THERE are two posters pasted outside this four-room flat.

The one on the left, written in Mandarin, is addressed to 'Mr Ah Long', telling the loan shark that he has gone after the wrong guy.

The other is in English and is for the occupant's landlord, condemning him for allegedly borrowing money from loan sharks.

The loan shark and the landlord have been allegedly making life miserable for the Peh family, who rented the flat on the third storey of Block 681, Choa Chu Kang Crescent, seven months ago.

Mr Peh Teck Seng, 51, a transport supplier, said the family of four are renting a flat as they could not get a bank loan to buy one.

Mr Peh, who lives with his wife and two adult children, said he had put up the posters 'in a bid to stop the harassment by the loan sharks'.

It all began barely a week after the family moved into the flat last November.

Mr Peh said that the landlord called and asked to borrow money from him.

'He told me he owed the loan sharks a lot of money. So I took $200 all the way to Yishun (where the landlord lives) for him, thinking that he would pay me back soon,' he said.

But his landlord did not, and even kept calling him and asked to borrow more money, he claimed.

'He would call me every three days to ask if I have any money to lend him. I was getting annoyed because each time I asked him when he would return my money, he just said he would return it and that's that,' Mr Peh said.

'I dreaded his calls because it was always to borrow money. That was all he was ever concerned about.'

Mr Peh said he would lend his landlord about $200 each time, treating it as advance payment for his rent.

Then on 17 Dec last year, his landlord asked to borrow $4,000 'to pay off the loan sharks'.

Thinking that the money could also be treated as advance payment for his rent, Mr Peh wrote a letter and got Mr Toh to sign it.

'I lent him the $4,000 in the hope that once he pays off his debt, we will be able to live in peace.

'Then we will not have to worry about the loan sharks turning up to harass us, but I was too naive.'

But Mr Peh had forgotten to include in the agreement that their rental has been paid for up to August.

He claimed that the landlord exploited this and went back on his word, continuing to collect $1,200 in rent every month.

On 14 Apr, Mr Peh said that the landlord called to borrow $500. This time, he refused.

'His friend then called me and told me that it was my problem if the loan sharks came and harassed us,' said Mr Peh.

HARASSMENT BEGINS

True enough, three days later, the loan sharks came a-knocking for the first time.

First, they placed posters asking for repayment. Then, they splashed blue paint all over the front door.

On 5 May, Mr Peh arrived home to find red paint and two days later, black paint. No one was home on both occasions.

Mr Peh said that each time the loan sharks came, they would file police reports. Frustrated, he put up the posters outside the flat on 8 May.

'The loan sharks go after the unit and not the people who owe them the money,' said Mr Peh.

'To be honest, I don't blame the loan sharks at all because they just want to get their money back. I'm angry with the landlord.'

The harassment stopped for about two weeks, only to continue on 21 May when the family arrived home to find the locks to their gate and main door tampered with.

'They had stuffed wood shavings into our locks. These loan sharks strike in the afternoon, so we always have an unpleasant surprise when we reach home after work.'

Mr Peh said that because of the harassment, his wife and 23-year-old daughter feel very insecure.

'My wife (who is a housewife) is now afraid to stay at home on her own. She would find an excuse to stay out till we return or arrange to meet my daughter so that they can return home together.'

Even then, Mr Peh refuses to move out - for now.

'I just want to stay till August because I've already paid the rent. We will definitely move out after that and apply for our own flat,' he said.

'I've already put up with (the landlord) for so long.'

When contacted, the landlord said he had borrowed $1,000 from loan sharks two years ago when his company went bankrupt.

He also admitted that he had taken money from Mr Peh, but said it was meant to be advance payment for rent, not a loan.

'We are friends now. I have settled everything with him through the property agent,' he insisted.

This article was first published in The New Paper on June 3, 2008.