Sellers Back Out On Sale Of Resale Flat

[clare 0]

Never thought that such unfortunate thing could happen to me & my husband.... I have been so excited about starting my flat's renovation next Mon and have been reading this forum actively on renovation tips and advices....

We are supposed to collect our keys today for our purchase of 4-room resale flat at Sin Ming Ave. But yesterday we received an urgent call from our agent that the sellers have backed out on the deal and refused to sign an important document which will affect the completion of the transaction. We took urgent leave and went down together with both parties' agents to have a talk with the sellers.

The sellers said that they couldn't sell the flat to us as they have to move out from their current rented 3-room flat because the landlord is going to sell the flat. The seller husband is a bankrupt and the wife pleaded that she has 4 kids and she is the sole breadwinner. If they sell their flat, they would have no place to stay now that the rental is so expensive. Despite both agents trying to convince that they will help them to get a rented place (but a smaller size than 3 room) at similar rental, they simply refused to sign the document and walked away.

We have paid them a few $K deposit already. Why? As they pleaded that they needed cash urgently to pay their mum's operation. Being kind hearted, we paid them. Now, they said couldn't return us the deposit but maybe in instalment..... I started to wonder if they intentionally wanted to cheat our deposit since beginning.

We are in trouble now as we have already sold our flat. We do not want to affect our buyers and their buyers (they are doing contra)....now we can only think of where to stay after our sale of flat and where to store our old and new furniture.

What I understand is that we can only wait for 21 days after the completion date to see if they submit the document. After which, we can either sue them for compensation of damage loss (which is not feasible since they claim that they are very broke) or sue them for specific performance (i.e. to claim for the flat).

Anyone has such encounter or could give some advice? I heard that claim of specific performance may drag a year.....

[l_club23 0]

Never thought that such unfortunate thing could happen to me & my husband.... I have been so excited about starting my flat's renovation next Mon and have been reading this forum actively on renovation tips and advices....

We are supposed to collect our keys today for our purchase of 4-room resale flat at Sin Ming Ave. But yesterday we received an urgent call from our agent that the sellers have backed out on the deal and refused to sign an important document which will affect the completion of the transaction. We took urgent leave and went down together with both parties' agents to have a talk with the sellers.

The sellers said that they couldn't sell the flat to us as they have to move out from their current rented 3-room flat because the landlord is going to sell the flat. The seller husband is a bankrupt and the wife pleaded that she has 4 kids and she is the sole breadwinner. If they sell their flat, they would have no place to stay now that the rental is so expensive. Despite both agents trying to convince that they will help them to get a rented place (but a smaller size than 3 room) at similar rental, they simply refused to sign the document and walked away.

We have paid them a few $K deposit already. Why? As they pleaded that they needed cash urgently to pay their mum's operation. Being kind hearted, we paid them. Now, they said couldn't return us the deposit but maybe in instalment..... I started to wonder if they intentionally wanted to cheat our deposit since beginning.

We are in trouble now as we have already sold our flat. We do not want to affect our buyers and their buyers (they are doing contra)....now we can only think of where to stay after our sale of flat and where to store our old and new furniture.

What I understand is that we can only wait for 21 days after the completion date to see if they submit the document. After which, we can either sue them for compensation of damage loss (which is not feasible since they claim that they are very broke) or sue them for specific performance (i.e. to claim for the flat).

Anyone has such encounter or could give some advice? I heard that claim of specific performance may drag a year.....

Looks like they had no intention to sell at all... I say sue them for compensation of damage loss and recover whatever you can.

[zirhk3355 1]

Never thought that such unfortunate thing could happen to me & my husband.... I have been so excited about starting my flat's renovation next Mon and have been reading this forum actively on renovation tips and advices....

We are supposed to collect our keys today for our purchase of 4-room resale flat at Sin Ming Ave. But yesterday we received an urgent call from our agent that the sellers have backed out on the deal and refused to sign an important document which will affect the completion of the transaction. We took urgent leave and went down together with both parties' agents to have a talk with the sellers.

