Pattaya Home Rental Rip-off

[jasperblubber2005]

this is embarrassing but if it helps one farang then its worth writing about, eight years ago i decided to move to thailand when i retired (3/1/2006), three years ago i met a real sweet lady who had a boyfriend oversea's and offered to help me find a place, i told her that if she could find something close to the beach (pattaya) that allows dogs i would pay her for her services, well shortly after getting here she told me of a place on soi 4, 3 bedroom, 3 bathrooms for 16,000 baht a month, a little big for me but will work out until i find something better in another city, like hua hin.

the deal was 48,000 to move in, first , last and one month deposit, i agreed and signed the contract, well to make this story as short as possible, i have decided that i would rather live in my car back in america than spend another month in pattaya, i told the landlord that this is my last month so i was not paying, she got her daughter who still didn't understand, now comes a girl with pretty good english and i explain that i already paid for last month so why are they asking for more money, after a discussion the girl says that i didn;t pay for the last month but instead paid two months deposit, i told her she was full of it and i would never had rent this place had i known i was going to lose 900 american, it was bad enough that i would never get to see the electric bill ( they would give me the amount on a piece a paper that they wrote the amount), so after taking the contract to the manager of the hotel across from me i was told that i infact signed a contract which stated that two months or 32,000 baht would be applied to the deposit.

i called the girl who helped me find this place and she assured me the lady said 48,000 for first, last and 16,000 for deposit, this is what one gets for trusting someone, time has shown me that many of thai's make a good living ripping off foreigners, i said many, not all thai so before you accuse me of stereo typing, read my thread carefully.

i women i dealt with was a grandmotherly type i had no idea she would pull this crap on me but there is a lesson learned here, you trust people at your own risk, i realize that this lady doe's not represent all thai's but i find it amazing how many people you run into in pattaya that seem to make ripping off a way of life, as for me i have less than 6 weeks here then its back to america, i was originally going to go home for six months than come back but this has convinced me that to live here you need to be on your guard at all time especially when driving, i had thought that i could live here forever but when you have people who are constantly looking for ways to seperate your money from your wallet, this is not my idea of enjoying my retirement

jasper

[john b good]

this is embarrassing but if it helps one farang then its worth writing about, eight years ago i decided to move to thailand when i retired (3/1/2006), three years ago i met a real sweet lady who had a boyfriend oversea's and offered to help me find a place, i told her that if she could find something close to the beach (pattaya) that allows dogs i would pay her for her services, well shortly after getting here she told me of a place on soi 4, 3 bedroom, 3 bathrooms for 16,000 baht a month, a little big for me but will work out until i find something better in another city, like hua hin.

the deal was 48,000 to move in, first , last and one month deposit, i agreed and signed the contract, well to make this story as short as possible, i have decided that i would rather live in my car back in america than spend another month in pattaya, i told the landlord that this is my last month so i was not paying, she got her daughter who still didn't understand, now comes a girl with pretty good english and i explain that i already paid for last month so why are they asking for more money, after a discussion the girl says that i didn;t pay for the last month but instead paid two months deposit, i told her she was full of it and i would never had rent this place had i known i was going to lose 900 american, it was bad enough that i would never get to see the electric bill ( they would give me the amount on a piece a paper that they wrote the amount), so after taking the contract to the manager of the hotel across from me i was told that i infact signed a contract which stated that two months or 32,000 baht would be applied to the deposit.

i called the girl who helped me find this place and she assured me the lady said 48,000 for first, last and 16,000 for deposit, this is what one gets for trusting someone, time has shown me that many of thai's make a good living ripping off foreigners, i said many, not all thai so before you accuse me of stereo typing, read my thread carefully.

i women i dealt with was a grandmotherly type i had no idea she would pull this crap on me but there is a lesson learned here, you trust people at your own risk, i realize that this lady doe's not represent all thai's but i find it amazing how many people you run into in pattaya that seem to make ripping off a way of life, as for me i have less than 6 weeks here then its back to america, i was originally going to go home for six months than come back but this has convinced me that to live here you need to be on your guard at all time especially when driving, i had thought that i could live here forever but when you have people who are constantly looking for ways to seperate your money from your wallet, this is not my idea of enjoying my retirement

jasper

I would think that there is a goodly percentage of Thai's who do make their living at ripping people off (not all but one hellava lot)

The other thing that you should consider before evacuating yourself from the realm is to have a look at some other places first.

Pattaya is not Thailand (for which many are eternally grateful)

[PhilHarries]

Strange tale this, not the rip off that's all too common in Thailand and particularly in Pattaya, but the other details.

