SINGAPORE, Dec 5 — Don Tan had been working in his new office unit for about two months when he discovered, to his surprise, that the landlord his partner had signed a lease with was, in fact, not the landlord at all, but a tenant himself who was subleasing the unit.
The situation took an even stranger and more unpleasant turn when the man allegedly assaulted the 28-year-old electronics seller’s wife by biting her arm, while she was alone in the office one day with the couple’s three-year-old son.
For his part, the alleged assailant and supposed landlord, Danny Goh, told TODAY that Tan’s wife, American Theadora Davis, 25, had assaulted him, and that he was “nearly strangled to death”.
The office unit is in Midview City, in Sin Ming Lane in the Bishan area.
Tan shared his account of the events and a video of the attack on his Facebook page on Wednesday.
It has since made the rounds on social media.
The police said they were alerted to a case of voluntarily causing hurt at Blk 20 Sin Ming Lane at about 10.53pm on November 21.
“A 25-year-old woman was conscious when conveyed to Tan Tock Seng Hospital.
Police investigations are ongoing,” they added.
‘Everything was normal’
Tan told TODAY that his business partner, Howard Ng, first came across the unit for rent on online marketplace Carousell.
When he contacted the man who put up the advertisement, he felt “everything was normal” and Ng went on to sign the tenancy agreement in late July.
At first, the relationship between the partners and the supposed landlord, Goh, was cordial.
“He would come in (to the office) and talk to us... we would talk about things like expanding our business,” said Tan.
The relationship took a nosedive in early November when Tan asked if he could improve the Wi-Fi access at the unit as it was intermittent and choppy.
But Goh declined his request, saying that the internet worked fine as long as it is not used for gaming or video streaming.
Because Goh refused to budge on the matter, Tan decided to install his own Wi-Fi in the unit.
To do so, he would need to submit an application to the building’s management.
The application would also require the unit owner’s stamp of approval.
“He kept delaying,” said Tan.
“(Later), he gave us his own unit chop but it didn’t go through.”
That was when Tan and his business partner realised that Goh was not the landlord of the unit after all, but a tenant himself who was subleasing the unit.
The building management then informed Tan and his business partner of the identity of the owner of the unit.
They later signed the tenancy agreement with the actual landlord.
The alleged attack
On the evening of Nov 21, Tan said he left his wife, Davis, and their three-year-old son at the office unit while he headed to their home in Woodlands to grab a couple of things he needed to pull an overtime shift at the office.
His business partner had stayed behind in the office too, but left at around 10pm.
Moments later, Davis sent a message to Tan, saying that she could hear someone trying to get into the office.
She later realised that it was Goh.
Tan said she then heard footsteps in a separate room, which was part of the leased unit.
She was with her sleeping son in the adjacent room.
Eventually, Goh confronted the pair and allegedly shoved both Davis and her son when she told him to leave the room, said Tan.
“I could hear my son crying in the background and my wife shouting ‘Get out! Get out!’” said Tan, who was on the phone with his wife at the time.
Goh also allegedly bit Davis — a moment that appeared to be captured on closed-circuit television footage and posted on Facebook.
When Tan returned to the office half an hour later, the police had arrived on the scene.
No arrests were made then, he said.
“I was enraged and I felt helpless at that time... I can’t believe (Goh) did that,” he added.
Davis was later taken to Tan Tock Seng Hospital.
Tan said in his Facebook post that she suffered a fractured toe, bruises, abrasions and a bite mark on her arm as a result of the “attack”.
Tan said his wife has experienced anxiety attacks since the incident occurred.
His son also cried in the middle of the night two to three days after the incident.
Allegations ‘unfounded’, says Goh
When contacted by TODAY, Goh — who did not want to reveal his age and occupation — said the allegations made by Tan were “unfounded”, but did not elaborate on which aspects of Tan’s account he asserted were untrue.
When asked whether he had trespassed into the property, Goh said: “I was not trespassing because I own the unit.”
He added that he has been in and out of the unit on other occasions without the knowledge of the tenants.
Goh also claimed that Tan was using the office unit as a residential place.
When TODAY visited Tan’s unit on Wednesday, Tan showed the mattress he had placed in a room in the unit, adding that he uses it to rest when he works overtime and for his wife to breastfeed his son whenever they visit.
Goh also alleged that during the incident on November 21, Davis was the one who assaulted him and he was “nearly strangled to death”.
“If people block your way and furthermore pull your shirt, you’re going to stay there? You don’t push her? You would not try to get out of her restraint?” he said.
Goh also claimed that he will submit all evidence he has to the authorities and have Tan chased out of the unit.
TODAY has seen a letter dated November 20 to Goh’s company, Appliance Innovation, from another firm which is understood to be the landlord, terminating Goh’s lease of the unit “for illegally subletting to another party”.
Tan also provided TODAY with a copy of a new lease for the unit between the landlord and Tan’s partner, Ng, dated December 2.
Lawyers weigh in
Lawyers whom TODAY interviewed said a valid tenancy agreement with the rightful landlord of the property is needed before one is regarded as a tenant.
Once a tenant has signed the tenancy agreement with the rightful landlord of the unit, only then the tenant would be allowed into the unit.
The landlord can enter only with the tenant’s consent.
Therefore, if it is true that Goh no longer has a valid tenancy agreement with the landlord of the unit, he would be considered as trespassing by entering the property, said lawyer Ramesh Bharani Nagaratnam from RBN Chambers.
TODAY understands that Goh’s alleged attack on Davis was classified under the offence of voluntarily causing hurt.
This is not an arrestable offence without a warrant, said Azri Imran Tan, a former deputy public prosecutor and lawyer at IRB Law LLP.
A warrant of arrest is a court order that is issued to the police or other law enforcement agencies to arrest an alleged offender and bring him before the courts.
On Goh’s allegation that Tan was using the office as a residential property, Spring Tan, a lawyer at Withers KhattarWong LLP, said Tan would not be breaking the law so long as he is not using the unit as his permanent sleeping quarters. — TODAY
