Jawnie

Why don't they just hire Dr. Frankenstein?

English teacher? Hrumph! Then the note should say, "I have A gun and A knife." English teacher, my sweet cheeks.

Youtube.

A broken leg.....I like it!

Thai government is relying on outside agency probably because a) no Thais are truly interested in busting this slice of the economy and and the career/life of any participating Thai official or police officer will be over if they help the sting. Wonder if Interpol folks will have any language issues???

Yes, let's have the government telling the poorer people who barely eek out a living and work long, hot hours they can't make more money. In the meantime, let the multinationals like Starbucks, KFC, McDonalds etc. continue to charge US prices but pay the workers Thai wages. The elites are just trying to keep the profits for themselves on this one.

Well that sucks.

There is very little incentive for the average Thai to go to college or upgrade their skills. It will do little or nothing to get them beyond an office job making 20-25,000 a month. Meanwhile, the elite business owners make fortunes by charging western prices but paying workers Thai salaries. I'm still flabbergasted that Thailand, a country with a tourist and agrarian economy, has 10 billionaires.

There was a period after the coup when the courts, finally freed from the intimidation of the Thaksin regime, actually showed some independence. Now, with undoubtably the urging of Mr. Dubai, they are threatening the court. Thaksin continues to be the great cancer for this country.

Do you have one shred of proof or evidence about this? In any case, anyone can say anything about the courts, right....it's a democracy, right? Thaksin haters: broken record, broken record, broken record....but never a spit of truth.

Don't know how.

We checked it out recently and found it was cheaper to get a taxi.

Used the Taxi.

I'm highly suspect of your claim that a taxi is cheaper. Taxi from the airport to Phaya Thai would be at least 200; by ARL, only about 50 baht.

When is the government of Thailand going to get out of the tobacco business??? In Buddhism, smoking is considered to be a grave 'sin' causing nearly irreparable harm to one's body and mind. By its addictive quality it causes people to give their Buddhist practices and they lose any positive benefit of Buddhist practice. Pretty hypocritical, I'd say.

Ask the manager to come to the room and point out any damages that you may have made

If he can't then be polite but firm in demanding the full deposit back because you can bet that it will go in his pocket and the Condo owners will not see any of it.

Thais are notorious for not giving deposits back, I had a similar problem myself a few years ago in getting a deposit back but once they saw I was not going to back down until I got the full deposit back they caved in, the problem is most Thai tenants accept that they will lose the deposit so managers/owners think we will be the same

Polite but firm and show him/her that you are no pushover if he still refuses then ask to speak to the Condo owners, he might not want the hassle and cave in

As it turns out, there was no damage and the landlord was quite fair about the move out. She did not charge me any unnecessary fees beyond a 650 cleaning fee which was written into the lease. Nor did she cheat me or bait-and-switch me on rent payments. As I said before, in my case I was always paying for the past month not the future month. As odd as that is it is what my situation was. I came out clean.....whoopee!!

I just flew Thai Air from Bkk to Tokyo, changed airlines there to JAL/American. For the Thai leg I had two bags which were both 32 kilo (+10k for each). The Thai CSRs discussed it between themselves, but Thai did not charge me for it. In Tokyo on JAL/American, I paid $60US each (total$120US) which I thought was pretty reasonable and was expecting much more.

Guys like this are the people we have to thank for the seedy reputation imputed on older white men in Thailand. They are the reason mothers pull their sons and daughters away from us on the train and why you can't naively walk through a crowd of kids or teenagers without being watched by a 1000 eyes. Since I'm against the death penalty, obviously it should be life in prison.

It seems to me that if she is suing you in Switzerland and putting the place of domicile at issue, you have the right to contest where she claims to live. You should be able to force her to provide her passport to the court to prove or disprove her claim regarding where she lives and for how long. Nothing really tricky about it, plead it to the court - your lawyer can do it.

I've rented three places away from home while teaching. The normal practice was a security deposit and first month's rent up front and each month's rent in advance on the first of the month. The trick was getting the security deposit back I moved out.

Getting money back from the average Thai is tricky. Can be difficult. Would refer to your lease. There are a few honorable folks out there. Hopefully you are dealing with one of the 10%.

Mike Macarelli

Chaiyaphum, Thailand

Sent from my iPad using Thaivisa Connect Thailand mobile app

I agree. The problem is that the lease is in Thai and the four so-called Thai 'friends' I asked to check my lease have all disappeared or run away in the opposite direction. F me.....

