Tap water and electricity fees at apartments come under legal control as of May 1

[snoop1130]

Tap water and electricity fees at apartments come under legal control as of May 1

 

 

Starting on May 1, electricity and tap water fees at hostels, apartments or rented rooms in residential buildings will come under legal control which prohibits owners of the premises from overcharging the utility fees.

 

The electricity and tap water fee control is in accordance with an announcement of the Consumer Protection Board which will come into force as of May 1, which was intended to protect consumers from being taken advantage of by owners of apartments, hostels or rented rooms who often overcharged their tenants.

 

Under the law, apartment ownwers cannot charge electricity and tap water above the rates charged by Metropolitan Electricity Authority in the case of Bangkok or the Provincial Electricity Authority in the case of other provinces.

 

Mr Pikanes Tapuang, deputy secretary-general of Office of Consumer Protection Board, warned on Wednesday (April 25) that owners of hostels, apartments or rented rooms who overcharge their tenants would face a maximum fine of up to 100,000 baht and/or one-year imprisonment.

 

Full Story: http://englishnews.thaipbs.or.th/tap-water-electricity-fees-apartments-come-legal-control-may-1/

 

-- © Copyright Thai PBS 2018-4-25

[Jeremy50]

That's great news, this should have happened years ago. It makes my blood boil paying 8 baht a unit for electricity in my apartment block, a full 100% more than the electric company price. Absolute thievery.  NO MORE!!!!!!!

[InMyShadow]

6 minutes ago, Jeremy50 said:

That's great news, this should have happened years ago. It makes my blood boil paying 8 baht a unit for electricity in my apartment block, a full 100% more than the electric company price. Absolute thievery.  NO MORE!!!!!!!

This has been discussed to death already. only applies to owners of 6  or more condos

so i wouldn't get to excited

[rkidlad]

3 minutes ago, InMyShadow said:

This has been discussed to death already. only applies to owners of 6  or more condos

so i wouldn't get to excited

Well, everyone I know who’s rented a condo from a private owner has paid the proper price according the real bill. Everyone else I know who’s rented from a condo building owned by some family has paid a higher rate. So this is great news. 

[InMyShadow]

1 minute ago, rkidlad said:

Well, everyone I know who’s rented a condo from a private owner has paid the proper price according the real bill. Everyone else I know who’s rented from a condo building owned by some family has paid a higher rate. So this is great news. 

 condotels is what your referring to. Your completely wrong about private condos. 90% are Thai and no chance in hell of getting the real rate unless they agree to put the bill in your name. wont happen

[watcharacters]

1 minute ago, InMyShadow said:

 condotels is what your referring to. Your completely wrong about private condos. 90% are Thai and no chance in hell of getting the real rate unless they agree to put the bill in your name. wont happen

 

 

Are you being a bit negative?

 

[InMyShadow]

1 minute ago, watcharacters said:

 

 

Are you being a bit negative?

 

realistic. go to you landlord tomorrow and demand you pay what he pays.

let us all know how you get along

[rkidlad]

4 minutes ago, InMyShadow said:

 condotels is what your referring to. Your completely wrong about private condos. 90% are Thai and no chance in hell of getting the real rate unless they agree to put the bill in your name. wont happen

I’ve never met anyone who’s rented privately and not paid the correct rate. Usually private owners make money on the rent itself and there’s no need to charge extra for elec and water. 

 

But, hey - if you say I’m wrong......

[watcharacters]

2 minutes ago, InMyShadow said:

realistic. go to you landlord tomorrow and demand you pay what he pays.

let us all know how you get along

 

 

Silly I pay the government rate.

[InMyShadow]

19 minutes ago, watcharacters said:

 

 

Silly I pay the government rate.

Your set then.

[KhunFred]

57 minutes ago, Jeremy50 said:

That's great news, this should have happened years ago. It makes my blood boil paying 8 baht a unit for electricity in my apartment block, a full 100% more than the electric company price. Absolute thievery.  NO MORE!!!!!!!

Lets see if the law is obeyed or ignored. Thailand is not known for enforcement if a law is unpopular with those who have adequate resources.

 

[anon537687643]

All of these needs enforcement and policing and checking on scum owners changing names on ownership of properties ! It could be done if there was a will .. but doubt there is


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[dinsdale]

11 hours ago, InMyShadow said:

This has been discussed to death already. only applies to owners of 6  or more condos

so i wouldn't get to excited

So exactly where do you get this info from? It's nowhere in the article. 

[rgrdns]

Who knows the tap water rate? 

[MaxLee]

12 hours ago, snoop1130 said:

Tap water and electricity fees at apartments come under legal control as of May 1

 

NOT if the sneaky apartment owners don't get caught........

[Madgee]

This new law has been well documented in the Thai press and on TV. 

AFAIK, it applies to landlords who own 5 or more dwellings which are being used as rental accommodation. 

 

In the 'boonie' town that I live there are many single room apartment blocks that charge 8 baht per unit for electricity.   

Under this law, the owners are now also responsible for minor repairs such as broken locks etc.

 

Now, let's see if anyone is brave enough to confront their landlord!     

[jackdd]

We had many threads about this already

The law applies to people / companies who rent out 5 or more units.

 

People like to confuse condos and apartments.

Many condos are owned by a private person, they rent this unit out, the law does not apply to them.