The sellers said that they couldn't sell the flat to us as they have to move out from their current rented 3-room flat because the landlord is going to sell the flat. The seller husband is a bankrupt and the wife pleaded that she has 4 kids and she is the sole breadwinner. If they sell their flat, they would have no place to stay now that the rental is so expensive. Despite both agents trying to convince that they will help them to get a rented place (but a smaller size than 3 room) at similar rental, they simply refused to sign the document and walked away.

We have paid them a few $K deposit already. Why? As they pleaded that they needed cash urgently to pay their mum's operation. Being kind hearted, we paid them. Now, they said couldn't return us the deposit but maybe in instalment..... I started to wonder if they intentionally wanted to cheat our deposit since beginning.

We are in trouble now as we have already sold our flat. We do not want to affect our buyers and their buyers (they are doing contra)....now we can only think of where to stay after our sale of flat and where to store our old and new furniture.

What I understand is that we can only wait for 21 days after the completion date to see if they submit the document. After which, we can either sue them for compensation of damage loss (which is not feasible since they claim that they are very broke) or sue them for specific performance (i.e. to claim for the flat).

Anyone has such encounter or could give some advice? I heard that claim of specific performance may drag a year.....

If I am not wrong, you can only sue for specific performance only when the damages cannot be ascertained, not because you find that you think can't get damages (eg from a bankruptee). Just too bad if the person is bankrupt, you will still have to claim for damages and wait in queue lor...

I was trying to buy a flat that was announced SERS and same like you, the sellers suddenly decided not to sell because of the same reason, cannot find a place to stay. By that time, I was unable to find a similiar flat in the area because the given period of sale (6 mths after SERS announcement) was already over. As such, in my case, no damages can be ascertained and thus I can sue for specific performance.

How my case ended was that I told the seller: "If you got problems in finding a rental place, I will rent this flat back to you after you sell to me, at a low rental - I will scratch your back if you scratch mine. But if you insist not to sell, I will sue you and if I win, I will chase you out on the same day I get the keys and you can sleep on the streets - no mercy. Its only fair to all, right??" And it worked, in the end he sold to me and I rented to him for the next six mths at half the market's rate.

Back to your case, exactly what documents did they refused to sign? The sellers also sounded very fishy, why are they staying in a rented 3-room flat when they got a 4-room flat? If finding a place to stay is a problem, then you could do the same like me, offer to rent the place to him for a while until they got the approved rental flat from HDB or maybe when they can afford to buy a flat.

[clare 0]

Hi zirhk3355,

Har, you mean cannot straight away sue for specific performance? Sorry, what does SERS mean? If rent the flat back to them, is even putting more risk to myself. If they carry out any illegal activities or burn down the unit, I will be responsible as the flat ownership is with me. Moreover, I don't think they will agree as they already have the intention to cheat my deposit. Since the seller is bankrupt, he knows that I can't go after him for the $ as there is a bigger creditor.

According to their agent (whose relationship with the sellers turned sour as the agent quarelled with them over the decision made), they are supposed to sign a green form required by the Official Assignee that they agree to sell their flat (something like that).

The sellers stay in 3-room rented flat and rent out their 4-room flat. We are also kind enough to push back the completion date by 1 wk so that they don't have to early terminate their tenancy agreement with their tenants.

So did you consult a lawyer before proceeding to talk to your sellers?

[zirhk3355 1]

Hi zirhk3355,

Har, you mean cannot straight away sue for specific performance? Sorry, what does SERS mean? If rent the flat back to them, is even putting more risk to myself. If they carry out any illegal activities or burn down the unit, I will be responsible as the flat ownership is with me. Moreover, I don't think they will agree as they already have the intention to cheat my deposit. Since the seller is bankrupt, he knows that I can't go after him for the $ as there is a bigger creditor.

According to their agent (whose relationship with the sellers turned sour as the agent quarelled with them over the decision made), they are supposed to sign a green form required by the Official Assignee that they agree to sell their flat (something like that).

The sellers stay in 3-room rented flat and rent out their 4-room flat. We are also kind enough to push back the completion date by 1 wk so that they don't have to early terminate their tenancy agreement with their tenants.

So did you consult a lawyer before proceeding to talk to your sellers?

