(This is a developing story)
Seventeen homeowners (so far) have come together online to piece what could possibly be an elaborate renovation scam by an individual named Vincent Liu Junnong.
According to documents we’ve seen, Liu, who reportedly also goes by the name Calvin, Kelvin, Kevin, Mike, Alex or Benjamin Lau, met, signed and promised renovation work with these homeowners as far back as February 2021. Using different company names like K & L Interior and Sense Construction Werks, he’s been accused of not delivering them on time or at all – even after more than six months of commencement.
These contract work include cement flooring, air-con purchase and installation, carpentry, electrical works, plumbing, painting and so on.
So far, Liu owed these homeowners more than S$500,000 worth of prepaid contract work but has only done between 0% and 60% of them per contract since signing the agreements. Not only that, Liu is also now accused of being a sex scammer on Facebook.
One couple, who collected their keys to a 4-room, 93-sqm BTO flat at Tampines this year, has paid S$27,350 in deposits so far but has yet to see any work done to their new flat.
Others are just as unlucky – one homeowner, who prefers to be addressed as LP, has paid S$49,000, or 94% of the contract sum, only to see 29% of renovation work completed since signing the agreement in July 2021. To date, the various homeowners have paid between 20% and 96% of their contract sum but gotten much lesser in terms of delivery than they anticipated.
Most of them have also made police reports and lodged their complaints to CASE.
Victim 1: Janessa
Janessa (not her real name), 29, one of the homeowners affected, balloted for her first BTO 4-room flat with her husband 7 years ago and paid S$330k. Like many of the owners affected, she got Liu’s contact through a friend’s recommendation.
Initially, her husband and her didn’t suspect any ill intentions from Liu as her friend knew him for 5+ years. She hired Liu to do their floorings, electricals, window grilles, carpentry and install bathroom accessories.
“This person angled himself as the “main contractor” – someone who was still able to help us liaise with other contractor contacts he had. We are not artsy by nature and have no artistic vision of what we want our house to be like. We just want it to be “decent” and “practical” for everyday use and for our young son to move around,” Janessa said.
While Liu wasn’t the cheapest contractor based on several quotations from IDs and contractors Janessa and her husband saw, they went with him because they wanted someone they could trust and he came recommended through a friend.
Janessa shared the following chronological sequence of events with us:
February 2021: Met Liu, got a quotation through his company – K&L Interior – and paid a 10% deposit (S$2.5k). He brought the couple to a unit he allegedly was renovating in Punggol. The house looked 80% completed and the workers seemed to have an existing relationship with him, acknowledging his presence and so on.
March 2021: Liu WhatsApped Janessa and her husband, sharing information about a group buy for Mitsubishi Starmex System 4 air-cons. The couple agreed and made a 50% deposit (S$1.8k). Instead of paying to the air-con contractor’s account, they later found out it went to Liu’s personal PayNow account.
January 2022: Janessa and her family collected their house keys. They met Liu at their unit to do a defects check. They also paid another 60% of the deposit (S$15k) so that he could start contract work immediately.
Liu said his workers would commence work over the Chinese New Year. He said he would get his workers to do cement flooring first so it could set over CNY, and then electricals and paintwork after. He even got the couple to choose their carpentry, telling them that since it was the COVID period, it would be best to lock in the prices early as they would increase. Janessa and her husband paid 25% for carpentry (S$6.25k) and the remaining 50% for the air-con (S$1.8k) thereafter.
January – March 2022: After several WhatsApp exchanges between Liu and Janessa over the delays, no work has yet been done on their home. Liu “made excuses” like the weather, his electrician tested COVID positive, his contractors could not start work yet because the ceiling fans and lights weren’t there yet – basically, reasons she felt were used to delay starting work.
In February, Janessa’s friend (the one who recommended Liu), warned her that Liu may have been scamming his family as well, including his sister (who works with Liu). She reached out to his sister, who told her not to make a police report as it would mean risking all of her money and Liu not delivering on the project. She also cautioned Janessa that the contract term was 12 weeks and the police would not bother with the report.
End March 2022: More recently, in the last two weeks, Janessa found out from her friend’s sister that Liu was in Malaysia and that he has lost his phone, wallet and passport. Janessa has not heard from Liu since and to date, no work has been done for her HDB apartment for twelve weeks since the contractual period for renovation works began.
Throughout this period, Liu has refused to share the contacts for his electrical, flooring and air-con contractors with Janessa (as she wanted to liaise directly with them to hasten the process).
“Right from the beginning, he was a bit pushy about closing the renovation package. He was very vague in costings for his quotation. However, we bit the bullet and went ahead with it because we wanted someone we could trust. After the defects check and paying most of the sum, we got a text from our friend asking us if we had made any payment to the contractor, as there has recently been new information that deemed him to be suspicious.
