buying resale flats. At least, they need to have the legal authority or act upon the OTP as it is a legal contract. They should just issue warning to seller to return the $5k or get the compensation for our waiting time bla bla bla... Yet, they just "wash hand" and let us press charges at our own cost (most people like us just wing it coz it's not worth it as the lawyer fee is too high). But I wonder.. WHERE IS JUSTICE?

And I did ask a question,

" In that case, people can cheat money easily. Just put up their house in the market. Get a serious buyer and got the $5k deposit, then seller write letter to HDB revoke the case and the case is cancelled. Most buyers have no $$ and won't pursue legal charges at most police report (in which police also cannot do much since it's not stealing whatsoever? --> from what my friends told me). Isn't it unfair for buyers?"

the officer replied, "That's why we kept it to the $5k max." I don't know how many Singaporeans feel the $5k is nothing to them?

[esca01 0]

Woah, that is bad news. Anyway, have you tried approaching your MP or something? The housing issue is quite sensitive nowadays. Not harm trying... i guess.

[esca01 0]

23. Governing law

23. This Option is governed by the law of Singapore. If the parties take any legal proceedings in respect of

this Option, they must do so only in a Singapore court of law.

24. Mediation

24.1 Before referring any dispute relating to this Option to arbitration or litigation, the Seller and the Buyer

must consider settling the dispute through mediation at the Singapore Mediation Centre (a company

limited by guarantee of the Singapore Academy of Law).

24.2 The parties are however not legally obliged to attempt mediation as a means of settling their dispute.

Reading the t&c in the otp contract... have you tried the Singapore Mediation Centre?

Is the wife the co-owner of the flat and did she signed on the OTP, if she did'nt sign and she is a co-owner, it may not be a valid contract I think...