ST : Landlord wins suit to evict home owner

Nov 12, 2010

Landlord wins suit to evict home owner

SERVED an eviction notice by his landlord, retiree Goh Kim Thong, 73, refused to budge - even when offered $225,000 for the terrace house in Mandai.

Mr Goh named his price - between $1.8 million and $2 million.

His landlord, Mr Ong Beng Chong, went to court to get the situation resolved.

In July, the High Court awarded Mr Goh $74,000 for his house in Meng Suan Road - a third of the compensation amount he was offered, based on valuation reports - and ordered him to hand over the house in four months.

Mr Goh stood firm on his asking price and appealed.

Yesterday, the Court of Appeal asked Mr Ong's lawyer whether his client was prepared to revisit his earlier offer, to which the reply came back: $200,000.

The court, comprising Chief Justice Chan Sek Kong, Justice Andrew Phang and Justice V. K. Rajah, then awarded Mr Goh $200,000 and gave him until Dec 31 to move out.

Mr Goh grumbled that the sum would not buy a three-room flat.

His single-storey, 50-year-old house is one of nine along the road, numbered 20 to 28 and built on Mr Ong's land.

The piece of land has a history that dates back to the 1950s, a time when people could own the land, but let others build houses on it in return for 'ground rent'. For the Meng Suan Road houses, ground rent was between $7 and $20 a month.

Mr Goh and his wife had bought No. 24, without the land, in 1983 for a mere $10,000 from the then-ground tenants.

In recent years, Mr Ong, who had redevelopment plans for his land, started sending his tenants quit notices and offers of compensation.

Mr Goh received his notice in October last year, and rebuffed Mr Ong's initial compensation offer.

He and his family do not live in the house, which is rented out to six workers from Malaysia. Each pays $180 a month.

During the hearing of Mr Ong's suit to evict him, Mr Goh, who did not have a lawyer, argued that he was entitled to squat on the land until the 999-year lease runs out in the year 2883.

But the High Court disagreed, saying that the law on this kind of land is clear: It states that the land owner can retake the land as long as the building owner is reasonably compensated.

Mr Ong, who also filed suit against three other tenants, eventually acquired the houses after mediation or an out-of-court settlement. Two other units are occupied by Mr Ong's family and relatives, leaving the tenants of three more units for him to evict.

SELINA LUM