Apartment size rip-off unacceptable
I recently negotiated my new lease with a corporate property developer which bought my unit from a private owner and I was shocked to learn that the rent was based on a calculation of a floor area more than twice the actual size of my apartment.
When I pressed the account manager for proof of this bogus measurement, the representative very carefully side-stepped the issue by informing me that they have never formally in writing listed the size of my apartment, but that they use the floor area publicly listed by the property agencies in their advertisements. Sure enough when I contacted an agency for listings, there was a unit in my building listed at more than double the size of the apartments.
While I understand the dubious practice in this city of factoring in 'common areas' such as lift lobbies and hallways, I fail to understand how the sum total of all this phantom space divided by the total number of flats in my building can equal almost 2? times the actual area of the units.
Now as I recall reading in these columns the Real Estate Developers Association (REDA), in response to threats by the government to step in and provide regulations to prevent abuses in gross floor area calculations, promised to police its industry against just such dishonest tactics.
Therefore I would like an answer from REDA and the government as to how such blatantly fraudulent practices are allowed not only to continue completely unchecked, but that they can be so flagrantly conducted in full public view knowing full well they can get away with it.
Asia's world city indeed; perhaps it is time the government stopped using this catch phrase, as it has become a pathetic joke.