SERS is Selective En-bloc Redevelopment Scheme, which means that the flat is slated to be demolished and you will be given compensation, a new flat, priority in selecting new flat, etc.

From what I know, yes, specific performance comes only after the damages is unable to be ascertained. Yes, I consulted three lawyers who told me the same thing, before I dared to go confront the sellers like that.

I just checked with my lawyer friend earlier, the OA will ask for the bankruptee to sign (green form??) and undertake that the proceedings from selling the flat will go towards clearing his debts - this is required by HDB if the person is a bankruptee. I suspect this might be another reason why they refused to sell; they could have thought that they can take the money to buy another flat or for their own use, so since cannot, they don't want to sell liao.

Well if you are sure that the fella is out to cheat your money, then by all means go and sue them. Its not that he is a bankrupt then you cannot go after him, but just that you got to queue up lor. Unless this guy was a millionaire like Richard Yong, who had already laundered his money properly, no bankruptee in the right mind will want to owe other people more money lor - when will he ever get discharged??

In that sense I believe he is not really out to cheat you lah, but just miscalculated his moves - believe they are probably not a very well-off family, maybe also not well-educated, right? Just like my seller during my time, blur blur one and making wrong moves all the time, getting himself into trouble, that's why I pitied him also. But of course I must protect myself first.

So, if they are sincerely having problems in finding a place to stay, then to rent to them is an option lor - its a win-win situation. Illegal activities and all that can be prevented mah, if everyone also worried about such things then nobody will be renting flats liao, right? !!

BTW, don't trust the agents too much. During my time, the agents actually played out the sellers, that's why they are in such trouble. Both my agent and seller's agent ran away after realising that the deal had fallen thru, and I was the one who had to go find lawyers, check with HDB and negotiate with the seller, etc to settle the thing.

Later, they got 'wind' that we are transacting again, the two jokers came back asking for commission!! A**holes lor - you better don't listen to them too much lah.

In the end, I actually helped the seller to shake off the agent (he signed some comm agreement and such), to apply for HDB's rental flat, and later buy another 1-rm flat.

[Homeowner 1]

If you rent out to your sellers, illegal activities, etc. will be covered by the rental agreement. Fire will be covered by fire insurance purchased by the owner.

Edited July 10, 2007 by Homeowner

[karen77sg 0]

Haa....it happens to me tat time when I bought tis flat.

Bt my condition is different, the seller back out the very next day.

My agent refused to let go (maybe he also lazy to find another unit for us), he offer

to follow up for us, asking for compensation from the seller, threathen to sue them...etc and

even refused to let the seller talk to us....Very tough agent!

In the end, the seller bo pian gt to sell to us...bt anyway everything is settled.

I ever called HDB before, they say the seller cannot back out during the cool off period (I dunno

whether is the term correct). Bt the buyer can choose not to buy during this period...we can

sue them if they really back out..

So sorry to hear abt yr plight....bt seems like they are outright to cheat u! And I hate such

ppl....bt on the hindsight, they also very "cham"! Pay the deposit back in installments....

I tink if really go to court, u definitely will win the case, then they will die lor...cos they will

compensate like mad!

Hope things will work out fine for both of u!

[Phantom 1]

As far as i know, bankruptcies would require the approval of the OA before they can sell the place, if they did not do the due diligence to check with the OA, then its quite obvious, there is an intent to cheat.

The agent for them could also be involved but he/she could also claim ignorance.

If it can be proven that the agent knew, then you could go after both the agent for abetting to conspire to cheat and the sellers for conspiring and the intent to cheat.

Gd luck. Hope that everything works out well.

Do understand that in such instances, these ppl could already have cheated others in similar position.

I wouldn't place high hopes on a court case as there is still an OA to contend with, if he has money to pay you. The OA might want to lay claimant on the damages.

Not sure if the OA will have first claim?

Other Alternative

Proceed with the purchase by exercising the Option to Purchase within the period stated in the Option to Purchase.

Once exercised, you and the seller have a binding contract to buy and sell the property. Your lawyer can advise you further on the legal implications of your exercise of the Option to Purchase.

Technically you can force the sale of the property but the OA must approve anyway, they will get into trouble also if the OA realize they tried to pocket some money but didn't let the OA know... and at the same time, OA should not stand in your way, its none of their business, they are only interested in getting the money back. lol...