I would say;

you paid first month, rent in advance,

on one month equivalent as deposit

and the last months rent.

Then 1 month later you paid the 2nd month in advance.

And in the end got stiffed for half the deposit in the end.

Which for here is not bad.

But you were never, ever going to get equivalent 2 months deposit.

or 1 1/2 to get half your deposit back and not pay last month is doing well here.

No matter how the LL phrased it, this must what transpired.

Do you know any Thai that gives an unknown farang free rent upfront?

I had taken over occupancy of one place that I had shared for a few months when I just arrived,

I never paid a deposit, but the original person in there, my ex boss, DID get his deposit back after

4 years, even if he hadn't lived there in over 2.

And I had a second property next 2 doors over as a work space, and had no problem even after making significant modifications to the space, that were then removed and made to not ever appear to have been done.

But I did think, on being here several years now, that this was an exceptional landlord.

He even took half a day off to take me through Tessaban to get an adress on my home I had built.

No longer a renter, but he still is nice as pie.

Again, I hate to sound like I'm defending the landlord. You have simply re-characterized the three month deposit by calling 1/3 of it 'first months rent', 1/3 'deposit' and 1/3 'last months rent'. However, the lease calls it 'three month deposit'. It's all the same chunk of money. Now, on the landlord's records, it shows my first actual rent payment at day 31 - not day 1. Therefore, I did not pay first month's rent upon move in; no rent was paid until day 31. This is how the payment record reads. Whether the books are cooked is a whole different matter. Suffice it to say I live in a large complex with 1,000+ rooms with a sophisticated, state of the art, computerized accounting system which recalled my entire payment history instantly. Whether or not this system is rigged is beyond my capacity to question (least I want to spend two more years in Thailand litigating it to get 1.5 month security deposit returned...not!)

So, you can not say it the way you have even though in theory it may work like that. But, it doesn't work like that because I've still got the three month deposit on record. Now it can be converted to rent to pay 1.5 months of rent now owed, but that's not being stiffed as I see it. If the payment history showed that on day 1 I paid one month rent AND three month security deposit, then you are correct. But, that's not the history. It seems more prudent at this point to use the deposit to pay the rent they are asking rather than handing over more cash. There's little difference except they've already got the money. Why would I give them one month's rent now and then get it back from them on move out as security deposit? I should keep my money in my pocket.

Then I'd have 1.5 months deposit remaining over which I and the manager 'do the dance' about damages, cleaning, etc.

You pay before you are allowed to move in, that is month on in advance, next payment is for month two. Last month is a way to double the security deposits without calling it a double deposit. In theory you would tell the landlord you are moving out at end of lease, please inspect, they decide to repaint and that is less than the deposit... in theory. Though they should, in a proper world, be expecting to repaint after a year or more occupancy, they often see that as a renters expense, not normal wear and tear. certainly a question to ask, or have stipulated on a signed lease. But in theory you should get most of your deposit back, and not pay a final months rent. Ah but TIT, this totally depends on your relationship with the landlord / manger. I rented for two+ years from a guy, it worked like the above for both places I had with him. Got 80% of deposit back and didn't pay the last month. But someone I knew moved in later in a nearby identical building, and had a horrible relationship with same wonderful landlord, Granted this person could be quite a knob, and I know longer speak with him myself. Still, he paid last months rent, lost the whole deposit and got a bill for cleaning the kitchen. So picking you landlord well, not just picking the place, and keeping them nicely cultivated, in a way a Thai can understand is in your best interest. If you don't like the people instinctively, Either take the place and write off the deposit going in, or move on to the next possible place.

I understand this...the idea that one pays forward - I get it. I'm from the US and it's always like that. However, the facts here are slightly different. I feel like a bit of a schmuck for siding with the landlord in keeping most of my security deposit, but here's the deal: I paid three months 'security deposit" when I moved in but I did not pay anything characterized as 'rent'. The first 'rent' was paid one month after I moved in. Therefore, I stayed before I paid. That may not be how it is everywhere, but that's what the payment history shows. Therefore, at move out, I not only owe the last month rent, but also the previous month rent. Again, that's what the payment history shows.

