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Difficult one. If you broke your lease i.e. you signed for 1 year and left before, you have no rights as you broke the contract. Unfortunately the best way to do this stuff is to stop paying a couple of months before you leave. You could try a solicitors letter, but you would need to be in the right in how you left the tenancy. If you have dealt with an property agent when you saw the place and chose it, perhaps they can also help. Much depends on what is the wording of the tenancy agreement.

Dear Gravitas, thank you kindly for your reply. Actually I didn't brake my lease contract. I stayed 1 year and when I was moving out my land lord was checking everything and that was fine but also he was saying he will return my deposit back after he will receive all the bills. So it had already been 1 month and I am still waiting and now he says that he doesn't have money...

masha_, did you rent through an agent? Agent should be able to help you. If you did not use agent and can not get through with negotiations with the landlord, you may need to hire a lawyer. Maybe someone else here can suggest a good lawyer.

Hi Masha. I have the same problem. In fact I haven't got the security or utility deposit back after 4 months. The landlord is claiming for things, but will not provide any details. My agent is shocked and recommended a lawyer. The lawyer says that if it goes to litigation it will cost more than the deposit. What really irritates me most is that this guy will most likely get away with it and do it all over again. I really feel that there should at least be some sort of bad landlord list available to those looking to rent. No self respecting agent would wish to deal with a landlord like this.

Happens a lot in kl. Many scummy landlords and agents. Nothing you can do

If you are still saying in Kuala Lumpur, you can try by making a call to landlord/lady with strong threatening words with legal consequences.
I do not know, which condominium you lived in. But, if you lived in Suasana Sentral Condominium,KL Sentral, then it will be a difficult talk if your condo owner was any Chinese Landlady.

Please, never ever rent the condominium A-16-08. We understand the landlady stays in Hong Kong and the condominium is handled by her sister in Kuala Lumpur. The modes of operation somewhat like this.
1.The Broker Mr.Steven will be involved at the beginning.
2.After showing you the house, he will try to lock you in by taking the advance money and assure that the defects will be made up before you come in and you will find that few of the defects will be done with makeshift arrangement. Few will be said by Steven that these are fair wear and tear , hence do not worry.
3.Landlady's sister will come and take the balance money and sign the agreement. She will never see your problems.
4.When you want to vacate the house, the broker will be totally out of picture and the landlady's sister literally comes with microscope to find the defects.
5.The lady will show the same mistakes which you have pointed out to the broker at the time of taking the rental. Now, the same defects will be made up of with your own money( This figure sometimes goes beyond your deposit money).

If you have already taken Condo A block, 16 floor, unit-8 , Suasana Sentral condominium as rental, then be rest assured that you will not be paid back your 2.5 months rental.
-You will definitely get a hike of 10% after 1st year though option of renewal after 1st year is available. The landlady will just say 2-3 days before last date of 1st year. You are under pressure to accept her demand of enhanced rental.

The best solution is not to pay the rental of last 2 months.

All the best if any one stays there and alert for all future tenants.

Well you could post all over the net    about bad landlords.

But end up being sued for deformation !

Someone snatches our money we can not go to court for justice. But should we be scared of defamation for telling the truth.

My name is Alex and I will move to KL in 10 days. I teach for raffles college. Have hard time to find the right agent. I looking for room or apartment to rent or share. Just to ask if you know any room to rent. Alex

Situation is bad. I got cheated out of security in One Soho Apartment recently. My advice to anyone who is looking to dont rent there

Greedy landlords are not just at One Soho Apartment, they can be everywhere, and also many landlords own units in several condominium buildings as it is wise to spread out their investments.

While some landlords might be accused of being cheating, but there are two sides to every story. Some tenants pay rent consistently late, or bring in their friends who sleep on the sofas or put mattresses on the floor. Some sublet to foreign workers so when a landlord thinks he is renting to a nice family it actually turns out that he may have 8 or 10 foreign workers living in his apartment.

Then there are tenants who don't pay their water bills, and who cause damage to the apartment, or steal the TV and microwave. Some tenants try to use up their security deposits by not paying the last two months rent of their contract. Some particularly nasty ones stop paying rent almost as soon as they move into an apartment, knowing that the landlord can do nothing about it except to take on a lawyer which will take at least 6 months before the tenant can be forced out. During that time the landlord cannot do anything at all. Even trying to talk to the tenant could result in a police report against them.

In fact there are so many ways that tenants take advantage of landlords and sometimes the landlord will end up losing money.

So the advice of being careful with landlords works both ways. Landlords need to be particularly careful of who they rent out their apartments to.

Can you please provide more details on the issue such as whether your tenancy agreement had expired or have you moved though your tenancy agreement still valid. Id tenancy agreement is still valid then it is difficult to get back your money and it all depends on the owner and the clauses that are there in the tenancy agreement.

