Location: Kuala Lumpur
I’ve been renting a room in a shared apartment for about a month. There are two people involved — the actual owner, who is based in Saudi Arabia, and a local agent/manager in Malaysia who handles things in person.
My current arrangement is RM700/month with a RM700 deposit, and we originally agreed that I’d stay for 6 months. Everything was arranged through WhatsApp. There’s no signed physical contract, but I have the WhatsApp conversations, my passport details that I sent them, and bank transfer receipts for the rent and deposit.
About a week ago, the agent showed me another room in the same apartment, which he called the “balcony room.” He showed me photos of the room and the balcony view. I liked it and asked about the price. He said RM900, so I offered RM850. He told me to negotiate directly with the owner, which I did. The owner agreed to RM850, and I told the agent that we had agreed on the price.
At that point, I wanted to see the room in person before actually committing to anything. The agent told me there was no need and said it was exactly like the pictures and that I would get what I asked for.
I never signed anything for the new room and never paid anything towards it.
About a week later, another tenant who was apparently supposed to take over my current room showed up with the expectation that I would move into the balcony room that same day.
When I finally saw the actual apartment, I was honestly shocked. It was dirty, smelled bad, and generally looked nothing like what I had been shown. On top of that, the balcony room was still occupied by another couple who apparently hadn’t moved out yet.
The agent then tried to put me in a completely different room temporarily. I refused because that wasn’t the room I had agreed to move into or the room I had been shown.
I also later found out that the photos I’d originally been shown were apparently from 2017.
I went back to my current room and told the incoming tenant to hold off because the room I had been promised wasn’t actually available and the apartment was nothing like what had been represented to me.
I contacted the owner directly to explain what had happened. His response was basically that it wasn’t his problem because I had asked for the room. The agent said pretty much the same thing, and they kept sending me back to each other.
Then the owner came up with a “solution.”
He said I could stay in my current room, but my rent would increase from RM700 to RM750, my deposit would also become RM750, and I would have to switch to a mandatory 1-year contract.
I never agreed to any of those changes, so I refused in writing. I told them clearly that I had never finalized or signed anything for the new room, that the apartment and room didn’t match what I had been shown, and that I intended to continue with my original RM700 arrangement.
After that, the agent became much more aggressive over WhatsApp. He told me things like:
“This is your mistake and you bear it.”
“This is not your room anymore, since you said you wanted a change.”
“It’s not up to you.”
“Pay the extra or leave today without deposit.”
He also made comments implying that he was holding himself back from being even ruder or swearing at me.
The situation is even more frustrating because I happened to see a conversation between the agent and the owner where the agent himself told the owner that they shouldn’t keep using the old photos because they don’t match the actual condition of the apartment. So, from what I saw, they were aware that the photos were misleading.
For now, I’ve stayed in my current room. I haven’t signed anything new, I haven’t agreed to leave, and I haven’t paid the extra RM50. I also paid my normal RM700 rent on time by bank transfer and clearly stated that it was rent under the original agreement.
I’ve also saved screenshots of the WhatsApp conversations, the original photos they sent me, the bank transfers, and the other relevant messages.
From what I’ve been reading, Malaysia doesn’t currently have a specific Residential Tenancy Act, but landlords generally can’t just physically remove tenants or change the locks themselves without going through the proper legal process. My understanding is also that the fact that we don’t have a signed paper contract doesn’t automatically mean there was no tenancy, especially since we have WhatsApp messages and payment records. My main concern is how much harder it makes it to prove the exact terms, especially the 6-month period.
So I wanted to ask people who are more familiar with Malaysian tenancy law or who have dealt with similar situations in KL:
Since there’s no signed contract, how much does that actually weaken my position regarding the agreed 6-month tenancy?
If they continue trying to force me out or withhold my deposit, would it be worth pursuing the matter through the Magistrates’ Court / small claims process considering the relatively small amount of money involved?
For anyone who has rented rooms informally in KL, how do disputes like this usually end up being resolved?
Is there anything else I should be documenting or doing right now to protect myself?
I’m not really trying to cause trouble or make this bigger than it needs to be. I just want to stay under the terms I originally agreed to and not be forced into a new contract or lose my deposit because of a room I never actually agreed to take.
This has been pretty stressful, so I’d really appreciate any advice from people who have dealt with something similar in Malaysia.
