KUALA LUMPUR: A businessman’s shop apartment was illegally occupied and rented out without his knowledge while he was abroad. Wong Yin Kian, 58, said he was shocked when he came back from London and found that his unit in Pandan Perdana was occupied.

“The locks I used earlier were changed."There were 14 tenants, comprised of 12 Bangladeshi men, a Malaysian man and an Indonesian woman living in my unit,” he told a press conference organised by MCA Public Services and Complaints Department head Datuk Seri Michael Chong.

His unit was supposed to be unoccupied, as his previous tenant has moved out several months ago.

Wong said the tenants claimed to have rented the unit from his former Bangladeshi worker, Ismail Hossain.

All of them paid rentals and deposits to Ismail, who claimed to be the main tenant of the unit.

When confronted, Ismail produced a tenancy agreement, showing that he had rented the unit from a 20-year-old man, Yap Jian Sheng, who claimed to be the owner of the unit.

“The tenancy agreement he showed me looked like any other legitimate agreement, with proper details and address," said Wong.

"I am not sure whether Ismail colluded with Yap or maybe Ismail is also cheated by Yap.

We will let the police to investigate,” he said, adding that his furniture, television set, refrigerator worth more than RM20,000 in his unit were missing too.Meanwhile, Chong said his office has received 18 similar cases last year, where unoccupied units were rented out without the knowledge of the landlords.

“There could be syndicates that look out for unoccupied units.

They will then cut the locks and rent these units to foreign workers or illegal workers to make money,” he said.

Chong urged owners to frequently check their properties and said they could always seek help from property agents to manage their properties.