Kalau jadi macam ni, korang nak buat apa?

(sumber : http://investkk.com/property-dilemma/)

Hi CK,

Need your help here and forumer’s help too. I’ve a problem I need you and any others who have faced the similar situation to give some advice on how to claim damages from the tenant.

This property does not belong to me but my in-law. She rented her single-storey terrace house in January 2009 to a family which later she only found out that they are from Indon. When she rented out she only know the person by name, never had a copy of their passport. There are no tenancy agreement except a receipt which the tenant dispute that the date given to him was different that the one stated from our copy of receipt book (and he never shown us when we tried to evict them). She collects 1 month rent and 1 month deposit and minimal deposit for water and electrity bill.

The tenant has been paying his rent late usually, sometimes my in-law was frustrated as she had to go few times in a month but never got her rent. Her frustration grew more when one of the day(June 2010) she went and found out they broke her window panes. She checked and found out they had also took her zink sheets and a wooden ladder. She told them to replace which the tenant gives lots of reason and finally said yes.

In July she told them she will increase the rent in August to the husband. However, in August, the wife denied being informed. Therefore my in-law told the to move, if they do not want to stay on. As she went for a holiday, after she came back she went back to the house and found they are still staying there and asked for more grace period as they had not found any place to stay. She took pity on them and let them stay until September 15.

However, after September 15, the tenant refused to move out and started to be violent. She then asked her son-in-law to try to evict them by going quite frequently to check and talk to them as my husband was not in KK most of the time. This time they started to damage the house, resulting to my in-law lodging a police complaint on them and subsequently a court order.

End of last month, they finally move out but did not hand over their keys. They said they had not finished moving out their belongings. Later we found out that what they mean is dismatling their air-con and the water pipe. They move out to a neighbouring house. However when we spoke to them on the handing over, they promised a date to deliver. On the day of delivery they are nowhere to be seen. We went to their new house and the workplace and they are not there, neither they are answering our calls.

The next day, we still fail to collect the key from them. On the same day, we received the letter requesting hearing from the court. We took the letter to them. When we reach the house, we heard the husband talking on mobile phone. When we are inside the house compound, the maid said he ‘went out’. Then when we demand, she then said he went to sleep and ‘jangan kacau dia’. Anything talk to the wife. As I was in a fury, I told them the letter is addressed to him and we rented to his husband, he must collect this letter. All these while they talk to the wife who was the mastermind…

When the wife returned after a while(the husband must had called her) cos we told them if he is not coming out we are bringing a police. When we asked them about the handover, the wife just said, its lost, we told you already. All this while they had been going in and out and never told us anything about lost key?

When they accepted the letter from the court and they dashed out without discussing with us on this issue and said they are going to the police station to report us for our false accusation.

During the weekend, we went back to the house, trying to go in with our extra key. None can fit in so we had to force open. Apparently they spoilt the door lock by inserting sharp object in the door lock(3 doors ), spoilt ceiling fan, toilet, etc etc… And they had not even paid their electricity and water bills amounting RM600!

We had court order for hearing yesterday but the court couldn’t care less said that our amount was too low(less than RM2000). The tenant(husband) turn up but later dissapeared, leaving the wife to go in and see the judge. She told the judge he had to go and do his passport and the judge allow that!!!??? And the court does not even verify the IC by allowing the wife to go into the proceeding room.

What can you advice? How can we claim back the damages. We only have with us their water and eletrity deposit and its not even enough to cover all the damages done deliberately to the house. I had been reading it seems that Malaysian court do not favour landlords and my in-law was sighing everyday at her home turned into something that’s being hit by typhoon. We do not have the person’s real name as per passport, do you think what action can we do to claim back? We’re not ah long… and Malaysian court is too friendly to them…

Help!

Thanks. Appreciate all your comments.