smallest apartment in Singapore<\/a>\u201d.<\/p>\nThe room costs S$1,500 a month, split among the three students. It is believed that the rent includes utilities.<\/p>\n
Now, two months after moving in, the student, who declined to be identified, is speaking out about a different aspect of his living situation: his landlord’s increasingly strict house rules.<\/p>\n
\u201cAre all Singapore landlords strict or is it only mine?\u201d he asked in a recent TikTok video.<\/p>\n
\u201cI’ve been living in that apartment for two months now and [the] rules are getting crazy,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Among the restrictions, he claimed they cannot come home late, though he did not specify what time they are expected to return.<\/p>\n
They also aren’t allowed to eat in the kitchen and have to take their meals back to their room. They can’t keep their things on the kitchen shelves either.<\/p>\n
Still, he said he was willing to put up with the rules \u2014 until cooking became an issue.<\/p>\n
According to the student, their tenancy agreement states that cooking is allowed.<\/p>\n
He also claimed the landlord told them when they signed the agreement that they could \u201ccook as much as [they] want\u201d.<\/p>\n
That has apparently since changed.<\/p>\n
His landlord recently asked them to pay an additional S$60 for gas.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m kinda shocked. And guess what? We said, \u2018Okay, we’ll pay the extra S$60,\u2019 but she said that we can only cook two or three times per week, which is absolutely crazy for paying S$60 extra,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The additional charge was communicated verbally, not in writing.<\/p>\n
When the student showed his landlord the tenancy agreement stating that cooking is allowed, her response, he claimed, was essentially: Pay the extra S$60 or leave.<\/p>\n
And cooking isn’t their only issue.<\/p>\n
The student also claimed his landlord told them to shower less because the water bill was too high.<\/p>\n
\u201c[She is] telling us to shower less, which is absolutely crazy, and we are doing it only once a day,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cHonestly, I don’t know if it’s normal in Singapore or we just had bad luck choosing the apartment.\u201d<\/p>\n
He has also tried contacting his property agent for help, but claimed the agent isn’t responding.<\/p>\n
Many netizens thought the rules were unreasonable.<\/p>\n
\u201cLandlord is in breach of contract. If agent [is] unresponsive, go to Small Claims [Tribunals] to recover deposit and leave,\u201d wrote one.<\/p>\n
Others urged him to find another place, with one warning him not to accept the landlord’s new terms as she was \u201cbound to squeeze [him] further\u201d.<\/p>\n
Moving out, however, may not be so straightforward.<\/p>\n
The student and his friends have already paid a deposit and are only two months into their one-year lease.<\/p>\n
Some commenters suggested he rent somewhere without a live-in landlord in future, while others recommended getting a group of friends together to rent an entire flat so they would have more freedom.<\/p>\n
He appeared keen on the idea, but acknowledged that it would be more expensive.<\/p>\n
8days.sg has reached out to the student for more information but did not receive a response by press time.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n