As long as you want to exercise the option, the right is yours.

For private property its easier as the lawer can do a title search to check if the owner is an undischarged bankrupt. I'm not sure on HDB. Anyone care to help?

To add on to what i mentioned, please see below:

As the Official Assignee administers your affairs in bankruptcy, his approval is required for all applications to sell HDB flats. Before you enter into a Sale & Purchase agreement, you are advised to seek the Official Assignee's approval. The Official Assignee will not object if you are going to sell your flat at or above the valuation price as the proceeds of sale will help to get you out of bankruptcy. The Official Assignee will assist you to obtain a discharge after the HDB has remitted the sale proceeds for the Official Assignee's administration. If you receive any cash from the purchasers as deposit or option fee, you should forward your share to the Official Assignee as well. If you need part of the net sale proceeds to buy another flat, you should specify this when submitting your application to the Official Assignee.

Filing Your Claim Against The Insolvent Person

Once a debtor is declared bankrupt by the High Court, his creditors can no longer commence or continue with any legal action against the insolvent person to recover monetary claims that arose before his insolvency. Instead, they can submit to Official Assignee a Proof of Debt (Form 23) and give an account of their claims against the insolvent person. Debts that are incurred after the date of Bankruptcy Order are not provable (claimable) against the bankrupt's estate. If there is a dispute by the insolvent person over the sum claimed, the creditor will be asked to provide supporting documents. The petitioning creditor should also file his Proof of Debt against the insolvent person. Creditors who change their address after filing their Proof of Debt must notify the Official Assignee.

Please do something asap because if the sellers can say that you didn't want to exercise your option after a specific period of time.

Check here for more information.

Insolvency and Public Trustees Office

Edited July 10, 2007 by Phantom

[Phantom 1]

Unless this guy was a millionaire like Richard Yong, who had already laundered his money properly, no bankruptee in the right mind will want to owe other people more money lor - when will he ever get discharged??

5 years. Ironic.

Go borrow against all the banks. Declare bankrupt and stay in Singapore and get discharged in 5 years time.

[zirhk3355 1]

5 years. Ironic.

Go borrow against all the banks. Declare bankrupt and stay in Singapore and get discharged in 5 years time.

Oh is that true?? Sorry I didn't know about that. Even if the debts are not repaid yet?

Reference to what you said earlier:

"Debts that are incurred after the date of Bankruptcy Order are not provable (claimable) against the bankrupt's estate."

Do you mean that a bankrupt can then go cheat everyone and nobody can touch him?? If this is true then its a big loophole leh...hmmz, anyone want to be a bankrupt??

Edited July 10, 2007 by zirhk3355

[Phantom 1]

Oh is that true?? Sorry I didn't know about that. Even if the debts are not repaid yet?

Reference to what you said earlier:

"Debts that are incurred after the date of Bankruptcy Order are not provable (claimable) against the bankrupt's estate."

Do you mean that a bankrupt can then go cheat everyone and nobody can touch him?? If this is true then its a big loophole leh...hmmz, anyone want to be a bankrupt??

lol.. yes. there was a big hooha in Hong Kong when credit cards were at their height.. alot of ppl were on credit and because of this "loophole" .. banks lost alot of money.. i know someone who was managing the asia pac region for a bank.. and the person was telling me abt it last time..

i actually copied that out from the gov. website.. lol... i believe what it means is that if this person dies while a bankrupt, then cannnot claim from his estate.... lol..

[zirhk3355 1]

lol.. yes. there was a big hooha in Hong Kong when credit cards were at their height.. alot of ppl were on credit and because of this "loophole" .. banks lost alot of money.. i know someone who was managing the asia pac region for a bank.. and the person was telling me abt it last time..

i actually copied that out from the gov. website.. lol... i believe what it means is that if this person dies while a bankrupt, then cannnot claim from his estate.... lol..

I think the crucial part is on the discharge - noticed in the website that one can be discharged even though s/he still has outstanding debts, as long as the OA is satisfied that the person can repay.