What is the agent suggestion and I believe that agent should take care of these things

hai,

call me, i have few friends in kl. i believe they can help u

**
emma

In general, the Agent is more on the side of the landlord because it is the landlord who pays their commission. And, the Agent won't want to give the landlord a hard time.

At the same time, whatever is written in the Tenancy Agreement needs to be read carefully and in nearly all tenancy agreements that I have seen there is usually a clause stating that the landlord will return the deposits minus costs for any outstanding bills, damages to the apartment or furniture etc on completion of the contract.

So, if you haven't completed the contract, or caused any damage to the apartment or furniture etc, the landlord does have the right to deduct form the deposit.  And the amount is really up to him. It is very difficult to take landlord to court for this, it will cost you quite a lot of money, lawyers charge for each of the the three letters sent to the landlord and then a lot more for a Court Summons, and the landlord can keep delaying his appearance, so that finally you might end up losing as much as you believe you are owed in costs and wasted time.

Honestly, unless the amount is considerable, then I would let it go.

Personally I have kept over RM13k+ from a British tenant who had made some alterations in the apartment, taken some items, and hadn't given me the three months required notice in writing and who had already lived in my apartment for more than 4 years. The reason I did that was because he became unpleasant and cocky and I didn't like it. The deposit that I kept was all legal and mainly covered the notice period that he didn't give.

But more importantly, this thread is almost 2 years old. The original poster has obviously already moved on.

Hi, I saw from this topic u say u have some friend in kl can help in this problem?

In Malaysia it is a widespread problem.  I rented a house in Cengal condo with the landlord a chinese Malaysians.    I had to break my contract after paying the 10th month rent.  So I informed the landlord that I will stop paying the 11th month rent and leave the same month that I will forfeit the deposit of 2.5 months.  Initially they agreed but later said, I need to pay for the 11th month full rent event though I would stay for just 10 days and then talk to them on deposit return, else they would send me thugs to throw things from house.

This raised a red flag and I decided to play with them.  I sent my family back to my native country and extended my stay in KL for additional month.  I also stopped paying utilities from the 10th month onwards knowing the intention of the landlord.  I then threatened the landlord that I will go to cops that you are threatening to evict me event though I paid rent for 10 months and have an agreement to stay.  The war of words went till end of 11th months and I left KL and lost the 2.5 month deposit where I broke the contract by 1 month and did not pay rent for 1 month.  The house did not have any reasonable furniture but the landlord came up with a bill of 4k MYR which I rejected and moved out already.

Hi. I also have a landlord that is refusing to return a bond and utilities.  Going the legal option will only incur more money and get no results.  Does Malaysia have any support for tenants, who are being ripped off by landlords.  Any ideas on how to get your money back even though the agent ticked off everything, the Landlord just will not pay.

It's very difficult because the landlord only needs to say that things are missing or damaged and he has the right to deduct part or all of the deposits. If you took him to court he could manipulate the situation by creating evidence and you'd lose. The laws protecting tenants are not strong, and the hassle, cost and stress of seeing this through court are often just not worth it.

Where the laws are strong protecting tenants is when tenants stop paying rent. Then, the landlord is in a weak position and cannot force out a non-paying tenant without going to court which is a very lengthy process. Any attempt by a landlord to harass, enter the property, block entry to the apartment, terminate water or electricity is strictly illegal and should be reported to the police. However, landlords can sometimes take other actions such as blocking access cards to the building or by not paying management fees thus letting the management block the access cards.

So unless the deposits are a very large amount of money, I'd let it go and move on.

Small Claims Tribunal - but agree perhaps it is going to be more heartache than it is worth.

When a landlord is keeping your deposit plus utilities its 30K, don't tenants have any support in Malaysia.  So are we just easy targets?
Can Landlords do and say anything when it comes to returning monies.  No Law support in this country?  And I have to move on?

Kira45 - you can ask a lawyer for advice. Sometimes a stern letter may help. At least you will then find out what is your legal recourse and can take an informed decision. The legality of the tenancy agreement may be key.

For RM30k, I would definitely consult a lawyer. Landlords who rip off tenants are a disgrace and fortunately not that common.

A lawyer will normally send a couple of letters requesting the return of the deposits followed by a court summons. Since the Agent has a checklist, get a copy of that and give it to your lawyer along with a copy of the Tenancy Agreement and a police report. As Gravitas rightly pointed out, the lawyer needs to study the Agreement to ensure  everything is in order. I assume all your utility bills were paid off in full and that you did not owe any rent when you left. I know that landlords sometimes wait up to a week to sort out any outstanding utility bills before returning deposits, but I guess you've been waiting a lot longer than that. Perhaps the Agent can write a letter stating that there was no damage to the apartment when you left.

surely its issues in Malaysia
government needs to address it

Yes have seen lawyer, he ihas written letters and we await reply.  So far nothing.

