S'pore family's S$80,000 renovation becomes S$216,000 after contractor keeps asking for add-ons, then disappears 5 months later

During a renovation of his parents' home, a Singaporean man was made to pay S$216,000 for the project after his contractor disappeared.

It was nearly three times the intended cost of S$80,000.

Of the total amount, the losses added up to about S$136,000, with a large bulk of it coming from his parents' retirement savings.

Nothing seemed out of the ordinary

The victim, Errol Lee, told CNA's Money Mind that things seemed normal at first.

The family engaged the contractor as he offered them a quotation within their budget of S$80,000.

Other quotations they received were in the range of S$130,000 to S$150,000, which far exceeded their budget.

"Eventually we went with him because of pricing and also because we thought his entire set up was quite credible," said Lee.

The contractor's company had multiple showrooms, and online reviews appeared to be favourable.

The company's director also assured the family that he would personally take care of the project.

He was also responsive and claimed to have worked on more than 300 houses of varying sizes.

Red flags

However, red flags soon appeared as the contractor kept asking for more money than the originally agreed budget.

The additional costs included fees for extra hacking, electrical works, more carpentry and windows.

A chairperson of the Consumer Education Committee of the Consumers Association of Singapore (CASE) told CNA that a common bait used by fraudulent contractors is a low initial quotation.

However, there would later be "add-ons" that can "balloon into huge sums".

An interior designer repeatedly asking for more payments while renovation slows could also be a sign of the company facing cash flow problems, said a co-founder of HomeMatch, a Singapore-based platform that matches homeowners with accredited interior designers and contractors.

In many cases, they cannot continue paying their sub-contractors or lack working capital for material.

Asked to pay director personally

Soon, another request came for Lee's family, where they were asked to transfer S$35,000 to the company's director personally.

The company claimed it was facing issues transiting their bank accounts to another bank.

Lee said they proceeded with the payment despite some hesitation, as the family was anxious to complete renovations and move back in before the Chinese New Year.

The family paid S$77,000 eventually to the company, while S$47,000 went to the director's personal accounts.

Meanwhile, renovation works also slowed.

When the family inspected the home, they realised work was unfinished and there were measurement errors.

The house was also only half painted, and they had previously been selectively shown only the completed areas of the house.

The interior designer had also not used any of the products from the vendor the family had chosen.

When asked, he claimed that he had approached a different cheaper vendor to help them "save money".

Ghosted

Five months after renovations began, the contractor stopped replying his messages.

The company's showrooms were also vacated, and the family soon realised they had lost their money.

They had paid over S$130,000 at this point, but the home had to be rebuilt.

The only items preserved from the half-completed work were the tiles and windows, which Lee said would have cost S$20,000 and S$9,000 respectively.

When a second interior designer was engaged, works were completed in just six weeks.

Lee said that as this was the family's first renovation in many years, it was a "very new experience".

"We didn't think that it was that deep.

So I think the first step should always be to go and find out all these horror stories. What could potentially go wrong before actually looking for an interior design firm and really not get sold by the marketing."