Landlord withholding entire deposit

[njstone9]

Or even better, the place is subsequently offered for rent without any repairs being made.

Said friend (and their photos) would make an excellent witness statement for your small claims case.

Well, well, well! I have found my old apartment up for lease again! The photos on the lease advert are low quality so I cannot really tell if anything has been done or not done in the living room, but they do show the floor hasn't been polished in the smaller bedroom, and the walls haven't been repainted in the master bedroom.

So if any repairs have been made, they are minor ones.

It would be rather interesting if someone I knew happened to visit this apartment, take some photos, and also ask the agent later by whatsapp to ask the landlord if they intended to do any more redecorating or if they intended to rent it out as it is. That kind of written evidence would be very handy indeed.

[dinosaurs88]

Yes, but then your friend will be called as a witness...

better just to do it yourself...for your own evidence collecting. You don't even need to visit...just make sure you deal with the original agent.. ..

[njstone9]

The original agent is being sued by the landlord (for being biased towards me - yes I know this is absolutely nuts) so I can't ask him as he isn't the agent anymore. I do have someone who has volunteered to do the task for me so it should be OK.

I'm assuming if I try to do it myself I will get caught. Maybe I can try in a month if it hasn't been taken by then.

[Sage]

The original agent is being sued by the landlord (for being biased towards me - yes I know this is absolutely nuts) so I can't ask him as he isn't the agent anymore. I do have someone who has volunteered to do the task for me so it should be OK.

I'm assuming if I try to do it myself I will get caught. Maybe I can try in a month if it hasn't been taken by then.

Cool, glad you caught them out.

I'd say 3 things:

1) Make sure your friends take photos and close ups- The agent may well say "No photo's" and attempt to prevent your freind taking them.
They may need to be thick skinned and bull headed

2) Having someone else take the pics is much better than you doing it, but they should be aware that they may be called to be a witness at some point.

3) It's not so likely to go as far as witnesses being called to court, you should be able to get a settlement...

[njstone9]

Yes, she is exactly the kind of person who will take photos.

The landlord sent me a long message this morning which was mainly irrelevant apart from at the end where he appears to say the repair works have been done.

Once I have the photographic evidence tomorrow, I will get him to confirm he has done this in writing, then ask for the official receipt. He can't deny me a receipt so if the repairs that have been done (if any) are less than what he has claimed for, he is in a world of trouble.

[njstone9]

Update!

So. I tried to get a colleague to go around and view the flat. First attempt failed - after arranging the viewing time, the following day the agent cancelled it and said the flat had been sold. (It hadn't).

I tried another listing.

This second attempt... got cancelled three times by the landlord who eventually told the agent that no one in his entire family was free to pass the key to the agent until at least June (this was a week ago). It seems likely he is [rightly] scared of viewers being me coming to get evidence from the flat to show he has stolen my money)

But the second listing had better photos in it than the first, and I could see that the walls of the flat had not been repainted, nor had the scratched floor tile been replaced. Essentially, no repairs had been done at all, over 5 weeks after I had moved out.

I decided to get some extra evidence and I got the management office of the apartment to verify whether any contractors had visited the apartment at all in the period since I had moved out. They confirmed that no contractors had been there at all.

So! The original quote I got was likely not obtained from someone who had been in the apartment... and it seems extremely unlikely any repairs have been done at all.

On Monday I filed my case at the Small Claims Tribunal. (By the way, if anyone is reading this thread in the future, it is incredibly easy to do this. You fill out two forms, and there is a template you can copy for the deposit claim form. It takes about 10 minutes and you pay just $80 HKD. You don't even need an appointment).

The question I was going to ask is: is it worth going to the police? I have reasonably good evidence the landlord has taken $34,000 from me on false pretences. He made up a quote, has refused to confirm he has even done any repairs (I messaged to ask) but previously claimed in Whatsapp messages he did do repairs at the start of May.

It sounds to me like fraud. Yes, the Small Claims Court will give me my deposit back, or nearly all of it presumably, but this looks to me more like criminal behaviour.

What do people think?

[dinosaurs88]

Hypothetically speaking, if it were me, I would hyphothetically,

1) Ask him to send you the receipt from the contractor showing the amount of $34,000 or further action will be taken. (Send it by whatspp, and post a formal letter to him at his home address so he cannot say he did not receive it.). Also send it by SMS ...no excuse.

2) Then go to the home address since that is the only place you can find him and show him the copy of the letter and ask for your money back.

9 pm ...definitely at home.

No doubt security won't let you in and he will avoid you. So call the police.

(In my opinion, if you go to report it to the police, it just ends up at the bottom of the file.)
(If you call the police to the location because he is scamming you and cheating you out of your deposit, the police will have to turn up).

Make sure you have a chinese speaking friend to help you out to explain to the officers what is happening. You do not want it lost in translation.

If you do not have a chinese friend, then get a chinese colleague to explain clearly and slowly what happened on a whatsapp message you can play .

Also, by calling the police, you get a case number.

If your land lord is at home, he will be at home with his checkbook ! "Show me the cheque or give me THE ORIGINAL RECEIPTS and contractors name and contact number "

but do it all politely...and don't bombard him with texts. You don't want him accusing you off harrassment.


all hypothetically. speaking.....

[SonicYouth1]

Update!

So. I tried to get a colleague to go around and view the flat. First attempt failed - after arranging the viewing time, the following day the agent cancelled it and said the flat had been sold. (It hadn't).

I tried another listing.

This second attempt... got cancelled three times by the landlord who eventually told the agent that no one in his entire family was free to pass the key to the agent until at least June (this was a week ago). It seems likely he is [rightly] scared of viewers being me coming to get evidence from the flat to show he has stolen my money)

But the second listing had better photos in it than the first, and I could see that the walls of the flat had not been repainted, nor had the scratched floor tile been replaced. Essentially, no repairs had been done at all, over 5 weeks after I had moved out.

I decided to get some extra evidence and I got the management office of the apartment to verify whether any contractors had visited the apartment at all in the period since I had moved out. They confirmed that no contractors had been there at all.

So! The original quote I got was likely not obtained from someone who had been in the apartment... and it seems extremely unlikely any repairs have been done at all.

On Monday I filed my case at the Small Claims Tribunal. (By the way, if anyone is reading this thread in the future, it is incredibly easy to do this. You fill out two forms, and there is a template you can copy for the deposit claim form. It takes about 10 minutes and you pay just $80 HKD. You don't even need an appointment).

The question I was going to ask is: is it worth going to the police? I have reasonably good evidence the landlord has taken $34,000 from me on false pretences. He made up a quote, has refused to confirm he has even done any repairs (I messaged to ask) but previously claimed in Whatsapp messages he did do repairs at the start of May.

It sounds to me like fraud. Yes, the Small Claims Court will give me my deposit back, or nearly all of it presumably, but this looks to me more like criminal behaviour.

What do people think?

I would just call up the police hotline & ask tbh. Make sure you tell them it's a non emergency but you just suspect there's a fraud case and they'll probably get someone to call you back

[dinosaurs88]

Nothing like bringing the battle closer to home where the cheque book is.

[dinosaurs88]

I just read your post again.

Don't believe what the agent says about the property.Why would the landlord sue the agent when he already ate up your entire deposit ?

Do you have whatsapp evidence from the property agent saying that the property has been sold ?Keep it.
Then go to do a property land search and do a property search . You can do this at govt offices. Pay by octopus. It is cheap. Ask the staff . It should say " first assignment" or something like that.


so you can show to the police the owner is lying to the agent as well...in your opinion.