Jasper, you said you decided eight years ago to retire to Thailand. What made you choose Thailand, had you been there before? It is a massive decision to retire to a foriegn country particularly one with such a vast culture gap compared to your home.

You give a date of 3rd Jan '06 so I presume this was your retirement date and close to arrival date in Thailand. Therefore I presume you have lived a year in Pattaya and now would rather live in your car in the USA. In my experience people either love or hate Pattaya and form that opinion within a very short time. So how come it took you a year to reach that conclusion?

Now you indicate that you've abandoned your retirement to Thailand plan without even giving the rest of the country a chance. You mentioned Hua Hin, why not give that a try, contact a few HH residents here on TV and get advice. Do not trash Thailand based on one bad experience in Pattaya. I love the place but admit it aint for everyone and even I would hesitate at retiring to the town.

As for being on your guard the whole time against rip offs, well Thailand isn't so different to any other country in that respect. Wherever there is poverty, which is just about every country in the world, there are people looking for easy ways to make a quick buck. In many countries you do not so much have to be on your guard but live behind heavy double locked security doors afraid to go out.

[wilko]

Not so much a rip-off just a lack of communication.....I'm sure they didn't think you were going to move out so fast....why DID you decide to leave?

[CHdiver]

Not so much a rip-off just a lack of communication.....I'm sure they didn't think you were going to move out so fast....why DID you decide to leave?

I think the same. By the way, 16000 a month sounds like a very good deal for you. Not easy to find a place for this price at Soi 4 (Beachroad?). Did you sign a Contract in Thai? For how many month did you agree to rent this place? However; if you fulfill your contract, you will (should) get your Deposit back. Where are they ripping you of? If you break the Contract, now then it's everywhere the same. The Landlord want to be compensated.

But yes, People realy can learn from you:

don't sign a contract you can not understand

ask where the Meter is for Electricity and Water (and write down the numbers, so you have control)

Don't rent in a Town you don't know, stay in a Hotel for some time, then decide if you like the Place or not.

[lemel]

as far as i am aware, it is standard to pay 2 months security deposit and if you fail to fullfill the full term of the contract 1 year, 2year etc lease, you will lose the security deposit. Not ripping you off just standard practice.

[Artisan]

as far as i am aware, it is standard to pay 2 months security deposit and if you fail to fulfill the full term of the contract 1 year, 2year etc lease, you will lose the security deposit. Not ripping you off just standard practice.

It sure is.

[Pattaya_Fox]

Am I missing something here?

You paid 48000 which the landlady is now saying was 16000 for the first months rent and 32000 deposit.I assume that the rent was paid in advance so then you would pay 16000 baht a month in advance for each month.

So a month before the end of the term you would pay the 16000 in advance for the last month and at the end of the month the amount outstanding to you would be the 32000 which was the initial deposit which I assume is like a bond which covers any damage or unpaid utility bills.

So you should get back the deposit of 32000 less any costs.

The manager of the hotel across the road stated that the 32000 was a deposit i.e. bond.

So where is the rip? off unless you were asked to pay twice for the last month or you didn`t get the balance of your bond back.

I have never known the last month of the rent being requested with the initial depost.

[jbsears]

I paid 3 months. First month and two months for deposit. I asked my gf when signing and she said it is not normal to pay the last month in advanced like it is in the US. The condo management agreed that it was the norm here too.

[aznyron]

I paid 3 months. First month and two months for deposit. I asked my gf when signing and she said it is not normal to pay the last month in advanced like it is in the US. The condo management agreed that it was the norm here too.

Let me ad my two cents if you give 3 months rent 2 months sec/dep you are a fool I give two months one month sec/dep and if they don't accept that I just move on no problem I don't hagle or argue I just tell them that all I will pay and I have my own furn. and I rent apt empty I will not wherehouse some one else furn. this way if some thing breaks it yours you don't have to be over charged for some piece of shi+ I have learned renting is a business you are the buyer if you don't like the terms dont rent from them and make sure you get plenty of water I had that problem after I moved in a place in pattaya on soi katalo the water was shut off during the day they said they had to make repairs but it took over a month and still was not fixed so I moved out and I lived out my sec/ dep and told the land lord if he did not like it tough shi+ don't let these land lord bull shi+ you as for letting some one else find your apt that was foolish of you look for your self my two cents is used up AMEN

[expatgaz]

My tennants when renting from my pay 2 months rent as deposit plus first month when moving into building.Standard.Don't really understand your issue.

