Foreign workers listed as tenants at your home

[therock]

https://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/condo-residents-in-jurong-west-shocked-to-find-foreign-workers-listed-as-tenants-under

 

 

INGAPORE - Residents of a Jurong West condominium have found foreign workers registered under their addresses without their knowledge and are looking for answers.

Those affected have raised concerns over being taxed for rental income despite not having rented out their units and fear they could be on the hook if their purported tenants get into trouble with the law.

"I was shocked and confused," said Mr Ruzaidie Dar Sunik, one of The Floravale's affected residents.

"What if the person took a loan and couldn't pay it off? The police or loan sharks might come knocking on my door," said the 41-year-old senior executive in the education sector.

After being tipped off by a neighbour, he logged in to the Ministry of Manpower's (MOM) Foreign Worker Tenant Enquiry Service earlier this month and found that five strangers were registered as tenants in his apartment. He has never rented out his unit.

He then made a Facebook post warning others of what he had found.

 

 

Another resident, logistics officer Betty Koh, 45, discovered that one person had been registered under her address since March last year.

Madam Koh, who said that she has never rented our her home, said she knows of at least 10 other affected households in The Floravale, which has about 700 units.

"How can people even use our addresses this way?" she said. "Even when you make bank transactions, you will get a message asking for confirmation."

In response to queries sent last week by The Straits Times, MOM said on Thursday (May 2) that the Foreign Worker Tenant Enquiry Service has not yet been fully rolled out.

A spokesman said it will implement SMS or e-mail alerts to notify home owners when a work pass holder has been registered as staying at their properties by the end of this year.

He added that since the system was soft-launched in December, 489 home owners have managed to check and report cases of misused addresses, compared to fewer than 30 every year as was previously the case.

In the past three years, more than 2,000 employers and 1,000 foreign workers have been taken to task for providing false addresses, or for failing to update the addresses of foreign workers in their employ.

 

Does it matter, you may ask. If they do use your address and you aren't renting the place out, you may end up paying tax which is much higher instead of the lower tax rate for home stay.

So how do you check?

 

Go to this website:

https://www.mom.gov.sg/eservices/services/tes

 

If you do find illegal tenants using your address:

 

You can log in to this MOM website with your Singpass: https://www.mom.gov.sg/eservices/services/tes

 

After logging in, you'll be able to check if you have any foreign workers registered under your address, and deregister them.