Money, chores created friction among flatmates

The story below struck a familiar chord when I read it. Reminded me of what could have gone wrong but thankfully didn't when I was in UK. Grateful that I could stay in a hall in my first year and get to know some people first instead of jumping straight into an apartment. So for those Singaporeans who are going overseas and happen to chance upon this blog, do take care in choosing housemates! it makes a hell of a difference!

P.S. Oh and by the way the World Cup group stage sucks. I hate international football (unless I'm there to experience it live). Sigh, would I be somewhere in Germany eating kebabs and sausages now if I had gotten the sponsorship for Masters?

From The Straits Times

LIKE many foreign students, the three Singaporeans were thrown together in Sydney to set up a home away from home.
Despite their very different personalities, in the seven months they stayed together, they generally got along well - until rent, bills, chores and each other's pet peeves started getting in the way.

Now the youngest of the trio, Ram Tiwary, is on trial for killing his flatmates, Mr Tony Tan Poh Chuan, 27, and Mr Tay Chow Lyang, 26, in September 2003. Tiwary was then 24.

From the 16-day hearing in a Sydney court, it was clear the three were the most unlikely of housemates. Mr Tan was studious, neat and tidy, Mr Tay obsessively careful with money, and Tiwary an inveterate socialiser.

Crown Prosecutor Tim Hoyle said there was 'very minimal social contact'. Tiwary did not even know Mr Tan's surname when first questioned by detectives.

It was the Barker Street apartment, with its relatively cheap rent and close proximity to the University of New South Wales, that drew them together. Mr Tay got a room in August 2002, soon after starting his undergraduate studies, followed by Tiwary, then Mr Tan in March 2003.

There was a fourth person in the flat, a Taiwanese student named Mr Vincent Tseng, but his departure in July that year marked the point that relations among the trio took a distinct turn for the worse.

Who pays what?

MR TAY was the only one of the trio paying his own way through university, dipping into the combined savings he kept with his wife, a Chinese teacher.

Tiwary and Mr Tan were both on Singapore Armed Forces (SAF) study awards.

Twice a year, Mr Tay would carefully plan his budget for the next six months. If he overspent, he would get by on biscuits just to balance his books.

The apartment lease was in his name and he was usually the one who settled all the bills.

Every month, 'like clockwork', he would pay the A$2,172 (S$2,585) rent to the landlord, then collect each flatmate's portion and issue a computer-printed receipt with his signature.

He also handled the utility bills, but his insistence on dividing the bills equally was a sore point, especially with Mr Tan, who communicated with his wife over the Internet and hardly used the house phone.

But Mr Tay was so particular that he even inserted a clause in the lease listing 'toilet paper expenses' as an item every flatmate was obliged to chip in for.

This meticulous financial husbandry grated on Tiwary too, according to the prosecution. They say Tiwary, now 27, killed Mr Tay because he kept pressing him for the A$5,045 he owed in rent.

When police combed through the trio's finances, they found Tiwary broke, with a negative 84 cents in his bank account.

His account trail showed that he made frequent withdrawals - sometimes as much as A$400 at one go. He spent most of it on clothes, model aeroplanes, alcohol and, two days before the murders, A$60 on the baseball bat used to kill at least one of the victims.

He had to work part-time as a security guard to just about keep his head above water and was also accused of a series of thefts.

Mr Tan liked to splurge, too, on hobbies like diving, but never spent beyond his means.

That Mr Tay was tough with money was no secret to his friends, who described him as 'stingy'. One recalled how he threatened to sell off Mr Tseng's belongings because he owed him A$63 in unpaid electricity bills. It was Mr Tay's refusal to let Mr Tseng skip a month's rent when he went on holiday to Europe that made the Taiwanese student leave the flat.

With a fourth person gone, the rent had to be split three ways, with each liable for an extra A$200 a month.

The prosecution said this was why Tiwary cooked up a 'fictional character', Andrew, to stop Mr Tay raising the rent.

But when Andrew never appeared after several months, Mr Tay lost his patience and wanted Tiwary to pay his imaginary friend's share of the rent.

Who cooks and cleans?

MR TAN, who had learnt to cook in Sydney, was the designated chef, leaving Tiwary and Mr Tay to do the washing up.

But his mother, Madam Chiew Lee Hua, said her son got so fed up with the others leaving the dishes unwashed that he refused to cook for them anymore.

From then on, they prepared their own meals or had takeaways. Grocery shopping became an individual affair and fridge items were labelled by each one.

Friends and the widows of the two slain men all said they hardly saw Tiwary in the flat. He was a night bird and a late riser, while the others were usually in bed by midnight and up by 9am.

Mr Tan and Mr Tay tended to spend their time studying. On the rare occasions they left the flat, it was to go to school or to buy essentials. They kept largely to themselves, mixing with only a small group of friends, mainly fellow Singaporeans or Asians.

Tiwary preferred hanging out with students of all nationalities.

The joke among students then was if anyone wanted to look for Tiwary, they would have better luck in pubs than on campus.

Different backgrounds

THE two victims were from typical heartlander families. Both lived in three-room HDB flats, both their fathers are in the construction industry and both their mothers are part-time hawkers.

Both Mr Tan and Mr Tay studied in neighbourhood schools and got to university via the polytechnic route.

In a diary he kept while training to be an army officer, Mr Tan wrote that his motto as a youth was 'All Play and No Study'. Yet, he reversed that motto when older, and graduated with merit from Singapore Polytechnic with a diploma in architectural technology.

He was determined to do well as his parents led a hard life without a proper education, and they hoped to see their children graduate and have good careers. He aimed to reach the rank of Major by 30 and provide for his parents.

Mr Tay was a top student in the same polytechnic, which allowed him to go directly into the third year of the university's electrical engineering course.

Before he died, Mr Tay was working on a thesis on motor movement control, which could help treat people with motor function problems.

Both men were serious about their studies, rarely missed classes and were almost never late.

Mr Tan was doing so well that all his classmates in his telecommunications engineering final-year class knew he would get a first class honours.

He did, posthumously.

Mr Tay was also awarded his degree posthumously.

Tiwary, on the other hand, comes from an educated, middle-class family. He did his primary and secondary education in Brunei, where his father was a vice-principal in St Andrew's School.

He told New South Wales police he felt the pressure to do well in studies and hinted he was trying for a degree as it was 'something my dad would have wanted'.

But Tiwary was notorious for showing up midway through lectures, if at all, and failed several subjects. When asked about the $30,000 in compensation he would have to pay the SAF if he failed, he joked: 'My dad has the money, not me.'

The Barker Street second-storey apartment where the murders took place is now occupied by four Asian students.

Landlord Albert Lichia, 56, who lives in the unit below, said he could not find any students to move in for almost two years after the murders. He said: 'They were nice and friendly people, never caused me any trouble. It's such a horrible thing to happen...for all three of them.'