My rent just went up because of the new electricity rate reduction for tenants - that was supposed to save me money

[spambot]

 

As many are now aware the  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.  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 apartment or a hostel owner cannot charge utility rates exceeding 20 percent of the rates charged by the Metropolitan Electricity Authority - In Bangkok this 4 THB + 20%(0.8 THB) = 4.8THB. They also stated in an announcement that they wished to ensure that owners of hostels or apartments id not impose other charges on the tenants to compensate for lowering utility fees.

 

Yesterday I was shown a handwritten piece of paper that turned the argument the opposite way around and this s what it roughly said - “The Government required the apartment block owner to increase the rent and service charges on each condo - However to compensate we are going to reduce your electricity unit cost from 8 THB to 4 THB” - I was so amused that they had said the government was imposing a rent increase and it was the owner that was voluntarily lowering the electricity charges  I tried to take a photo of the piece of paper on my mobile, but the paper was even more amusingly hastily withdrawn and a number of hands outstretched - All three of the receptionists held their hand up to block me from using my camera phone .

 

There is probably very little I or anyone in a similar situation can do, but what is it that  a tenant can to do when a landlord does impose other charges to compensate for the lowering utility fees? -

 

This question for me is more rhetorical, since I do not envisage trying to fight this - I know the owner and definitely know that the only result would be me asked to vacate and finish my 6 years of tenancy.

 

- Is there anyone else in this same situation?

- And what (if anything) is anyone doing as a tenant to fight this?

[HiSoLowSoNoSo]

Do you got a rental agreement?

[BEVUP]

How many increases in that time ( of 6 yrs ) ?

[GarryP]

If that happened, I would leave anyway. At least there is likely to be one month before someone rents your room so the owners would lose that.  It may not be much money, but I can't stand cheats.  

[spambot]

13 minutes ago, HiSoLowSoNoSo said:

Do you got a rental agreement?

Yes

[spambot]

9 minutes ago, BEVUP said:

How many increases in that time ( of 6 yrs ) ?

Difficult say - since I have moved from different priced (increased quality) appartments

[InMyShadow]

What did you expect? You really thought a thai landlord is going to take a hit to the wallet?

 

There are tens of thousands of cheap rentals with 7-10 baht electricity cost to bring the rent back to market value. If your paying 10k/month you can expect a 3k rent increase.

 

Keep in mind the law is only for private condo owners of 5 condos or more however I believe all guest houses and condotels are affected

Edited April 27, 2018 by InMyShadow

[spambot]

4 minutes ago, GarryP said:

If that happened, I would leave anyway. At least there is likely to be one month before someone rents your room so the owners would lose that.  It may not be much money, but I can't stand cheats.  

It just got worse - few minutes ago I was presented with April 2018 statement - They backdated the Rent increase - And Yup  it was only yesterday that I got sight of a handwritten note shown to me - And no change to my tenancy agreement (yet) materialised as addendum or amendment - Just the rent increase.

[darksidedog]

I have always thought the overcharging on electricity and water to renters of rooms and condos wrong. Many times, the people using some of these lower end places are at the bottom of the wage earning scale. They cant afford a place with their own meter, so it felt to me like the poor just being robbed.

I was happy to hear the practice of overcharging was being outlawed, though I, like pretty much everyone else, expects the landlords to come out with a few dirty tricks to maintain their revenue flowing.

[ChiangMaiLightning2143]

Buy your own condo
Sorted.

[InMyShadow]

1 minute ago, ChiangMaiLightning2143 said:

Buy your own condo
Sorted.

+1

 

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

OP, you didn't actually say, how much was your latest rent before this increase, and how much now after the increase?

 

You could lodge a complaint with the OCPB, and they had an article the other day "promising" to not allow sneaky landlords to pull these kinds of scams.  But obviously, filing an OCPB complaint won't do wonders for your relationship with your landlord, whatever that is.