If somebody has many condos and rents them out the law would apply to them, but how do you want to know if he rents out 5 or more?

But in condos you usually pay the government rate anyway, so in regard to utility fees nothing changes.

 

Apartment buildings are owned by one person (or company) and have many units, so the law does apply to them.

Apartments usually add a markup on the utility fees and usually charge a rate like 7 or 8 THB for electricity.

 

Now the big BUT, because the law has a loophole:

The law states that they may charge you fees not higher than the real costs, but they may also charge you for costs that occur from maintaining the electric and water systems.

The law even makes an example: The water pump to deliver water uses electricity so this may be included in the fees for water.

Now we just think one step ahead: The apartment owner makes a contract with his brother, about maintaining the electric systems, and the payment is by used unit, so his brother charges 4 THB per unit of electricity for the maintenance. The apartment owner can now fully legally charge the same 8 THB as before, 4 THB for the government rate, 4 THB for the maintenance.

[thenewgoo]

Hopefully this will stop the shonky profiteering that has been going on forever. The condo I once stayed in even charged me VAT on their inflated prices -  they kindly gave me a discount when I challenged them.

[tigermoth]

It's about time but I suspect that it is going to make life more expensive. At the moment a tenant can control the amount of electricity and water he consumes, i.e. reducing the hours the ac is running, not using hot water for showers on a regular basis and so on. What he can't control is the rent cost and many owners will simply increase this to make up for the loss of income in lower electricity charges and water charges.

[tigermoth]

1 hour ago, jackdd said:

We had many threads about this already

The law applies to people / companies who rent out 5 or more units.

 

People like to confuse condos and apartments.

Many condos are owned by a private person, they rent this unit out, the law does not apply to them.

If somebody has many condos and rents them out the law would apply to them, but how do you want to know if he rents out 5 or more?

But in condos you usually pay the government rate anyway, so in regard to utility fees nothing changes.

 

Apartment buildings are owned by one person (or company) and have many units, so the law does apply to them.

Apartments usually add a markup on the utility fees and usually charge a rate like 7 or 8 THB for electricity.

 

Now the big BUT, because the law has a loophole:

The law states that they may charge you fees not higher than the real costs, but they may also charge you for costs that occur from maintaining the electric and water systems.

The law even makes an example: The water pump to deliver water uses electricity so this may be included in the fees for water.

Now we just think one step ahead: The apartment owner makes a contract with his brother, about maintaining the electric systems, and the payment is by used unit, so his brother charges 4 THB per unit of electricity for the maintenance. The apartment owner can now fully legally charge the same 8 THB as before, 4 THB for the government rate, 4 THB for the maintenance.

What a load of horsesh.....

[over2you]

4 hours ago, rgrdns said:

Who knows the tap water rate? 

At my large block of family owned apartments. They charge me  7 Baht per Unit Electricity. 20 Baht per unit Water (minimum charge for water per month is 200 Baht.)

Is this fairly standard? 

[rgrdns]

8 minutes ago, over2you said:

At my large block of family owned apartments. They charge me  7 Baht per Unit Electricity. 20 Baht per unit Water (minimum charge for water per month is 200 Baht.)

Is this fairly standard? 

My electric consumption avg. of 3.90 bht price per KwH (unit as you called) a month....this is according government invoicing.

Water rate 18 bht p/unit that's what JP charge me....this I don't know exactly what's the official rate therefore I'm curious if any one really know/tell?!

[digger70]

5 hours ago, rgrdns said:

Who knows the tap water rate? 

Down South here we pay about 17 THB per Cubic metre ( 1000 Litres ) 1 unit

[jackdd]

In Udon Thani the government rate for water is somewhere in the 14-15 THB range, usually we use something like 7 units and pay about 100THB

[scubascuba3]

 

 

 

This new law has been well documented in the Thai press and on TV. 

 

 

People keep saying that but all previous threads have been about condos. This specifically now mentions "hostels, apartments or rented rooms in residential buildings".

 

Actually it would be useful if authorities provided a telephone number to report premises not complying

 

[Cake Monster]

Due to many years of neglect and dare I say corruption, in many areas the water supply is dire to say the least.

 

I know for a fact that if you own apartments in one of these areas, then you will need to " Bowser " in water to supply to your Apartments, and this will cost an extortionate rate of 90 Baht per cubic Meter ( 1 Unit ).

 

This could be the reason that people are paying a lot for water, even in City environs where the tenant assumes that the apartment / condo is on the city supply.

 

And some landlords will have to suplement their water supplies in the manner, so check with the owner to see if this is the case.

[Top Chef]

The laws regarding Overcharging for Utilities have been on the books for decades.

My question is, Why did the authorities decide to get busy now..??

It seems to me that they are just "headline grabbing". (Job security and such).

[realenglish1]

It is about time this happened. I was renting a place  6 years ago that had electrical charges of double what was billed Outragious

 

[realenglish1]

6 hours ago, over2you said:

At my large block of family owned apartments. They charge me  7 Baht per Unit Electricity. 20 Baht per unit Water (minimum charge for water per month is 200 Baht.)

Is this fairly standard? 

Now they can not do this It must be what the city charges that they can charge you   You are paying double what you should be

[scubascuba3]

So are the authorities notifying all the guesthouses etc?