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

snoop1130

By snoop1130
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owenm Senior Member

owenm

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Posted

The headline reads about how electricity and water bills must be charged at government rates as of May 1, but who really read the complete news article? 

 

Condo/house rental bonds will be charged at maximum of one month only + one months rent, and not two which has been the norm. Also anyone wanting to break their one year lease, will now only have to give two months notice, and receive their full bond back, less any damage etc. 

This is great news for the renter but not so much for the landlord.. Why this was buried in the news story and not the headline??? 

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jackdd Platinum Member

jackdd

Posted
Posted (edited)
11 minutes ago, owenm said:

The headline reads about how electricity and water bills must be charged at government rates as of May 1, but who really read the complete news article? 

 

Condo/house rental bonds will be charged at maximum of one month only + one months rent, and not two which has been the norm. Also anyone wanting to break their one year lease, will now only have to give two months notice, and receive their full bond back, less any damage etc. 

This is great news for the renter but not so much for the landlord.. Why this was buried in the news story and not the headline??? 

Because people care more about electricity / water :P

But this whole law is a joke anyway, because everything has loopholes.

In the future you will rent the room which requires a month as deposit and you will rent the furniture which requires another month as deposit, and it's the same 2 months deposit as before

It's actually a 30 day notice, but the law says "you need to have a reason", if you leave for whatever reason the landlord might just say that that's not an acceptable reason and not terminate your contract. If you leave he keeps your deposit. Want to take him to court? Maybe the court thinks your reason is valid ... or maybe not...

 

If you want to be on the save site you have to write everything in the contract, a fixed electricity price, just one month deposit total, make the contract for one month which always extends by one month and so on. But to do this a change of the law was not necessary because you could also do this before. The landlords didn't want to do this before, they don't want to do it now, and the law doesn't force them to do anything that they don't want

Edited by jackdd
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connda Star Member

connda

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Posted
On 4/25/2018 at 8:10 PM, 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!!!!!!!

They'll simply raise your rent.  :biggrin:

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Yellowfin101 Newbie

Yellowfin101

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On 25/04/2018 at 8:18 PM, 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

I would think that an individual apartment would be regarded as a property, as in if there are 35 units in the complex, that would mean 35 properties

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Yellowfin101 Newbie

Yellowfin101

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On 26/04/2018 at 9:50 PM, InMyShadow said:

I firmly believe Thai landlords will abide with this new law. I have no doubts at all and I believe it will happen around the same time Pattaya taxi drivers agree to turn the meter on.

 

:cheesy:

:saai: you could be right, but the difference is with taxi's, most people that use them are tourists, dont know the law and are happy to pay to go where they are going, this law effects mostly residents that long stay and have a lot of time on their hands, you don't need to take them to court, this law is governed by the Consumer Protection Board , which I am sure is the place to make a formal complaint against any offending landlord

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StayinThailand2much Platinum Member

StayinThailand2much

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Posted
On 4/26/2018 at 8:30 AM, MaxLee said:

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

My landlord solved the 'problem' by coming up with a new 'cleaning fee', which before wasn't charged. I may, if lucky, save 200 baht per month on the electricity bill, provided I'm home all month, using the aircon all the time, otherwise I may, in fact, end up paying more. :saai:

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Yellowfin101 Newbie

Yellowfin101

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Posted (edited)
1 hour ago, StayinThailand2much said:

My landlord solved the 'problem' by coming up with a new 'cleaning fee', which before wasn't charged. I may, if lucky, save 200 baht per month on the electricity bill, provided I'm home all month, using the aircon all the time, otherwise I may, in fact, end up paying more. :saai:

why not contact the Consumer Protection Board and ask for advice, im sure in the new law he has to give you notification in writing of any service charges or increases, the law say"s they can only charge you what it costs them for SERVICES meaning any service not just power and water, here is the link to their website - https://www.consumersinternational.org/members/members/office-of-the-consumer-protection-board-of-thailand

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StayinThailand2much Platinum Member

StayinThailand2much

Posted
Posted (edited)
2 hours ago, Yellowfin101 said:

why not contact the Consumer Protection Board and ask for advice, im sure in the new law he has to give you notification in writing of any service charges or increases, the law say"s they can only charge you what it costs them for SERVICES meaning any service not just power and water, here is the link to their website - https://www.consumersinternational.org/members/members/office-of-the-consumer-protection-board-of-thailand

That's nice. But how would I prove that? There is an old guy who sweeps the corridors once or twice a month... How could I disprove that the owner pays that guy 23x (number of apartments) 200 baht = 4,600 baht for these 2 hours/month of hard work? Besides, the fee (according to my partner) is mentioned in our contract, albeit nothing charged until now, that is before that law. Now we have to pay a fixed-amount fee, while our electricity bill depends on our actual usage and time we spend at home rather than away. As I said, depending on that we may, on average,  just break even.

Edited by StayinThailand2much
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onlycw Silver Member

onlycw

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Back in 2004, I had to fight to bring the rate a bit down: from 10 B to 8 B per kw/h.

 

Many LLs have unashamedly cheated me over the years. Ficticious reading and all. A common trick is never to record the starting reading upon moving in.

 

Presently, I'm hit with a 100 B flat-rate fee for water. And the LL invented non specified "service charges" which amount to several hundred a month. By keeping it vague on the receipt, what can I do?

 

Wonna live or wonna fight? 

 

One condotel was the pits. Small brand new Samsung aircon and a modern refrigerator. I was working full time. And the kw/h use was  d o u b l e  of that of my much bigger, older aircon at my condo (with me being there all the time as I wasn't working when I was there).

 

Go figure. 

 

Many LLs love to grab a few hundred extra. It's more like 'for fun'? 

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kannot Platinum Member

kannot

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On 4/25/2018 at 8:18 PM, 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

FIVE or  more

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kannot Platinum Member

kannot

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Posted
On 4/26/2018 at 7:49 PM, owenm said:

The headline reads about how electricity and water bills must be charged at government rates as of May 1, but who really read the complete news article? 

 

Condo/house rental bonds will be charged at maximum of one month only + one months rent, and not two which has been the norm. Also anyone wanting to break their one year lease, will now only have to give two months notice, and receive their full bond back, less any damage etc. 

This is great news for the renter but not so much for the landlord.. Why this was buried in the news story and not the headline??? 

ONE  months  notice

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