Apartment ‘lost’ to squatters

Happy ending: Siaw (left) shaking hands with Wong after Chong (second from left) and lawyer James Ee helped to mediate the conflict between the two.

KUALA LUMPUR: A businessman’s shop apartment was illegally occupied and rented out to 14 people without his knowledge.

Wong Yin Kian, 58, said he was shocked when he came back from London and found out his unit in Pandan Perdana was occupied.

He had not checked on his unit for several months.

“The locks I used earlier were changed. There were 14 people, comprising 12 Bangladeshi men, a Malaysian man and an Indonesian woman living in my unit,” he told a press conference organised by MCA Public Services and Comp­laints Department head Datuk Seri Michael Chong.

His unit was supposed to be unoccupied as his previous tenant had moved out several months ago.

Wong said the furniture, a television and refrigerator worth more than RM20,000 in his unit were missing.

He said the tenants claimed to be renting the unit from his former Bangladeshi worker, Ismail Hossain.

All of them paid rentals and deposits to Ismail, who claimed to be the main tenant of the unit.

When confronted, Ismail showed a tenancy agreement that he had rented the unit from a 20-year-old man, Yap Jian Sheng, who claimed to be the owner of the unit.

“The tenancy agreement he showed me looked like any other legitimate agreement, with proper details and address,” said Wong.

“I am not sure whether Ismail colluded with Yap or maybe Ismail was also cheated by Yap. We will let the police to investigate,” he said.

Meanwhile, one of the tenants, Siaw Kam Fook, 51, complained that he was slapped on the night of Jan 1, when a few men, including Wong, broke into the room he rented.

“I was sleeping and suddenly these guys broke into my room. I was slapped on my face. I thought they were robbers.

“But one of the guys (Wong) said he is the owner of the unit,” he said, telling his side of the story at the press conference.

Siaw said he rented the room at RM300 a month from Ismail and paid RM900 for rental and deposits.

At the press conference, Wong and Siaw reached a peaceful settlement after Chong’s mediation.

“Knowing Wong is a victim, Siaw decided to forgive.

“They will discuss how long Siaw can stay in the room,” Chong said.

Chong also revealed his office received 18 similar cases last year, where unoccupied units were ren­ted out without the knowledge of the landlords.

“There could be syndicates that look for unoccupied units. They will cut the locks and rent these units to foreign or illegal workers,” he said.

Chong urged owners to frequently check their properties and they can always seek help from property agents to manage them.