[besth]

this is embarrassing but if it helps one farang then its worth writing about, eight years ago i decided to move to thailand when i retired (3/1/2006), three years ago i met a real sweet lady who had a boyfriend oversea's and offered to help me find a place, i told her that if she could find something close to the beach (pattaya) that allows dogs i would pay her for her services, well shortly after getting here she told me of a place on soi 4, 3 bedroom, 3 bathrooms for 16,000 baht a month, a little big for me but will work out until i find something better in another city, like hua hin.

the deal was 48,000 to move in, first , last and one month deposit, i agreed and signed the contract, well to make this story as short as possible, i have decided that i would rather live in my car back in america than spend another month in pattaya, i told the landlord that this is my last month so i was not paying, she got her daughter who still didn't understand, now comes a girl with pretty good english and i explain that i already paid for last month so why are they asking for more money, after a discussion the girl says that i didn;t pay for the last month but instead paid two months deposit, i told her she was full of it and i would never had rent this place had i known i was going to lose 900 american, it was bad enough that i would never get to see the electric bill ( they would give me the amount on a piece a paper that they wrote the amount), so after taking the contract to the manager of the hotel across from me i was told that i infact signed a contract which stated that two months or 32,000 baht would be applied to the deposit.

i called the girl who helped me find this place and she assured me the lady said 48,000 for first, last and 16,000 for deposit, this is what one gets for trusting someone, time has shown me that many of thai's make a good living ripping off foreigners, i said many, not all thai so before you accuse me of stereo typing, read my thread carefully.

i women i dealt with was a grandmotherly type i had no idea she would pull this crap on me but there is a lesson learned here, you trust people at your own risk, i realize that this lady doe's not represent all thai's but i find it amazing how many people you run into in pattaya that seem to make ripping off a way of life, as for me i have less than 6 weeks here then its back to america, i was originally going to go home for six months than come back but this has convinced me that to live here you need to be on your guard at all time especially when driving, i had thought that i could live here forever but when you have people who are constantly looking for ways to seperate your money from your wallet, this is not my idea of enjoying my retirement

jasper

I paid 3 months. First month and two months for deposit. I asked my gf when signing and she said it is not normal to pay the last month in advanced like it is in the US. The condo management agreed that it was the norm here too.

No rip-off, but missunderstanding (yours).

When you were told about the 3 months, you assumed it would be 'first, last and one month deposit', probably because that is what you were used to.

Possibly you specifically asked that this was the case and I'm almost sure that you got unanimous "yes " answers. They weren't trying to cheat you, that's the standard reply.

As many other posters have said, two months deposit for furnished condos is the rule. If you break the contract by leaving before the agreement expires, you lose your deposit. If you stay until the end and give adequate notice, as per your rental agreement... you may lose your deposit or part of it too, but that's another issue.

[jinjok]

this is why i like my tiny apt.

center of town

cheap as chips

no deposit

known mgr for 7 yrs

farang are as dodgy as thais on this one. anyone in real estate/used cars....

[icecubes]

In the future don’t hand over wads of cash to people renting out condo’s and houses.

Remember the ball is firmly in your court,, you have the cash and they want it

Its always negotiable., There are far more empty places than there are people willing to rent them out, looks like that will increase in the next few years as well.

Remember that one next time.

Have a nice day.

[jasperblubber2005]

let me put a little more details in this in order to answer some of the questions that have come up, i came here in sept. of 2006, stayed at a hotel for three weeks until this home was found, there was no communication issue here, the elderly lady told my thai friend that it was 16,000 a month, to get in it would be 48,000 baht, 16,000 for first month,16000 for last and 16,000 for the deposit, it was also agreed that should i leave before the year was out that i would lose the deposit.

i realized that when the time came that i would lose my 16,000 that was not that big of an issue, but after viewing the house and agreeing to the terms i came back two days later to sign the papers (which were in thai), neither my friend or i had any reason to beleive that the contract would be different from what we had agreed to, the fact that paying two months deposit is standard in pattaya has nothing to do with my issue i did not agree to that and beleived that the landlady was going to put into the contract exactly what we discussed, no misunderstanding as some of you may have thought.

yesterday when i called my friend to ask her if she remembered the conversation with the landlady she stated that the landlady had told her that the 48,000 was for first, last and 16,000 deposit, again, no misunderstanding here, just a matter of a landlord who decided to change the verbal agreement to fit her objectives.

i realize that the landlady doe's not represent thai people as a whole but the amount of people in this town who are constantly trying to seperate you from your money is getting bigger and bigger, pattaya was never going to be my permanent home but it was the only city other than bangkok that i was familiar with, given a choice i took the beach.

