'Sensitive* Questions To Ask Before Buying Your Resale Flat

Unsolved murders? Loan shark trouble? Mad neighbours around the corner? The agent and seller of your resale flat is not obligated to voluntarily share such information with you, so learn to ask the right questions.

Three weeks after moving into their resale flat in Potong Pasir, a family of five was stunned to discover its dark past. Its late owner had died and decomposed into skeletal remains in the unit for nine whole years before he was discovered, and they had no idea when they purchased the flat.

We are not a superstitious lot but even we got a chill down our spine reading this. The new owner, surnamed Chen, paid $670,000 for the four-room flat and only found out about the unit’s history when the contractor she hired to fix a ceiling leakage casually mentioned it. Throughout the transaction, everything was managed through the seller’s agent and she did not meet the seller. Never once was the unit’s macabre history brought up.

Resigned to her fate, she acknowledged that she could not do anything about the fact that someone had died in her home. Nevertheless, she made a wish every resale homeowner can relate to: she hoped that real estate agents can be more upfront about a house’s past by disclosing such important information to prospective buyers.

BUT IS IT REALLY THE AGENT’S JOB TO “DISCLOSE THE TRUTH”? The short answer is no – if you don’t ask. But if you did, then yes – the agent is legally obligated to tell you the truth. Many buyers may not know this but really, the onus is on you to ask all the necessary questions.

Caveat emptor (which is Latin for “Let the buyer beware”) is a common law doctrine often cited in property transactions that places the burden on buyers to reasonably examine the property before making a purchase. If you fail to do this, you are unable to ask for compensation later should you discover anything amiss.