A Chinese restaurant located along Geylang Road saw its income fall by 80% due to the COVID-19 outbreak. Its owner, 43-year-old Mr Zhong, was chased out of the restaurant premises after failed negotiations with his landlord.
Mr Zhong had asked the landlord for a temporary reduction of the $8000 monthly rental fee but was flat-out rejected.
He admitted that he did not pay the rent for the month of February but said that the landlord still had one month’s rental deposit and could have deducted it from there.
Given no choice, he decided not to renew the rental lease. To his surprise, the landlord turned up at the restaurant just a few days later with three other workers to kick him out and lock up the premises. He also put up a notice of the rent owed by Mr Zhong.
Poor Mr Zhong was only given an hour to vacate the premises before they locked it down. He was forced to leave a lot of equipment and furniture behind as he did not have enough time to clear out the space. To date, he has already lost about $15,000 worth of items.
A police report had been made and the authorities will look into the matter.