**** LAWSUITS and ACRA Search - IDs & Contractors ****

[Spartacus 0]

Hi fellow forummers,

 

In our search for a responsible and honest contractor and/or ID firm to entrust the renovation of our dream home to, I would like to share my 2 cents worth on some often overlooked checks that we should absolutely be conducting:-

 

 

Lawsuits against the ID/contractor

 

-       Google the company name and add the word “singapore law” (try many different combinations of the company name, e.g. XYZ ID singapore law, XYZ singapore law etc). If the company is currently and/or previously have been involved in a lawsuit, its name will show up in either the Supreme Court /State Court’s website and/or the Singapore Law website. From these websites, you will be able to read about the facts and/or judgement of the lawsuit. As the saying goes, there is no smoke without fire, the plaintiff must have been sufficiently aggrieved for them to decide to pursue a costly and lengthy lawsuit against the ID/contractor. Some lawsuits may get dropped along the way (NOT due to the lack of merits of the case) but because of how easy it is for some black sheep contractors to evade responsibility and liability by setting up and transfering assets to a new company (refer to the next point) 

 

ACRA search

 

-       do an ACRA search to find out who the shareholders and/or directors of the company are, and which other companies he/she might previously have been a shareholder and/or director of. Check out if these companies have been involved in any lawsuits or had any writs of summons issued against it (refer to the earlier point) during the director's tenure. For small and medium sized companies, the shareholders/directors are usually the ones running the day to day business and the person you might be liaising with. Extend the ACRA search out to the key decision makers in the company. This check with ACRA is essential due to the rampant practice of contractors/ID getting their spouse/bf/gf/close relatives to just start up a new company when the company gets into trouble and they shut down or leave the troubled company as an empty shell while they move assets and projects to the new company. These new companies may use a totally different name, or use a name similar to the troubled company. In my humble opinion, if a particular person is and/or has been involved in companies with seemingly similar type of business and operations, it is something to take note of. 

 

Any legal firm (regardless big or small) will be able to conduct the above-mentioned searches. Admittedly, there will be some small additional cost incurred but I believe this is a small fee to pay if it can help us to avoid inadvertently hiring an irresponsible and dishonest contractor/ID company. Good luck!

Anyone with any other tips, kindly share! 

[kArMa 0]

Spartacus,

 

Thank you for sharing these extremely useful tips ...  it certainly helped me make a more informed decision in my ID selection process. I was THIS close to engaging this ID company Luxur ... Phew!