News

S’pore Woman Scammed By Contractor Finally Able To Move In After 7 Months Of Hell

Boon Hun

2017-09-11 , 7:18 pm

Getting a new house can both be a joyous and scary experience.

On one hand, you have your own home. Somewhere you can decorate to your heart’s content.

Somewhere that is officially yours.

But on the other hand, you’re afraid of getting scammed by renovation contractors.

Just like this lady who finally managed to move into her own home.

Meet Madam Siti who was scammed out of $38,000 by her contractor.

Back in May 2017, she was featured on TNP as one of the homeowners who was left in limbo.

Because the design firm she consulted, 6ix 5 Design Studio, cut off all contact after she paid the full amount.

They promised her that all the renovation works will be done by the first week of March.

However, when TNP visited her home in April, toilets were not installed, wooden partitions meant to be shelves were not installed and wires were hanging down from holes in the ceiling.

She added that the company told her that they ran into some problems and couldn’t finish the job.

If she insisted on having the job finished, she’ll have to pay them another $7,000.

Talk about daylight robbery.

But that’s not the end of her nightmare.

She had a hard time getting another interior designer to complete the job

So you’d think, “Okay, fine. I’ll just get someone else, a trustworthy one.”

But not everyone would want to do the job.

You have to go back on what’s done and figure out how to continue from there. And to be very honest, if the previous contractor did a shoddy job, they might have to re-do the entire thing.

Or if they missed it, they might be held liable for it.

Madam Siti said that she had approached eight other interior designers to complete the renovation works.

But she was either rejected outright or they couldn’t agree on a price.

She finally found light at the end of the tunnel when the co-founder of WHST Design agreed to do it.

She made sure to check their business profile and background properly before committing to the deal.

Mr Vince Teo, co-founder of WHST Design said that he gave them a discount after hearing their story.

They agreed on a renovation package of $13,000

On a separate note, till date, Madam Siti was unable to recover any money from 6ix 5 Design despite the Small Claims Tribunal approving the recovery.

Moral of the story: Always do your homework and don’t pay the full amount until the project is completed and inspected by you.

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