Question
Sunil and Samaira are two expatriates who have been living in Singapore for a number of years. They lived in a small rented apartment in
Sunil and Samaira are two expatriates who have been living in Singapore for a number of years. They lived in a small rented apartment in the central business district, but they wished to move to a new home with more open spaces and greenery. They found a potential home in the northern part of Singapore with a nice garden and at an affordable rental price.
They met with the house owner, Harry, on 1stApril for a viewing. Sunil asked Harry, "Your house seems a bit old but I am OK with the rustic look. However, I am concerned about the piping and drains in the house. We had a terrible experience in our last apartment when the drains were blocked and the whole apartment had flooded." Harry replied, "No worries, you will not find such a problem in this house. I have lived in this house for a long time and there is never any problem with the drainage."
Sunil and Samaira also requested that Harry arrange for a working Internet access with high- speed fibre broadband capabilities. Sunil explained to Harry that Samaira was a trader who traded on the international markets and she needed a reliable Internet connection to trade on the London and New York Stock Exchanges at all hours of the day.
The next day, Sunil and Samaira signed a lease contract with Harry (as the landlord) for one year, and the lease contract expressly contained a provision, under the section labelled as"Warranties", as follows:
Clause 15: The rental price includes the costs of all utilities including high- speed and reliable Internet access which shall be arranged by theLandlord."
Sunil and Samaira did not know the legal significance of the word "Warranties", but signed thecontract anyway as they were happy that the contract included their requirement for high-speed and reliable Internet access.
When the couple moved in, they found that the Internet connection in the house was poor. Upon further investigation, they discovered that Harry had contracted for the cheapest broadband plan with a relatively unknown third party service provider. This resulted in unsatisfactory connections to the Internet and Samaira was not able to perform her trading job well.
- Explain whether Sunil and Samaira are entitled to terminate the lease contract on the basis of the poor Internet connection. In your answer, you should discuss whether Clause 15 should be treated as a condition, warranty or innominate term, and also apply the modern approach as shown in the Singapore Court of Appeal decision inRDC Concrete Pte Ltd v Sato Kogyo (S) Pte Ltd (2007).
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