9 facts from both submissions: 5 agreed by both sides, 3 disputed. 14 dated events in the chronology. The judge reads this with the index and the filings.
Meera Pillai v Tan Boon Kiat, registry copy
Live record
The claimS$1,400 claimed
- Premises
- Blk 347 Woodlands Avenue 3, #09-11274-room HDB flat, whole unit
- Tenancy
- 15 Sep 2025 to 14 Sep 2026S$2,600 a month, standard-form agreement
- Handover
- 14 Sep 2026, 10:30 SGT
- Deposit
- S$2,600S$1,200 refunded, S$1,400 withheld
- Withheld for
- Post-tenancy cleaning S$450Quote, BrightNest Cleaning, 16 Sep 2026Repainting living room and bedroom 2 S$950Quote, Seng Hup Painting Works, 18 Sep 2026
- Filed
- 20 Oct 2026, 10:12 SGT
Meera Pillai
The flat was handed back clean. The wall marks were there at move-in, and the rest is fair wear and tear. The full S$1,400 should be returned.
Own agent hermes-tenant, DeepSeek (deepseek-chat)Tan Boon Kiat
The kitchen was greasy and the walls stained and holed at handover. Cleaning and repainting are chargeable under the yield-up clause.
House advocate, Claude Sonnet (claude-sonnet-5-5)Claim filed by the tenant through the intake form.
Claim accepted: a residential tenancy, under S$20,000, for two years or less. The landlord was invited and each side was sent its own link.
The tenant's agent connected: hermes-tenant on Hermes Agent 0.13, model DeepSeek (deepseek-chat).
The landlord chose the house advocate, model Claude Sonnet. Both sides are connected.
Submission opened, sealed. Each side files its statement and evidence by 02 Nov 2026, 18:00 SGT.
The tenant's statement and evidence were received and sealed.
1SubmissionDisclosed 02 Nov
Meera PillaiStatement
1. I rented the whole flat at Blk 347 Woodlands Avenue 3, #09-1127 from the landlord from 15 Sep 2025 to 14 Sep 2026 at S$2,600 a month. I paid a deposit of S$2,600 on 12 Sep 2025 (E-04).
2. I handed back the keys on 14 Sep 2026 after cleaning the flat. On 29 Sep 2026 the landlord returned S$1,200 and kept S$1,400: S$450 for cleaning and S$950 for repainting.
3. No inventory or condition report was signed at the start. Schedule 2 of the agreement, where the inventory should be, is blank (E-01). The marks on the living-room wall were there when I moved in: E-02 photo 7 shows them on 15 Sep 2025, and I sent the photographs to the landlord that evening. He replied "Ok noted" (E-03).
4. A year of ordinary living leaves some marks on paint. That is fair wear and tear, which the agreement excludes. Joel Lim, who helped me move out, photographed the kitchen at about 09:40 on handover day (E-06 photos 1 to 6) and describes how we cleaned it (E-05).
5. The landlord relies on two quotes. He has not shown that any work was done or paid for.
6. I claim the S$1,400 withheld from my deposit.
208 of 1,500 words. hermes-tenant, DeepSeek (deepseek-chat). Receipt rcpt_afda163eec20
Tan Boon KiatStatement
1. The tenancy, the deposit of S$2,600 and the refund of S$1,200 on 29 Sep 2026 are admitted.
2. At the handover inspection on 14 Sep 2026 my agent, Ms Rachel Goh, found the kitchen hob and backsplash heavily greased, and stains and nail holes on the walls of the living room and bedroom 2. She photographed them (L-04) and describes them in her statement (L-05).
3. The agreement requires the tenant to give the flat back in the same clean condition as at the start, fair wear and tear excepted. The flat was cleaned and repainted before the tenancy began, as the inventory list records (L-03).
4. The deductions follow two contractors' quotes: S$450 for cleaning (L-01) and S$950 for repainting (L-02). I set them out to the tenant on 28 Sep 2026 (L-06).
5. The tenant's photographs of 15 Sep 2025 show one small mark near the TV console. They do not show the stains in the living room and bedroom 2 that were there at handover.
169 of 1,500 words. House advocate, Claude Sonnet (claude-sonnet-5-5). Receipt rcpt_c93c8fd06d9c
Both submissions are in. Disclosed together.
Challenge opened, sealed. Each side may attack the other's statement and evidence until 05 Nov 2026, 18:00 SGT.
The tenant's challenge was received and sealed.
2ChallengeDisclosed 05 Nov
Meera PillaiChallenge
1. The deductions rest on two quotes (L-01, L-02) and no invoice. The landlord does not say whether any of the work was done, or whether the flat has been let again. Until he does, the quotes prove no loss.
2. The inventory list (L-03) is unsigned. The secretary flags that the file was last modified on 12 Oct 2026, after this dispute began. It cannot show that the walls were "good" at move-in.
3. Ms Goh's kitchen photographs (L-04 photos 4 to 9) are flash close-ups taken at about 10:35, almost an hour after Joel Lim's photographs from the doorway (E-06). They are not like for like. Three of her bedroom 2 photographs (17, 18 and 21) have no capture date.
4. The landlord told me on 22 Sep 2026 that he would deduct "about $1500" (E-03). His email of 28 Sep 2026 says S$1,400 (L-06). The figure was not worked out from the quotes.
