I would like to transfer ownership of our condo to a company set up as a holding company. can i do so yet avoid excessive stamp duties by e.g. gifting the property to the company and if so, will i be able to retain my mortgage if i remain personally liable for the debt?

Can an agent who has made a false police report against the buyer and seller claim his commission? In the police report, the agent claimed the buyers and sellers demanded him to do a cashback. Both buyers and sellers recently completed the sale without the services of the said agent. HDB has cleared us of any wrong doings.

Dear Sir, we the Seller have signed an Option To Purchase (OTP) on 21.07.07 and an Option Fee was given to us by cheque dated the same day. But date of OTP was not written on the day we signed and somehow we then realised that they (Both Agents) have actually written different date which is a month later (23.08.07) cause Buyer could not get a bank loan, etc exercising the OTP which will expire on 03.08.07. By right, in the begining a week after the OTP, we've inform both agents that we want to back out cause we are really shocked with the resale market price when we want to make an appointment for viewing to buy a house. We're puzzled on why our agent had told us otherwise before signing the OTP and promised that with our profit from selling we could get a house. We wanted to return the Option Fees back by cash (as we've bank in the cheque) but they refuse and somehow dragged us into the first appointment which we've inform them countless time not to proceed with it. An email and sms was used by way of informing. We did not turn up on the 1st appointment. Do they have the right to sue us even after they've breech the OTP in a first place. Pls advise. Thks.

Hi Mr Chang, would like to seek your advice on this. Before deciding on my financing bank, I used Law Firm A to exercise my OTP. Subsequently, I went to Law Firm B for the rest of the conveynacing work since the legal fees were subsidised by the bank. I followed up with Law Firm A for the abortive fees which they forwarded to Law Firm B and the fees ($800) were paid accordingly upon completion of sale. Few months later, I received a letter from Law Firm A demanding a higher abortive fee ($1500) as the previous sum was wrong. Please advise if there is any applicable fee schedule for such works and how do I know that there is a genuine mistake and that I am paying a fair rate. Thanks.

If I decide not to proceed with the rental after signing the letter of intent, will i be able to get back my 1 month deposit? In addition, since the rental is below $2,500 and I've signed the agent commission agreement, am i still liable to pay the agent commission if i break the letter of intent?

I bought a HDB flat in August 2007, but my seller refuse to proceed with the sale on the first appt (Nov 2007). HDB officer gave me a letter stating that the sale and purchase is cancelled reason - seller do not want to proceed with selling. My husband and i really like that flat. Moreover,the prices went up higher now, if we were to let this house go, and to buy another one, we may end up paying more. we consulted our agent and understand from him that the seller intend to remarket his house as he regretted to sell his house to us at this price which is felt is low.
1) Can the seller enter into another contract with other buyer even though we are still holdin to the original OTP, but HDB has cancelled the sale and purchase?

2) Can we stop the seller from selling the house to other propsect since we already know he is going to remarket it?

I'm now in the process of buying a 3room flat using bank loan. The loan that I intend to take up is $120,000 for 20years. 1) May I know how much is the market rate for legal fee? 2) If the legal firm is recommended by the property agent, is it true that this cost will be passed on to me? 3) What can I do, to ensure that the bank can help me get the best rate from their panel of legal firm?

I rented out one room to a Indian PR for 1 year.She paid a 1 month deposit. her lease expires on 1st Dec. I gave her 2 months notice as reqd.She has refused to pay me the final month's rental insisting that I use deposit as rental. The room was badly maintained and i foresee repairs.She wants me to do repairs and then claim from her. What can I do.

My wife and I offered full price on a vacation property ($225K)- another party was given the property for an undisclosed amount after our offer. If this price was lower than our offer, is there legal recourse? Should we legally have been offered a counter if their offered price was higher than ours?

I have a tenancy agreement with the owner till 30 June 2008 but due to impending sale of the shophouse. The owner has told us verbally about a week ago to move out by Feb 08. Is there any compensation I can seek from the owner? Do we have the rights to stay till the end of the contract and if the new owner is reluctant to this idea,how can we seek compensation?

In Nov 07, I entered into a one-year tenancy agreement with the landload to lease the appartment. In mid-Dec 07, landlord advised me to move out by end Aug citing that they have to hand-over the unit early Sept 08. Hence the early termination applies. However, I just learnt that the legal completion was actually early Mar 2008 with a 6 month free staying from the buyer. I like to ask can the landlord enter into a tenancy agreement beyond his legal ownership of the premise ie Mar 2008? Does the tenancy agreement still binding after Mar 2008? Can the landlord capitalise the 6 month free stay priviledge ie collecting rental? I seek your kind legal advice pls.