 

By the way, if you have an actual rental agreement/lease for a particular time period that's still valid, and it specifies a fixed monthly rental rate, the landlord can't legally change that arbitrarily during the duration of the agreement.

 

 

Edited April 27, 2018 by TallGuyJohninBKK

[observer90210]

Lawmakers should also look into medium or large scale developpments.

 

The developpers (both either Thais or foreigners) or residential estate owners, tend to overcharge electricity and water to homeowners who have purchased their homes either on leasehold or freehold.

 

Some unscrupulous developpers also overcharge on monthly maintenance fees that are much higher above then the labour costs involved.

 

Obviously all are not cheats but the law should give clear guidelines to avoid any temptations to make money at the expense of homeowners.

Edited April 27, 2018 by observer90210

[HiSoLowSoNoSo]

52 minutes ago, spambot said:

Yes

If you got a contract the owner can legally not increase the rent that is stated in the contract during the contract period, and he can also not charge extra for the electric with this new law (but how this works out in reality with Thai landlords is another matter ) 

[jackdd]

What did you expect would happen? I said that this would happen in another thread already.

Before you paid let's say 10k rent and 3k electricity. He charged you double the government fee so got effectively 11.5k THB for his room

Now he can charge you only 1.8k (1.5k government + 20%) for electricity, so his effective income for this room is 10.3k THB

Did you think he will just give you a lower rent and accept less income? Of course he increases your rent, and that's what all apartments will do (unless the rent before was too high and they hope to attract more tenants with the new lower rent)

 

That he tries to cheat you by charging you a higher rent than stated in your contract is of course wrong of him.

[spambot]

32 minutes ago, TallGuyJohninBKK said:

OP, you didn't actually say, how much was your latest rent before this increase, and how much now after the increase?

 

You could lodge a complaint with the OCPB, and they had an article the other day "promising" to not allow sneaky landlords to pull these kinds of scams.  But obviously, filing an OCPB complaint won't do wonders for your relationship with your landlord, whatever that is.

 

By the way, if you have an actual rental agreement/lease for a particular time period that's still valid, and it specifies a fixed monthly rental rate, the landlord can't legally change that arbitrarily during the duration of the agreement.

 

 

Yup - Both points valid and yes I have thought about both (here is the site to do this) and  know I could logically say to the owner landlord - Hey you can not do that, look at this  legal document which is my tenancy agreement - But  then in  the real world - Owner is ex high ranking police officer - A OCPB complaint will probably never be rigorous investigated.  Also if the other 74 apartments are not kicking up a fuss and so the way to sort this is to just get rid of the troublemaker.

 

I think since he put the rent up retrospectively he can also claim  Basically April occurs before May - So the tenant was paying the higher rent in April - The new introduction for electricity rate change has been implemented May 1st - so we didn't change the rent on the same month - He was already on an increased rent previous to this..... or some such other argument will work and will be difficult to prove in any such complaint.

[KhunBENQ]

2 hours ago, InMyShadow said:

What did you expect? You really thought a thai landlord is going to take a hit to the wallet?

What I expected:

rental rates will go up and be more transparent/better comparable.

 

Up to now: advertise low rental rate, cash in on arbitrary inflated utility rates.

 

Edited April 27, 2018 by KhunBENQ

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

4 hours ago, spambot said:

Yup - Both points valid and yes I have thought about both (here is the site to do this) and  know I could logically say to the owner landlord - Hey you can not do that, look at this  legal document which is my tenancy agreement

So once again you didn't answer:

 

How much was the actual rent hike your landlord passed along, beyond what you were already paying?

 

and

 

Do you or don't you have a more than month to month lease agreement for your unit that specifies a specific monthly rent?  If you're within the term of such a longer term agreement, it would be illegal for the landlord to raise your rent outside the provisions of that agreement.

 

[Crossy]

Some off topic bickering posts have been removed.

 

I expect we will hear more similar stories, either here or in the media. Landlords don't like taking a hit in the bottom line.

 

But I agree with KhunBENQ, once the ruckus has settled things will be more transparent.