Well, one could say that, "really, Jawnie, you did pay the first month rent when you moved in...it was part of the three months you paid day one - they are just calling it security deposit". If one were to recharacterize the three month security deposit as really being one month rent and two month security deposit, it doesn't change things much. It only means I have only two month security deposit. And of course, there is always the dance and negotiation about damages and whatnot at the end.

The manager is offering to pay that one month arrears payment out of the security deposit along with the final two weeks rent I owe. If I do that, then fully one-half of the security deposit is gone....and accounted for. I'm inclined to do that rather than hand over more cash and then try negotiating on the security deposit, which they already have.

Yes, it's somewhat ass-backwards but it all keys off the fact that I did not make a rent payment until day 31 of moving in. Again, it seems foolish to side with the landlord, but that what the payment history shows.

Seems easy enough to work out, when you moved in did you pay your rent before you moved in or at the end of the month?

If you paid before you moved in you are paying in advance so if you pay today then that will pay for the room until the end of the month and you will not need to pay again.

Getting your deposit back may prove difficult, most Thai Landlords don't understand that deposits should be paid back

After looking at my payment history in the office, I see that I did not pay any rent when I moved in...believe it or not. I only paid a three month security deposit.

I moved in 11/27 but the first recorded rent payment was on 12/31 which showed payment of four days rent (for November) and for all of December. So, the manager is correct and I have been paying rent in arrears (for the past month) instead of paying in advance. Because of this, it is likely...and correct...that I will get less than half of my security deposit back. This will be because I will pay the rent for March and half of April 2013 from the security deposit, which the manager offered me. Damn it!!

Yes always in advance,no Thai is going to give you a month without the money first.

If you are very lucky you may even get some of your deposit back.

I would recommend anyone renting a house or condo, to take photos of all the rooms,

floors,fixtures and fittings before moving in, My daughter was renting a room near a

University, was in room for 4 years, on moving out they tried to charge 500bht to clean

the room,even though it was cleaner than when she moved in, AND bht 500 for every

piece of double sided tape that was stuck on the wall,(which was already there when

she moved in. so just be careful because lots of landlords do not like repaying deposits,

as they will have most likely spent it

regards Worgeordie

Agreed on all points. My rental agreement includes at 650 baht cleaning charge at move out....whatever. Where I live is a complex with two 20-story towers. One tower is long-term 'service' rental and the other is a hotel for tourists and short stays and includes a restaurant, tourist desk, etc. One would hope that this apparently professional operation would be somewhat even-handed and professional about dealing with security deposits. I'm still trying to get some educated, competent, and professional Thai friends to look at my lease agreement on this. I paid a three-month security deposit upon move in - the answer lies in whether I paid the first month rent at the same time, over and above the security deposit. If I did not, then the manager is correct.

Informative update - thanks for posting. Where did the van make the border crossing?

The van is going to Poipet.

Yes....Poipet.

On April 1, I made the short trip to Cambodia for a 15-day visa exemption stay. I'm leaving Thailand permanently on April 15, but my current visa expired April 1. I was referred to Jack Golf as a visa run provider. When I called the number listed on the Jack Golf website -- 022511950 -- I got a different company. The new company, Bangkok Buddy, took over the phone number and visa run business. I should say at the outset, everything went perfectly smooth and as expected. The meeting place is still at Sukhumvit Soi 12 at 5am. I arrived at about 4:50am and there were 12 or so people already there and waiting. Tanya, of BB, was there with all of the necessary forms which you fill out on the spot including application, arrival/departure cards. The money, 2100 baht, was collected when we boarded the vans. We traveled in vans, not a nice, big air conditioned bus (I guess that's not the same as Jack Golf). We took a couple of very short rest breaks along the way and arrived at the border in about three hours. Btw, the driver was safe and careful at all times so no worries about a crazy van driver even if the van was somewhat cramped.

After we all passed through the Thai border, the BB assistant collected our passports and took them to immigration for the visas and exemptions. We were given a coupon for breakfast at a casino. We never really entered Cambodia (we couldn't anyway because we did not have passports) as the casino lies in a 'no man's land' between the Thai and Cambodian immigration offices. The buffet breakfast was decent and we hung out there for about an hour and headed back to the Thai immigration where BB staff gave us our passports with the Cambodian visa and Thai visa exemption stamp, along with a new, completed departure card. Some in our group stayed overnight because they were getting tourist visas while the rest loaded back into the van to Bangkok. We arrived in Bangkok at about 2:30pm in good shape.

All is well.