Property in Malaysia for sale and rent | Buy, Rent and sell real estate and homes

I had few bad tenants experiences, 3 cases to be specific. I also got many good tenants as well over many years in rental market. Sometime you will bump into bad apples for whatever reasons, luck, chance, possibility, etc.

A lot of my friends told me is good to have foreign tenants(European)... Don't think because the tenant is white means they're good tenant, my 3 cases are all white ppl (not a racist statement) just my real life experiences. 1st case was a white couple from UK, was doing ok in the beginning, but the family problem arise and the wife with the kids shift back to UK and left everything behind including the husband. I called the husband and he said he got some problem with his wife (quite honest) but few days later he also ignore everything and fly back without given me any written notice. It was a mess, TNB was sky-rocket (RM3K+) because he left the lights & air-con running when he left (talking about conserving energy, i think we asian are more conservative). All his furnishing was rented as well with 4 months default on rental. I ended up have to cough out few thousand to off-set the unsettled bills (2 months deposit + utilities also can't cover).

The 2nd & 3rd case was French, I just don't know why French react like this, in fact these 2 tenants are also my first experience with French tenant. 2nd case turn bad after 3 months later, it was because he fall sick after a trip to somewhere for work and he didn't recover as fast as he anticipated. I can understand his situation and I am willing to work out something that both mutually agreed upon. But he didn't respond to it and send an email to explain all his grandfather story and expect me to just take it or leave it. So, I tried to contact his company (who arrange this rental for him) and they couldn't do much because he had breach the contract with his company as well. But luckily enough, i manage to find a replacement in 1 month time.

the 3rd case is like a déjavu, they always started good, but slowly, the payment beginning to late, sometime late by half month, sometime 3rd week of the month. Then nothing (is like death pulse). I email, call, sms, every possible way to reach him, no reply, no nothing. This is the sign of a bad tenants.

When this happen, please take immediate action and don't delay. Send warning letters out asap, give they a short time frame to settle before you terminate TNB, Water, etc. If all else fail then make police report for your own protection because this is consider a missing tenant case. (trust me, he probably left the country by now).

I hope my experience can help some of you to avoid (or if unavoidable) at least you know the sign and act fast to avoid further damages done to your wallet.

Recently I rented out my condo through Jay Teoh of Tech Realtors and the Tenancy Agreement was prepared by him/his company. He told me that all minor repairs to be paid by tenant but after signing the TA I now realised that Clause 5.3 did not tally with our previous discussions.

CLAUSE 5.3: THE TENANT HEREBY COVENANTS WITH THE LANDLORD TO BE RESPONSIBLE FOR ALL MINOR REPAIRS AND ROUTINE MAINTENANCE OF THE SAID PREMISES THROUGHOUT THE TERM OF THIS TENANCY INN RESPECT OF ANY ITEM, THE COST OF REPAIR OF WHICH DOES NOT EXCEED RM100 ONLY. IN RESPECT OF THE REPAIR OF OTHER ITEMS OF WHICH EXCEEDS RM100, SUCH COSTS SHALL BE BORNED BY THE LANDLORD IN FULL, PROVIDED THAT IT IS NOT DUE TO THE NEGLIGENT OR CARELESS ACTS OR OMISSIONS OF THE TENANT. ANY EXPENSES INCURRED TO PUT THE FURNITURE, FIXTURES AND FITTING IN GOOD WORKING CONDITION IN THE FIRST TWO (2) WEEKS AFTER THE OCCUPANT MOVED IN THE SAID PREMISES SHALL BE BORNE BY THE LANDLORD.

From my recent unfortunate experience, especially with dishonest Property agents, please read every word in the TA even if it takes 2 hours to read it and DO NOT rely on the agent\\'s words that \\\"don\\'t worry, this is a standard agreement used by all my clients and so far no problem\\\". Unfortunately for me, I had a ton of problems since my tenant moved into my condo. Within 1 week, she complained that the freezer was not cold enough to keep her meats frozen and the said Agent immediately called a technician to repair the fridge without my approval. The Agent even advised tenant to deduct the repair cost of RM230 from the next month\\'s rent saying that this is allowed under the above Clause 5.3. After 5 weeks, tenant complained that there are bed-bugs on the mattresses. Why didn\\'t the bed-bugs bite tenant from day 1? How come only bite now? If it\\'s true that there are bed-bugs, then it\\'s definitely brought into the condo by tenant!

I was the one paying him his professional fee of 1 month\\'s rent + 6% tax but I strongly believed to the best of my knowledge that the said agent DID NOT protect my interest against a very unreasonable tenant. He even had the cheek to state that as a negotiator, his job is to find me a tenant and any problems between tenant and landlord after the TA is signed are to be resolved between us. The TA was prepared by him with such unreasonable terms to me as the landlord and now it\\'s my problem.

Calling all Real Estate Negotiators...let me hear about your peer reviews.

Thank you so much for sharing your experiences to your previous tenants I hope that you already move on with what happen to you and I do hope that whenever it may happen to me I can handle it smoothly.

I am also impressed by the ideas that shared in this post. There are number of tenants like these who make migraine for you. But I have never seen such a people in Dubai as I have rented out many properties in Dubai Marina, Downtown Dubai etc. for houses, apartments and shops in Dubai. So, all the tips that you provided are nice and useful for me as well.