I don't know what will happen in the end. But, it's normal for the landlord to do nothing in the beginning. They may only react after a second or third reminder is sent, or when the deadline given by your lawyer is about due. They may also respond when issued with the court summons as that is when it gets more serious. Even if the court rules in your favour, the landlord may appeal the decision. But for me, the checklist from the agent is an important document, and also the possibility of calling the agent as a witness.

Something to remember is that agents may receive their commission from tenants, but they usually value their relationship with landlords more than a past tenant as they wouldn't want their company to be blacklisted by a landlord.

I had bad experience taking back my deposit from my landlord.

It all started by searching online for a room in Bangsar South area, end up to Pantai Panaroma. I made arrangement for viewing, and met German lady which desperately was trying to find replacement for her room; she was kind of uncomfortable and was planning to leave Malaysia in a week time. I spoke to her and asked about the room, owner and conditions. she responded that all is good, and she has to find replacement otherwise she will receive her deposit late as she said it owner asked her to.

I made wrong decision and I proceed with owner for rent for duration of six months. During tenancy, owner was quite, and I didn't see her much, unless rent/utilities pay dates comes up. After 4 months, the fridge stops working and I tried many times to reach her and ask her to call for repair services, but she was ignoring me.

A month before end of contract I told her that I wont continue my tenancy after end of contract and will leave at 31Jun 2017. She said ok and I thought everything is ok. Two days before due date I asked her about my deposit, and she did not respond, (she was not in unit for a week). I tried texting, calling or Whatsapp but no respond. I asked my cousin to contact her from different phone line, she pick the line and requested to leave keys & access cards and leave unit at 31Jun. Once he asked about deposit, she said she'll come back from travel and she'll settle it. After two days we called her million times, finally she respond that: I can pay half-deposit after 3 weeks; and hang up the phone. It was not acceptable at ALL!

I issue police report, they refer me to investigator, and he called her, she said: room has lots of damages, kitchen is very dirty, and walls are black because I smoked vape (I did not do any of those; kitchen doesn't have fridge for 2 months, what possibly can I do in kitchen?), and she repeat her offer again in front of investigator (half-deposit after 3 weeks). Anyhow, once I asked officer for recommendation, he said half is better than nothing, take it and close the case. To be honest the case starts to be heavier to me, it was not about money anymore, it was about how people can lie and turn the case against others. I did not accept the offer and police gave me letter to go to court, under civil cases.

I've plan to go by next Monday, and I don't know much about Malaysia law, and how far it can goes. I appreciate if anyone give information, or share experiences, or advise whether I've to follow up or give up

Thank You

Can I ask how much deposit did you pay the landlord?

yes sure, I've paid 2.5 months of my rent, which is equal to RM 2,000 (monthly RM 800).

*Just a quick update, I went to court today, located in sri hartamas, they asked me to get another letter from investigator. so now i am waiting the letter to gets ready. Also went to Condo Management Office (Pantai Panorama), surprisingly the management was so responsive, and helpful. She look into system and realized that person I was thinking is my landlord, is actually tenant. She said, it is illegal to rent a rented place, and she is trying to contact the real owner. so fingers cross, lets see how it goes.

I'll keep you posted.

Thanks

This happened to my colleague before! The F who rented to him was not the landlord but the tenant/agent!

Finally, my colleague asked my employer for help, who basically threatened the fat lady agent/tenant with repercussions including those outside the law, and not to try to be funny with my colleague because they were watching out for him.

I remember that fat b***he's face. Disgusting people.

This is message I just got from her:

As per mentioned yesterday by the policeman, I will transfer you RM 800 after deduction of the broken wardrobe and I have requested several times for the account number for me to transfer the cash.i can transfer the cash any time u want.

please collect ur mattress and balance of ur stuff in fridge tomorrow morning before the cleaner throw it away. Then is not my responsibility already

Since the total deposits are only RM2000, and she is offering RM800 then personally I'd take the money and move on. If she is claiming that you broke a wardrobe, it is difficult for you to prove that you didn't do it and easier for her to get away with this whether true or not. Also, normally you need to clean out all your stuff when you leave or you risk incurring costs for people to take large stuff away. She can actually charge for the apartment to be cleaned but it usually only amounts to no more than RM100 - 200. So personally I'd take the money and finish this headache.

Hi, May I know which unit in One Soho did you rented? Coz I’m having the same problem.

Although the Management Office can't intervene, I suggest you make an official complaint to them about the landlord so they are aware of issues.

E-06-01 was the unit number.