Hi Mr Chang, Need your advise on my case of the buyer wanted to back out after both parties received the 1st appointment letter on purchase of my 5 room HDB resale flat. She said that she might not have the money on time as the first appointment date comes too soon for her. With that in mind I when to HDB resale office and checked with them if I can reschedule the first appointment date to help the buyer to delay the time to have the money to come in on time. The HDB resale office officers said that I can write in to postphone and put in the reasons for doing so. With that information I called my agent and told her want I've found out and to convey the message to the buyer. The buyer come straight knocking on my door saying she cannot afford to buy, because part of the money she need to use to buy this flat comes from the insurances payout from the husband that had passed away will be delayed one year. (he passed away about half a year according to her). But when I was at her apartment to meet her with my agent to sign the Option to Purchase, she said she got no cash problem and that she do not need to get any loans because of the insurance payout and other means to pay for the flat as she owns a private condo which she is living. She had completely forgotten those words when she wants to back out. I understand later from my agent that she had a change of mind because she had been seeing other flats even after she had signed that Option to Purchase and paid the deposits. She said in her conversation with my agent that she is also interested in another flat she saw. But I'm not sure if she had commit herself to the flat.In any case, is it possible for me to sue her for compensation for backing out, on top of forfeiting the deposits?

Recently I have signed the tenancy agreement with the owner for renting a shop and reach an agreement with the owner that I can move in at the specific date. I have already paid him for two months deposit. But now I thinking of moving to another shop location. Can I get back the two months deposit and not moving in at the specific date?

Dear Mr Ian: I am intended clear our bank loan for our HDB flat. I heard that from the bank that i need to engage a lawyer to do a redemption of the home loan. So what are the documents that i will receive from the lawyer and when i will receive the title deed of our falt.

I am thinking of opening my own retail shop. Could you please advise what are the legal costs involved?

Hi, I recently sold my HDB flat. I am due to pay my agent's commission, but only reason I'm holding back on the payment of commission is because the Agent told me that I have to pay 2% commission. When I signed the commission paper, it was never stated as 2% and verbally I told him 1% commission only, if not I will pass the job to another agent. So I believed when he handed back the commission paper to his agency, he wrote in 2% on his own accord. Kindly advise how I can dispute his claim that I agreed on 2% when I didnt. And I just wish to pay 1% only.

Dear Sir, I took a unit on rent (HDB 2+1 Unit)through agent for one year on 20/06/2007 and after 5 months on 17/11/07 owners agent send me an notice by email to vacate the place before 31st december because owners is moving back from china to singapore Please advice in this case will i will be liable to vacate the unit before contract period because contract will be over only on 20th june 2008 only. Please advice.

We have been renting a condo unit for 18 months. We sign two seperate one-year contracts for each year. Heard that the owner intended to take the unit back to sell to take the advantage of the up property market and compensate us one month of rental, we quickly searched to buy a HDB flat because we also intended to buy a flat sooner or later. Moreover, we could not stay in the flat comfortably because the owner refused to fix the fridge. After buying the hdb flat, we want to terminate the contract prematurely. But at this point of time, owner does not want to sell any more and he agrees to buy a second-hand fridge for us. But we still want to move out. In the contract, there is a clause " if this Agreement should be lawfully terminated by a notice in writing from the Tenant before the expiry of the tenancy herein as aforesaid, the Tenant shall refund to the Landlord, pro rata, " Usually the clause is " the Tenant shall refund to the Landlord, pro rata, the commission paid by the Landlord to the said real estate agents". But someone has cut the phrase "the commission paid by the Landlord to the said real estate agents". So it is unclear how much we should compensate the owner. My question is : 1. If we follow the norm, notifying owner 2 months in advance and accepting the deposit forfeited as compensation for owner, can we legally terminate the contract early? Thanks.

I had recently sold my private condo but my purchaser is unable to complete the purchase on the contractual completion date.My mortgage bank have only agreeded to reduce the interest charges frI had recently sold my private condo but my purchaser is unable to complete the purchase on the contraom 3 months to 1 month, although the purchaser had made their payment only on the 7th days. Although my entitlement to charge the interest (7days) stated in the Law Society of Singapore's condition sale 1999 from the purchaser, but is not sufficient to pay for the 1month bank interest charges. What other vendor's right available for such cases?

I have rented a property for 2yrs term contract and after 6 mths of stay the landlord called and say he now wants to move back. I have called the agent who rented the property to me and he told me he doesn't want to be involved. What right do I have as a tenant ?

Recently I have signed the tenancy agreement with the owner and reach an agreement with the owner that I can move in at the specific date. But the owner would like to postp