So it does not mean that you go owe money to everyone, within 5 yrs cannot pay up, then after that the debts will disappear. Otherwise there will be chaos liao...

[waileong 0]

I suggest you seek proper legal counsel instead of coming here. See a lawyer. If you really want it, you have to be prepared to sue all the way.

[Phantom 1]

I think the crucial part is on the discharge - noticed in the website that one can be discharged even though s/he still has outstanding debts, as long as the OA is satisfied that the person can repay.

So it does not mean that you go owe money to everyone, within 5 yrs cannot pay up, then after that the debts will disappear. Otherwise there will be chaos liao... !!

the scenario i mentioned to you happened in Hong Kong.. (come to think abt it .. i'm not sure if its HK or Taiwan..) .. apologies..

In singapore context, I don't think so, it could mean that that they would be discharged but then still have to fulfill whatever debt obligations outstanding.. just like your interpretation.

Seeking legal counsel would always be the easiest way for us to find out.. lol..

[clare 0]

SERS is Selective En-bloc Redevelopment Scheme, which means that the flat is slated to be demolished and you will be given compensation, a new flat, priority in selecting new flat, etc.

From what I know, yes, specific performance comes only after the damages is unable to be ascertained. Yes, I consulted three lawyers who told me the same thing, before I dared to go confront the sellers like that.

I just checked with my lawyer friend earlier, the OA will ask for the bankruptee to sign (green form??) and undertake that the proceedings from selling the flat will go towards clearing his debts - this is required by HDB if the person is a bankruptee. I suspect this might be another reason why they refused to sell; they could have thought that they can take the money to buy another flat or for their own use, so since cannot, they don't want to sell liao.

Well if you are sure that the fella is out to cheat your money, then by all means go and sue them. Its not that he is a bankrupt then you cannot go after him, but just that you got to queue up lor. Unless this guy was a millionaire like Richard Yong, who had already laundered his money properly, no bankruptee in the right mind will want to owe other people more money lor - when will he ever get discharged??

In that sense I believe he is not really out to cheat you lah, but just miscalculated his moves - believe they are probably not a very well-off family, maybe also not well-educated, right? Just like my seller during my time, blur blur one and making wrong moves all the time, getting himself into trouble, that's why I pitied him also. But of course I must protect myself first.

So, if they are sincerely having problems in finding a place to stay, then to rent to them is an option lor - its a win-win situation. Illegal activities and all that can be prevented mah, if everyone also worried about such things then nobody will be renting flats liao, right?

BTW, don't trust the agents too much. During my time, the agents actually played out the sellers, that's why they are in such trouble. Both my agent and seller's agent ran away after realising that the deal had fallen thru, and I was the one who had to go find lawyers, check with HDB and negotiate with the seller, etc to settle the thing.

Later, they got 'wind' that we are transacting again, the two jokers came back asking for commission!! A**holes lor - you better don't listen to them too much lah.

In the end, I actually helped the seller to shake off the agent (he signed some comm agreement and such), to apply for HDB's rental flat, and later buy another 1-rm flat.

Hi zirhk3355,

I took your advice and went to propose to the sellers few weeks ago. We proposed to them to rent the flat back to them for half a year at the rental that they are currently paying their landlord. We will also help them to appeal to MP to get them a rented HDB flat. They were rather surprised at our proposal and said that half a year may be too short to get HDB approval for rented flat. So we extended to 1 yr. They said to consider.

The next day, they replied saying that they don't feel good staying in their own flat but in rental (ru**ish right!). Then they showed their true colour....they requested us to give them $30K cash saying that they can use the cash to buy new flat. Like what you say, if they sincerely have problems, they will accept our proposal right. See, they already have intention to extort more $ from us. We are very pi**ed off with them!

We have already gotten a lawyer to issue them a letter of demand (7-day notice period for them to response) last Thurs. Still nothing heard from them. Our lawyer will prepare docs and proceed to file with high court. But as the seller is a bankrupt, still have to get permission from court to sue him....like that have to wait 2-3 weeks.

Although we know that the legal proceeding will take quite sometime, we think that we cannot just let the sellers get off like that. They also didn't mention about returning my few $k deposit.... And also to prevent them from using the same tactics to cheat others.....