156 of 600 words. hermes-tenant, DeepSeek (deepseek-chat). Receipt rcpt_377e3c6cb8bf
Tan Boon KiatChallenge
1. The tenant's move-in photograph of bedroom 2 (E-02 photo 11) shows no holes. Ms Goh's photographs at handover (L-04 photos 14 to 22) show four. The tenant does not say who made them.
2. Joel Lim (E-05) is the tenant's friend and helped her move out. His statement that the hob was "wiped down" is not independent, and his photographs (E-06) are taken from the doorway, too far away to show grease.
3. Fair wear and tear covers light marks from ordinary use. It does not cover holes in the walls or grease left on the hob.
4. The tenant says the marks were there at move-in. Her own photographs show one mark near the TV console, not marks in bedroom 2.
123 of 600 words. House advocate, Claude Sonnet (claude-sonnet-5-5). Receipt rcpt_b24b6b9ce7bf
Both challenges are in. Disclosed together.
Reply opened, sealed. Each side answers the challenges against it by 07 Nov 2026, 18:00 SGT.
The tenant's reply was received and sealed.
3ReplyDisclosed 07 Nov
Meera PillaiReply
1. I accept that I made four small nail holes in bedroom 2 when I put up picture hooks. I offered on 30 Sep 2026 to have them filled (E-03). A fair figure is the cost of filling and touching them up, not S$950 for two rooms.
2. Joel Lim is a friend, but his photographs carry their own capture time, 09:38 to 09:44 on handover day (E-06). They show the hob wiped and the counters clear.
3. The living-room marks are the ones in my move-in photograph E-02 photo 7. I have never said bedroom 2 had marks at move-in, only the living room.
4. I ask for the return of S$1,400, or in the alternative S$1,400 less a modest sum for filling the nail holes.
127 of 600 words. hermes-tenant, DeepSeek (deepseek-chat). Receipt rcpt_c5b94467331b
Tan Boon KiatReply
1. No contractor has done any work and there is no invoice. New tenants moved in on 01 Oct 2026. Before that I cleaned the kitchen and bathrooms myself. The walls were not repainted because there was not enough time before the new tenancy began.
2. That does not mean I suffered no loss. The quotes are from independent contractors at market rates for a 4-room flat.
3. Ms Goh took photographs 4 to 9 of L-04 during the inspection at about 10:35 on 14 Sep 2026. Photos 17, 18 and 21 have no capture date because they were sent to me through a messaging app.
4. The S$1,500 in my message of 22 Sep 2026 was an estimate before the quotes came in. The deductions are S$1,400, as itemised on 28 Sep 2026.
5. If the tribunal finds the living-room marks pre-date the tenancy, the repainting of bedroom 2 alone should be allowed.
154 of 600 words. House advocate, Claude Sonnet (claude-sonnet-5-5). Receipt rcpt_3379739404a8
Both replies are in. Disclosed together.
The tribunal began deliberating. Judge Claude Opus (claude-opus-5-5), precedent bank bank-2026.11.02-7c41e9.
Record frozen for the consistency check: 10 reruns of the judge on the same record.
Claim allowed in part
S$1,000
Tan Boon Kiat pays Meera Pillai by 29 Nov 2026, 18:00 SGT. The tenant gets S$2,200 of the deposit back in all.
The landlord may keep S$400 of the S$1,400 withheld: S$180 to degrease the kitchen and S$220 to fill and paint over four nail holes in bedroom 2. The rest of the cleaning charge and the living-room repainting are refused. The landlord pays the tenant S$1,000.
To the tenant
You get S$1,000 more of your deposit back, S$2,200 in all. The landlord keeps S$400: S$180 to degrease the kitchen and S$220 to fill and paint over the four nail holes you made in bedroom 2.
To the landlord
You may keep S$400 of the S$1,400 you withheld and must pay the tenant S$1,000. Kitchen degreasing and the bedroom 2 patching are allowed. The living-room repainting is refused because the marks were there at move-in, and the rest of the cleaning is refused because the photographs show only the kitchen needed it.
Outcome
Open until 22 Nov 2026, 18:00 SGT- Meera PillaiNot decided yet
- Tan Boon KiatNot decided yet
The sums
| CleaningKitchen degreasing only, at the quoted line price. | S$450 | S$180 |
|---|---|---|
| RepaintingBedroom 2 patching and paint only. Living room refused: the marks pre-date the tenancy. | S$950 | S$220 |
| The landlord keeps | S$1,400 | S$400 |
Claimed, then allowed.
Authorities cited
Contrary authority considered:
Every authority was returned by the judge's own searches of the precedent bank in this case. Click one to read the passage it was cited for.
Consistency check Experimental
Same disposition in 9 of 10 reruns. Deposit returned to the tenant: S$1,900 to S$2,300 across the agreeing runs, median S$2,200.
- Claim allowed in part
- 9
- Claim allowed in full
- 1
- Pairwise agreement
- 0.80
- Failed or refused runs
- 0
Ten runs of the judge on the frozen record: same submissions, same retrieved passages, same model, prompt, schema and sampling settings. This measures gross instability only. It says nothing about whether the award is correct, and ten identical wrong answers would score perfectly. Frozen 07 Nov 2026, 18:20 SGT. The ringed mark is this award.
Judge Claude Opus (claude-opus-5-5)Bank bank-2026.11.02-7c41e9Chain head 34bb112a5dce
Award served on both sides. Each side may accept or appeal until 22 Nov 2026, 18:00 SGT.
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