Laravel - BelongsToMany relation ignores my custom (singular) table name - php

Question

I am working on a older (laravel 5.6) codebase, this codebase has some models with singular table names (not by my design..). When I setup a new pivot relation between my tables "m_sector" and "m_tasklist" Eloquent automatically assumes that the table name of "m_tasklist" is plural; "m_tasklists". I know this is by Laravel's design, therefor I use a manual override defined in the Tasklist model. After changing the $table property to `protected $table = 'potato'; the changes were detected and implemented in the query..
Error message
"debugMessage": "SQLSTATE[42S02]: Base table or view not found: 1146 Table 'database.m_tasklists' doesn't exist (SQL: select count(*) as aggregate from `m_tasklists` where `id` in (1, 2, 3))"
Tasklist Model
/**
* The table associated with the model.
*
* #var string
*/
protected $table = 'm_tasklist';
/**
* A task list belongs to many sectors.
*
* #return \Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\Relations\BelongsToMany
*/
public function sector(): BelongsToMany
{
return $this->belongsToMany(Sector::class, 'm_sector_m_tasklist', 'm_tasklist_id', 'm_sector_id');
}
Sector Model
/**
* The table associated with the model.
*
* #var string
*/
protected $table = 'm_sector';
/**
* A sector belongs to many task lists.
*
* #return \Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\Relations\BelongsToMany
*/
public function tasklists(): BelongsToMany
{
return $this->belongsToMany(Tasklist::class, 'm_sector_m_tasklist', 'm_sector_id', 'm_tasklist_id');
}
Picture of PhpMyAdmin table names
Can anyone please help me figure this out, It has been breaking my head for a day now.
If anyone would like to know, the key constraints have formed correctly the migrations work and are set up properly. I can add them if it helps.

Answer 1

The issue wasn't with the model. My usecase had a validation rule which checked whether the item existed in m_tasklists instead of m_tasklist
'rules' => ['exists:m_tasklists,id']
instead of the correct
'rules' => ['exists:m_tasklist,id']
I recommend everyone with a similar problem to run
$ php artisan tinker
$ (new Model)->getTable();