Lawyers will now be prohibited from holding conveyancing money in their clients' account - in the changes made to the Conveyancing and Law of Property Act that were read in parliament Monday by Law Minister K Shanmugam. The changes are expected to begin in phases from August 1 this year after the bill is passed. Conveyancing money used for payment of stamp duties, option deposits, and balance of sales...
Legal News
A 51-year-old man has pleaded guilty to tax evasion by failing to declare his rental income in his 2005 income tax returns. Goh Ah Bah, who owns apartments in places such as Hougang, Bukit Batok and Yishun admitted that he did not declare some S$139,040 in rental income. This means the total amount of tax undercharged is more than S$24,680. Goh will be sentenced on October 13. For committing the...
A former employee of a real estate company has been sentenced to four-and-a-half years' jail for withdrawing more than half a million dollars from the bank accounts of a condominium management committee. Chew Swee Siong, 31, from Kenwood Property Consultants used to be based at West Bay Condominium at West Coast Crescent when he committed the offences between 18 November 2006 and 10 July 2007. He pleaded...
Self-styled property investor Calisa Cheong Mei Ing was back in court on Tuesday after having her mitigation plea rejected last year. In remand since July last year, Cheong faces 74 counts of cheating tenants of rent money and obtaining credit as an undischarged bankrupt. When she appeared in the subordinate courts last October, the 40-year-old told the court she had wanted to plead guilty so as to fast...
INDOCHINE pub and restaurant chain owner Michael Ma went to the High Court yesterday in a bid to reclaim $386,000 he had paid for the option to buy five conservation shophouses. He had handed over 5 per cent of the Tanjong Katong Road shophouses' total worth of $7.7 million thinking he could buy them for commercial use. But he later found out they were partially restricted to residential use. Mr Ma...
A COURT has found that an agreement between Electronic Realty Associates (ERA) and a property owner could result in 'unjust enrichment' for the property agency. District Judge Francis Tseng has thus ordered four lawyers to return to Mr Simon Suppiah Sunmugam the money they had paid out as commission to the agency. The lawyers had earlier released $28,000 as commission to ERA from the sale of Mr Suppiah's...
Singaporean Norsiah Suja'i thought she had found her dream home when she forked out her life savings to buy a double-storey terrace house in Johor Baru in 1998 for more than RM335,000 (S$141,500 now). Instead, the retired teacher and 72 other Singaporeans in Taman Permata are about to lose their property to the developer's bank - after the developer went bust in 2000. The bank won a court order from the...
The High Court on Thursday dismissed Ideal Accommodation's appeal against a court order to pay Cove Development rental arrears amounting to over $872,000. The sum represents approximately two months of rental arrears for units at Grangeford Apartments which were leased to Ideal. Earlier this year, Ideal was charged with illegally renting out 171 units of Grangeford Apartments - 141 of which had been...
From October 1, the Law Society will do away with fee guidelines for lawyers when processing property deals. This means that lawyers and their clients will be free to negotiate their transaction fees, based on the type of work done, and the value of the property. This will apply for all conveyancing deals entered into on or after October 1. The guidelines were issued as a temporary measure after fixed...
Landmark lawsuit over reverse mortgage dispute will set legal precedent here IN A case that has been touted as the first of its kind in Singapore, a couple have sued NTUC Income for a reverse mortgage deal that turned sour, claiming that the insurer had wrongfully seized their home in 2006. On Friday, NTUC Income filed its defence, setting the stage for a possible court showdown while maintaining that it...