“We sought advice from our friend and his family on what to do as we were afraid we would be left in limbo. We took their advice to just continuously follow up, as they felt he might just be cash strapped, but may still end up delivering on the works.
“Long story short, the contractor ended up cheating my friend’s family and relatives as well. The contractor has since gone MIA over the last few weeks. When I saw the Facebook post that he’s been accused of being a sex scammer, it really hit the nail in the coffin for my husband and me. It gave us the confidence to move on. Truthfully, despite the delays and excuses, we still had that lingering hope that perhaps we were just overthinking and that he was very “suay” to encounter one difficulty after another.”
Janessa shares that she will start looking for another ID to complete the rest of the work.
Her advice for would-be homeowners?
“My husband and I are both very trusting by nature – having both grown up in sheltered households. As naive as it sounds, we never thought we would encounter such people with the intention to scam people they know. To us, scams mostly happened between strangers.
“No matter where you got your contractor or ID contact from, always do your research and treat that relationship like you would any other professional relationship. We kept things a little too casual and were not diligent in our follow up as we always had the assumption that he would be giving his all for the project since we were connected by a mutual friend.”
Victim 2: LP
Like most Singaporeans, thirty-three-year-old LP was looking forward to moving into his first house after moving out of his parent’s home. In fact, he and his fiancée were getting married in February 2022 and hope to move into their new home before then.
Together, they paid S$429k (before grants) for a 3-Gen 1,291-sqft HDB unit at Tampines through the HDB Open Booking application. The apartment is massive, with two master bedrooms, two common rooms, a living room, kitchen and dining area. According to WhatsApp conversations LP showed us, they couldn’t afford any delays in their renovations because they had to move out by the end of January 2022 and have the house ready for Chinese New Year.
When LP met Liu, he introduced himself as Alex.
“When my wife and I asked “Alex” about which contractor or ID firm he is from, he brushed it off saying he will be using one of his many companies (which is not GST-registered) to bill us so that we won’t need to pay GST.”
After signing the contract on 26 July 2021 and paying the first deposit of S$27k, they agreed to commence renovation work before the Hungry Ghost Festival, which was on 8 August 2021. However, after a delay, the work only commenced after, starting 6 September (one month later). The estimated move-in date was 10-12 weeks, which roughly put the date as 18 October 2021. This however came to nought.
“My renovation journey is a nightmare with constant delays and shoddy workmanship, done by unqualified part-time workers that he engaged. He completed around $15k worth of work, after collecting 94% of the contract sum ($49k). And then, he went MIA.”
According to LP, “Alex” was introduced to him by his sister-in-law (who is also a victim). She found Alex’s contact from a renovation forum, and after comparing a few quotes, found Alex’s quotation to be the cheapest. So he engaged Alex to renovate his house, including hacking works, electricity, plumbing, flooring, painting and carpentry for all of his bedrooms, kitchen, living room and so on.
Similar to what Janessa experienced before she placed her deposit, LP was brought down to his “show flat” where he was doing renovations. “We subsequently realised that this so-called “show flat” is the unit he used to lure the potential victims.
“Alex requested to meet us at our house on the day we collect our HDB keys to discuss the renovation. Despite knowing that we are still quite uncertain about some details, he told us minor details can settle at a later date and that his team is very flexible. He even got a printer in his car to print out quotations on the spot and wanted us to confirm right away.
“When he sensed that we were quite reluctant to proceed, he will guilt trip us by saying things like “you know how much time and effort I’ve spent on your project? I negotiated so hard to get such a good price for you guys, and now you tell me you still need time to consider, why not you tell me what is your concern and we see how we can go about resolving it?”
LP has since found another contractor, costing S$32k to complete the rest of his work.
In terms of advice, LP has this to share: “Sign up with CaseTrust Accredited contractors. Although it’s not 100% foolproof, you still can fall back on CASE to mediate your case. While you might not always get what you want from CASE, you won’t lose 80%-100% of your contract sum.
“Do not rush to find a contractor and make a deposit way before your reno commencement date. If the contractor tells you that you need to make a deposit first to secure the dates, or that the price is going to increase at a later stage, just find another contractor.
“Contractors like to give a “lump sum” quote. As much as possible, request a line-by-line breakdown of every item in the quotation. So that when you need to add or minus something from the contract, you know how much it is, or else you will be at the mercy of your contractor.”
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99.co has reached out to the other homeowners and will be updating this story as it progresses. Calls and messages to Liu’s contact number have gone unanswered.
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Are you also the victim of a renovation scam? Let us know in the comments section below or on our Facebook post.
If you found this article helpful, check out Property agent busts rental scam on viral TikTok video and 5 real estate scams that could run rampant during Covid-19.
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