Our landlady, a Thai married to a farang, lives overseas and her house was unoccupied for almost a year in Hua Hin before we rented it. The real estate agent consults with her to manage property issues.
Before renting, we told the real estate agent the doors were not closing, the kitchen cabinet doors were not aligned, the ceiling fan in one of the bedrooms was not working. They said the would take care of it and we signed the agreement. Nothing was ever taken care of.
In May, at the height of the heat wave in Thailand, the AC broke down, the landlord took her time to shop around with the real estate agent for low price repairs and it was 20 days before it was fixed. My 80 year old mother was vey dehydrated and uncomfortable and we had to take her daily to the mall to escape the intense heat.
We made them aware of a pipe leak as our bill was 100% more that usual, they told us it was our fault because we had mentioned the pool filter was filled with dirt and we had to clean it with help from neighbours. Thankfully the contractor told her it was an issue unrelated to the pool.
We went overseas for a month and when we got back one of the cabinet doors just fell on my husband. Again the real estate agent sent a contractor and told us we had to pay for it.
I know rental laws are lax in Thailand but is there anything we can do ?