At wits end: Leong (centre) showing a video clip of an encounter with her tenant during a press conference held by Perak MCA public service and Yuen (left) in Ipoh. With them is bureau deputy chief Pauline Phoon.
IPOH: A graphic designer is at her wits’ end after a former tenant refused to vacate a shophouse in Simee here.
Leong Yoke Sum, 48, said the tenant, who rented the double-storey shophouse to operate an eatery between 2013 and 2020, changed the locks to the place numerous times.
Leong said she has lodged at least eight police reports against the tenant between March last year and January this year and has even been accompanied by the police to cut the locks several times but the problem persists.
The tenant’s business has closed, she added, and yet, she can’t get the tenant and her husband, a foreigner, to move out.
“I was even told to cough up RM250,000 for the renovations they did to the premises if I want my shop back,” Leong said at a press conference held by Perak MCA public service and complaints bureau chief Charles Yuen here yesterday.
According to Leong, after the agreement ended in 2020, the tenant declined to enter another one but also refused to move out.
Early this year, the couple tried to sublet the shop to another person, she said.
“When we tried again to enter the premises, the couple stopped us,” said Leong, adding that the utility supplies to the shop had been cut last year.
“I really hope that there is some sort of authority that can step in and help me get my shop back. It was bought by my mother with her hard-earned money,” she said.
Yuen said the police had told him that Leong could only lodge reports and continue to change the locks and hope that the couple would give up and leave.
“I understand that Leong has the option to try and secure a court order to evict the couple but this takes time and money.
“I hope that there can be some special provisions to handle extraordinary cases like this,” he added.
When contacted, acting Ipoh OCPD Supt Mohamad Sajidan Abdul Sukor said they were awaiting further instructions from the Deputy Public Prosecutor’s Office regarding the case where the tenant had prevented the police from performing their duties.
“For the dispute, it is a civil matter to be taken up by the owner against her tenant,” he said.
