15 Properties under a 10-minute walk to East-West Line (EWL) MRT station
As a consumer, it is always immensely gratifying to be on the receiving end of good service by a property agent. At the same time, it is important to understand and respect the boundaries of what they can do for you.
Occasionally, some might go out of their way to do more than what is necessary and this is usually out of goodwill. However, consumers should not take everything an agent does for granted.
The following case studies examine what the scope of a property agent’s services is in rental, and sale and purchase property transactions.
Case Study 1: Renting a property
Mr Tan bought an apartment in a condominium and with the completion of the sale, he appointed John as his property agent to rent it out. The first issue they discussed was John’s commission rate. Because commission rates are neither fixed nor are there official guidelines on the amount, it was important to agree on this before John started his work.
Throughout the process, there were several pieces of information Mr Tan had to provide to John to facilitate his work. These include Mr Tan’s identification – in his case, his NRIC, since he is a Singaporean – and his other personal information required in the Customer’s Particulars Form for John to do the necessary checks against money laundering and counter-terrorism financing.
Because of the hot rental market, John found Mr Tan a tenant within two weeks. A tenancy agreement was drawn up detailing the terms of the tenancy, and once the terms and conditions were agreed upon by Mr Tan and the tenant, the agreement was signed. John also performed checks on the tenant and occupiers to help parties comply with the due diligence checks under the Women’s Charter 1961 and Immigration Act 1959 to combat vice in our neighbourhoods. A property agent’s role typically ends after the tenancy agreement is signed and the property is handed over to the tenant, and it marked the end of the business relationship between Mr Tan and John.
