A Tale of Two Leases

For those of you who were reading this blog almost 5 years ago, you may remember that the leasing process for our current abode was somewhat *ahem* protracted. From the time we said ‘yes, this is the house for us’ to the date we were handed the keys took ELEVEN WEEKS. Just shy of THREE MONTHS. The cause for the delay was, in a nutshell, the landlord (which is a charitable trust, not a single person) and the Other Half’s company (they were paying the rent) standing toe-to-toe over several of the clauses in the lease. Asian fear of losing face versus German stubbornness, with our family the meat in the stale sandwich.

It was horrible. We moved serviced apartments 5 times in 4 weeks and then shifted to an entirely different serviced apartment complex. The Big Missy was an emotional wreck, and I wasn’t far behind. Once school holidays hit the girls and I fled to Phuket for a break from the whole palaver.

Fast forward just under 5 years and we have had a vastly different process. We put an offer in on a new apartment on a Sunday and the deal was done by Wednesday.

77 hours versus 11 weeks.

What I know now is that 5 years ago our agent should have advised us to walk away. As soon as the landlord presented  a SEVENTEEN page lease they should have known trouble would ensue. The lease we just signed (which I believe is a standard contract) was only SIX pages.

In two weeks time we will move into the sky and a few days after that we will need to ‘handover’ our current place. Leasing handovers in Singapore are notoriously tricky with vastly different interpretations of ‘fair wear and tear’. Cross your fingers for us that this end of the leasing process is easier than the beginning!