Can Your Landlord Force You to Use Their Reinstatement Contractor?

It is one of the most common flashpoints in the last fortnight of a lease: the landlord sends over a single quotation from "our contractor" and treats it as settled. Whether that is enforceable comes down to the exact wording you signed, and to a principle most tenants never get told about: a landlord recovering reinstatement cost is claiming compensation, not writing a blank cheque to themselves.

What does a landlord's nominated contractor clause actually say?

Read your reinstatement clause before you argue about anything else. The obligation is contractual: there is no separate statutory make-good duty in Singapore, so the clause is the whole of the law between you.

If your agreement contains none of these and only asks for the unit "in good and tenantable repair", there is no reinstatement obligation to enforce at all. Check that first.

Can the landlord charge you whatever their contractor quotes?

That last point is the betterment principle, and it does a great deal of work in practice. Repainting a wall you drilled is reinstatement. Repainting the whole unit in a premium finish because the landlord wants it show-ready for the next viewing is an upgrade, and the cost of an upgrade sits with the owner. The same logic applies to eight-year-old flooring replaced with new: you owe the value of what was lost, not the price of a better version.

Singapore courts have long distinguished reinstatement from ordinary deterioration in exactly these terms, and fair wear and tear is carved out of nearly every clause. Two or three years of scuffing on a corridor wall is the landlord's cost of doing business, whichever contractor holds the brush.

How much difference does the contractor choice actually make?

Those are the figures in our 2026 condo reinstatement cost guide, and they are wide for a reason: scope, not skill, is what varies. A nominated contractor pricing "full repaint, all rooms" against a competing quote pricing "patch and repaint the three affected walls" is not more expensive, it is quoting a different job. Before you accuse anyone of a markup, put both quotations side by side on the same scope, which is the whole point of our guide to comparing reinstatement quotations.

One more line to check: GST. A contractor registered for GST must add 9%, and one below the S$1 million registration threshold cannot charge it at all. A quote that shows GST from a contractor with no GST registration number is a red flag worth checking against IRAS before you pay anything.

What if the landlord has already done the works?

1. The itemised invoice, priced line by line, not a single total.
2. The contractor's registered name and UEN, so you can verify the entity exists and whether it is GST-registered.
3. Dated before and after photographs of every item charged.
4. The move-in inventory or handover photos the works are measured against. If there is no move-in record, nobody can prove what the original condition was, and that cuts against the landlord.
5. Any second quotation the landlord obtained. Obtaining more than one is the clearest evidence of mitigation.

What should you do when a landlord insists on their contractor?

1. Quote the clause back. Ask which words in the agreement give the landlord the right to appoint. If there are none, say so politely and in writing.
2. Agree the scope in writing before pricing. A defined list of works is the only thing that makes two quotations comparable.
3. Get your own quotation on that identical scope from a specialist. Our guide on choosing a reinstatement contractor covers what to check.
4. Offer to complete the works yourself before the handover date. A self-help clause normally only bites once you have failed to reinstate on time, so finishing early removes the trigger.
5. Photograph the finished unit on handover day, room by room, with a timestamp.
6. Pay the undisputed part. If S$2,000 of a S$6,000 claim is fair, settling that part narrows the dispute and reads well if it ever reaches a tribunal.

Timing is the quiet cost here. Rushing the works into the final week is one of the hidden reinstatement costs that pushes prices up on both sides of the argument. Start the conversation four to six weeks out and you keep the option of a competing quote.

Can your property agent recommend the contractor?

Most agents recommending a contractor are simply passing on someone reliable, and a good referral genuinely saves everyone time. The question is worth asking anyway, and a straight answer costs a professional nothing.

Where do you go if the landlord will not budge?

Filing is deliberately accessible and lawyers are generally not permitted to appear, so the cost of pressing a fair point is low. What decides these cases is documents: the clause, the inventory, the photographs and the itemised invoice. Our guide to security deposit disputes walks through the filing process, and who pays for reinstatement covers the underlying allocation of cost.

Frequently asked questions

Can my landlord withhold the whole deposit until their contractor is paid?

Only to the extent of a genuine, quantified claim. A deposit is security against loss, not a deterrent, and holding back a sum well above the actual reinstatement cost is itself challengeable. Ask for the figure and the invoice supporting it.

The clause says the landlord's contractor. Is that the end of it?

It settles who does the work, not what it may cost. The landlord still has to act reasonably and cannot recover for improvements beyond the handover condition.

Does any of this apply to commercial leases?

The contract principles do, but the Small Claims Tribunals route does not: it covers residential tenancies only. Commercial reinstatement clauses are also usually far stricter and often do name the landlord's contractor.