THEY own flats but still have no place to live.
At least five first-time home-owners have lost thousands of dollars after signing up for renovation work with an interior design company cum contractor.
Music composer George Leong (right) and Mr Alex Lee are two of at least five homeowners who have been left in the lurch by the couple. They are in the Telok Blangah flat of a Malay couple whose walls were hacked but left like this picture: MOHD ISHAK
The owners of the company, a married couple, can no longer be found and the company's registered address is no longer valid.
The wife, who was declared a bankrupt recently, apparently re-registered one of her companies two days after petitioning for bankruptcy and still collected payment from clients after that.
A check with the Accounting & Corporate Regulatory Authority shows several lawsuits had been filed against her and her husband, either for 'credit-related' or 'contracts-related' reasons since 2001.
PROMISES TO DELIVER
The couple, who are involved in two companies, would persuade home-owners to sign up with them with drawings and promises to deliver.
After that, they keep calling their clients for money, without following the schedule of payment in the contract, on the pretext of starting work.
After a few days of work, the workers would disappear, leaving the flats in a mess.
The couple used to be active exhibitors at home fairs where they solicited for business.
Their shop unit is now boarded up and used as a warehouse by a hardware shop two doors away.
The owner of the hardware shop, who has been renting the unit for the past four months, said the interior design company closed down in January this year.
Previously, it was a show office that 'was very nicely done up'. It had more than 10 employees.
He has seen letters from the Small Claims Tribunal sent to the unit. They were mainly from suppliers and subcontractors, he said.
Another interior design company next door has had angry people turning up thinking they are related to the couple's company.
A worker, who declined to be named, said she knew something was wrong about six months ago when 10 people showed up at different times saying they were customers.
The worker added: 'There were also subcontractors who came, as well as a property agent who said they had not paid rent for a few months.'
Music composer George Leong is one client who has been left in the lurch.
Mr Leong, 37, said he met the couple several times at their flat or outside but never at their shop.
He signed a contract with the company totalling over $27,000 in March this year.
According to the terms, Mr Leong had to pay 15 per cent upon signing, 40 per cent when work starts, 40 per cent upon measurement for carpentry work and 5 per cent on job completion.
He paid over $17,000 in four payments even before work started as he claimed the woman kept demanding for money.
Mr Leong said: 'When she asked for money, she wanted it immediately. She said she needed the money to order tiles and book the workers.
'In the end, I gave in because I thought it would be easier for her to do the work.'
Work on his Clementi flat started on 24 May and was scheduled to end on 23 Jun.
But Mr Leong said subcontractors turned up for two days to hack the walls but didn't show up again. The place was left in a mess.
He said: 'It was so hard to reach her after that. When I managed to talk to her, she gave excuses like she was on in a remote part of Johor and couldn't talk.'
Soon after, her handphone line was cut off, and he lodged a police report on 20 Jun.
She had been recommended by a friend, who had also signed up with her, said Mr Leong.
He added: 'She used my friend's house as a showflat although it was only half-done. My friend didn't have any complaints then, so I decided to go with her.'
After encountering problems, Mr Leong checked with his friend and found that he was also having problems with her. The friend had paid up the entire sum of over $20,000.
After his friend returned from work abroad in the middle of last month, he found notes from other home-owners under his door.
They asked if he had experienced any problems with the company, and if he knew how to contact them.
Mr Leong said: 'That's when I realised there were other people in our situation.'
The two friends got in touch with three other clients. The five parties had collectively paid more than $100,000 to the couple.
Among them is a Malay couple who had got the woman to arrange for a bank renovation loan for them.
BORROWED $25,000
They borrowed $25,000 from the bank and instructed it to be handed over to the woman.
The Malay woman and her fiance, who declined to be named, are now saddled with a five-year loan and must repay $500 a month.
She said: 'We thought it would be easier for her to have the money so she could get work done faster.'
The five parties have made police reports but have been advised that theirs are civil cases due to breach of contracts.
Mr Leong said it would be hard for them to take further action as they would incur more costs.
Another affected owner, Mr Alex Lee Ngan Kui, 30, said: 'We are helpless. We can't go to the Small Claims Tribunal because our claims are more than $10,000, and we can't afford to hire a lawyer.'
The owners have staked out the couple's flat in Jurong and gone to the listed office address but have not been able to locate them.
When The New Paper went to the couple's flat, no one answered the door, although there were several pairs of shoes and sandals, and a child's blue sandals on the shoe rack outside.
Mr Leong said: 'If they had been frank about their problems, I wouldn't have minded if they returned part of my money. Instead, they just vanished.'
FILED BANKRUPTCY, CONTINUES TAKING PAYMENT
JUST two days after petitioning for bankruptcy, the woman re-registered one of her companies and continued to accept payments from clients.
A check with the Accounting & Corporate Regulatory Authority (Acra) showed she petitioned for bankruptcy on
25 Apr 2007 for owing $164,000.
A bankruptcy order was made on 15 Jun. The Acra check showed that the company was first registered on 16 Dec 2003, and its registration expired on 16 Dec 2006.
It was cancelled on 3Apr 2007 before being re-registered.
In between the expiry and re-registration, the woman issued official receipts bearing collecting money from clients.
Mr George Leong, paid her the day before she filed for bankruptcy. He showed The New Paper his receipt dated 24Apr 2007. The company is listed as a renovation contractor.
Her other company was registered on 22 Sep 2006.
Her husband was the owner until 18 May 2007, when it was transferred to her. The business is listed as 'manufacture of furniture and fixtures of wood'.
There were also five writ of summonses filed against her from 2001 to 2007 for amounts ranging from $2,213 to $13,489. These were for contracts and credit-related issues.
The husband also faced several lawsuits against him from 2001 to 2003, for credit and negligence-related issues.
An Acra spokesman told The New Paper that under section 26(1) of the Business Registration Act, a person who is an undischarged bankrupt cannot own or manage a business without the permission of the High Court or the Official Assignee.
The penalties for breaching section 26(1) is a fine up to $10,000 or a jail term up to two years or both.
After being alerted to the case, a spokesman for the Insolvency & Public Trustee's Office said it is investigating.
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