Mr Tien Wah Ling > Dentons Rodyk > Singapore, Singapore > Lawyer Profile

Mr Tien Wah Ling

+65 6885 3621 tienwah.ling@dentons.com View profile

Work Department

Commercial Litigation, Construction, Employment Disputes, Insurance Litigation and Arbitration, Litigation and Dispute Resolution, Real Estate Litigation and Dispute Resolution, Trusts, Estates and Wealth Preservation

Position

Tien Wah Ling is a senior partner in Dentons Rodyk’s Litigation and Dispute Resolution practice group and Head of the Real Estate Disputes practice. He is also Co-Head of the Trust, Estates & Wealth Preservation/Family Office practice.

Tien Wah is a specialist in real estate disputes. His experience covers the whole gamut of real estate matters ranging from all manner of landlord and tenant disputes, property disputes, adverse possession, easements, encroachment, collective sale applications/objections, and disputes under the Building Maintenance and Strata Management Act for/against management corporations or subsidiary proprietors. His civil and commercial litigation experience includes contested probate and estate claims, directors and shareholders’ disputes, employment disputes and contractual claims.

The landmark, notable and jurisprudentially significant cases that Tien Wah has led are many and includes (i) the seminal case of Yickvi Realty Pte Ltd v Pacific Rover Pte Ltd [2009] 4 SLR(R) 951 where he obtained an anti-suit injunction as a novel way of varying an easement of right of way, which then created an awareness in the lack of any statutory provision to cancel or vary easements in Singapore and this ultimately led to the enactment of section 105A of the Land Titles Act 1993 and section 34B of the Conveyancing and Law of Property Act 1886; (ii) Batshita International (Pte) Ltd v Lim Eng Hock Peter [1996] 3 SLR(R) 563 where he successfully argued in the Court of Appeal that a tenant had an equitable right to set off the damages that it has suffered as a result of the landlord’s breach of contract against the rent despite a covenant to pay rent without deduction; and (iii) Straits Colonies Pte Ltd v SMRT Alpha Pte Ltd [2018] 2 SLR 441 where he successfully persuaded the Court of Appeal to find against the weight of authorities that a party exercising a right of election is only required to know the facts giving rise to the right to rescind, and not the facts and the law giving the right to rescind.

Career

Senior Partner, Dentons Rodyk & Davidson LLP (formerly Rodyk & Davidson LLP) (2002 – present)
HelenYeo & Partners (1995 – 2002)
David Lim & Partners (1993 – 1994)
Robert W H Wang & Woo (1992 – 1993)

Languages

English, Mandarin

Education

University of Leeds, 1989, LLB (Hons)