[helloagain]

Its called thainess. Just walk away and find another place to stay.

[jacko45k]

14 hours ago, spambot said:

It just got worse - few minutes ago I was presented with April 2018 statement - They backdated the Rent increase - And Yup  it was only yesterday that I got sight of a handwritten note shown to me - And no change to my tenancy agreement (yet) materialised as addendum or amendment - Just the rent increase.

Isn't the rent fixed in the rental agreement and does the contract allow them to  increase it during the term or retroactively?

 

Obviously someone doesn't want to lose income and is being disingenuous in that regard. Rather insulting to one's intelligence too!

[Crossy]

Our OP has three choices:-

1. Suck up and accept the rent increase (obviously depends on any overall change in costs with the reduced electricity rate and how much he likes the current place).
2. Find somewhere else and move.
3. Go to the authorities, which will likely lead to 2. anyway as the landlord is now miffed.

 

 

[mstevens]

Hate to say it but when I read of these new rental regulations coming in to force I immediately thought that the easiest way for landlords to recover their "losses" would be to increase rents.  I have two friends who have reported this happening already and doubtless there are many, many more.

[notmyself]

3 minutes ago, mstevens said:

Hate to say it but when I read of these new rental regulations coming in to force I immediately thought that the easiest way for landlords to recover their "losses" would be to increase rents.  I have two friends who have reported this happening already and doubtless there are many, many more.

 

Yep. Some people are going to get huge rent increases because of the loss of money being scalped by way of their electricity bill. My monthly is around 450 and know a few people who would basically use similar amount and theirs is around the 3k mark,

 

 

 

[timewilltell]

And here is why renting is not the panacea so many people hype it up to be.  The laws here are a joke and especially those involving the property sector.  There is no protection in reality - just the veneer of laws pretending to do that.  I hate cheats with a passion so I would refuse the new rent, file a formal complaint and move.  Screw ém

[LoZth]

Good Morning Folks.

 

This is not just a Thai thing charging over the odds for electricity.

 

I lived many years in a seaside town in England, all the apartments had their own (landlords) coin meter fitted.

 

Plus the rent went up according to the season, usually at Easter until the end of Sept.

 

I'm not saying where I was but here's a clue, the slogan for the town was

 

******** Is So Bracing.

 

(which in winter equated to is b****y COLD!

 

;-)

 

 

[Laza 45]

I was renting a place a few years ago. When we moved in it was a dump.  I cleaned it up and washed down the walls and did a little painting.. it came up ok.  The landlady saw it and immediately said she was putting the rent up!...My wife said 'you put the rent up we move out tomorrow'.. No more said... 

[AsiaHand]

Only pay what your contract says,unless you are ilegaly renting there ,then you are screwed mate.

[Dazinoz]

How does the condo block owners make money from the electricity? A friend was staying at a largish condo in Chiang Mai and each month a pile of PEA bills were left on the office counter and collected by each individual condo tenant and paid by them. Does the PEA pay the condo block owners?

[jackdd]

55 minutes ago, timewilltell said:

And here is why renting is not the panacea so many people hype it up to be.  The laws here are a joke and especially those involving the property sector.  There is no protection in reality - just the veneer of laws pretending to do that.  I hate cheats with a passion so I would refuse the new rent, file a formal complaint and move.  Screw ém

Depends on how attached you are with your place. If you rent a big house and have it stuffed with your own furniture and many other things moving is of course difficult.

But for example myself, and probably many others here: My stuff fits in my luggage and my backpack, if i wanted to i would be ready to move in one hour. If my landlord would increase the rent and it would be more than i'm willing to pay i would just move out.

 

Just now, Dazinoz said:

How does the condo block owners make money from the electricity? A friend was staying at a largish condo in Chiang Mai and each month a pile of PEA bills were left on the office counter and collected by each individual condo tenant and paid by them. Does the PEA pay the condo block owners?

They don't make extra money from electricity.