i have been coming to pattaya for the last eight years but i came strickly as a tourist, the last two years i did more research so that i could get to understand the culture and its people, this was not a relocation based on a whim i had a desire to try and fit into this society and possibly get involved in some community or volunteer projects, but as time went by it became clear that this may be more diffecult than it appeared.

this one incident is not what made me decide to leave thailand forever, but it was the final issue that i will tolerate, coming here on a vacation you see only that which is good and positive but when you make the move to live here that changes and it changes in a major way, as a tourist taking the baht taxi's you never really experience just how bad the driving is in this town, over 50% of the drivers in this city have no business behind the wheel of a vehicle. dogs that run wild and crap all over the place, baht taxi drivers ripping off visitor, people traveling up to 18 to come here just so they can have their jewelry and bags snatched i could right a book on the scams here.

for those of you that say pattaya doe's not represent thailand i would agree with you i visited hua hin a while back and couldn;t beleive these two cities were in the same country, unfortunately my desire to stay here is gone, had i known more about hua hin before coming here and having relocated there, i have no doubt this thread would not have been written.

we all have a limit that we will tolerate in what ever we do, unfortunately i have hit mine, retirement to me may be different to some of you others, i enjoy the idea of relaxing and enjoying your environment without the concerns of people trying to rip you off or snatch your belongings, this is something that can't be done in pattaya, can it be done in another thai city?, i will never know, for those of you who live here and enjoy it, my hats off to you

jasper

[thebounder]

A contract is a binding legal document and to sign one in a foreign language without having it translated is naive in the extreme. This is not about Thailand. There are people who will try to do this all over the World. That is why lawyers exist. If you sign something you don't understand, you are really not in a position to complain if and when it comes back to bite you.

A few years ago, an English football team called Leeds United were negotiating with an Italian team, Parma, to buy a player, Thomas Brolin. A fee of, I think, 4 million pounds was agreed along with payment terms which involved payment over a couple of years. When the final version of the contract arrived at Leeds on the fax from Parma, Leeds' lawyer asked to see it to check it to make sure nothing had changed, but the acting Chairman, a rather unpopular man who believed he knew everything, declined and immediately signed the thing before faxing it back. When the lawyer finally got to see the thing, he quickly noticed that the payment clause had been changed, to immediate payment of the full sum. This was particularly awkward as Brolin had recently suffered a serious leg injury and actually never fully recovered. Leeds didn't have all the money, their credit line at the bank was already stretched and the net result was that one of their most promising young players of the time, Noel Whelan, was quickly sold to Coventry for less than his true value. Absolutely true story. Leeds' old lawyer told it to me himself. And, guess what, it had nothing at all to do with Thailand. Don't blame Thailand, because you were incredibly naive and ended up getting screwed as a result. It could have happened anywhere.

[Khun ?]

Sounds like you misunderstood, the landlord put it in writing. What is in writing is the law and crying

about a few hundred dollars is useless. You should of had the written contract read to you before signed regardless the same you would of back home.

You tried to work out something that you probably knew was not common if you had to spend time

having it explained to the landlord of your desires.

The price you received for rent was half the going rate for that area and size.

Just wondering what was wrong with the place for them to rent it so cheap.

She will probably need the extra cash to get rid of the fleas and smell of animals that was left behind

anyway. The lawn will probably have dog piss soaked in it for a long time after your gone, not that Pttaya does not stink enough already.

[Jingthing]

As an American happily living in Pattaya, for an American to call Thailand the land of ripoffs is like the pot calling the kettle black. America may be more transparent about the ripoffs, but you are ripped off there all the time all the same, for a lot more money as well. Like go to a car mechanic and pay 70 dollars an hour labor. Its written clearly and applied "fairly", but it is still a ripoff.

Enjoy sleeping in your car in America. I think you are just not expat material, in Thailand, or anywhere.

Another local example. People complain that Bangkok Pattaya hospital is a ripoff that practices double pricing for farangs. However, as bad a bunch of crooks as they might be, compare to a typical experience in a US hospital without health insurance. Three days, some tests, no surgery, bill: 2 million baht. Pick your poison ...

Edited January 27, 2007 by Jingthing

[tropo]

Ripped off? For what? 16,000 baht?

You're very lucky this was Thailand. In most countries when you sign a rental contract you're liable for the full term rental.

No one should EVER sign any contract they can't read, period. You should count yourself lucky you didn't really get ripped off.

[jbsears]

You should ask for a contract in English. I've lived in two houses and one condo in Thailand and all three contracts were in English. As others have mentioned, never sign a contract that you can't read.