Rental deposit and electricity rates

[scrumba]

I recall reading about a change in the law which applied to owners of 5 or more rental units which limited deposits to the equivalent of one months rent and required utility bills to charge the government rate. Was I hallucinating?

[poanoi]

that was done, but the landlords will just change conditions on the fly, for example i told my landlord of the new law, he said he dont care, he could re-write the contract for me if i wanted,

adding 2k on the bill, no more free internet and no more free room cleaning, in exchange for government rate electric as opposed to his 'service charge'

[tropo]

I have not been offered a refund yet. It's never going to happen. It's the 5 units or more nonsense that makes this new law unworkable. 

[The Fat Controller]

My wife takes care of all this stuff for our (more than 5) rooms.

 

However, not a single landlord in our area has changed the way they operate and not a single current or prospective tenant has ever queried her on the new requirements.

 

As a landlord, only having one month's deposit does not cover you if someone decides to do a runner and leaves you with damage and/or a large electric/water bill.

 

I know there are few bad apples in the business, but here all taxes are paid and we are fair and honest with our customers.

 

In the last 4 years we have only had one bad renter who whinged about the amount we charged for cleaning his room when he left, he threatened to call the local government, but eventually accepted his bill.

 

He was a Thai who tought English, tried to pinch our room fan and leave his small one and left his room covered in talcum powder, don't think he was impressed when I told him I had seen pigs who kept their accommodation cleaner.

[poanoi]

On 10/28/2018 at 9:46 PM, The Fat Controller said:

My wife takes care of all this stuff for our (more than 5) rooms.

 

However, not a single landlord in our area has changed the way they operate and not a single current or prospective tenant has ever queried her on the new requirements.

 

As a landlord, only having one month's deposit does not cover you if someone decides to do a runner and leaves you with damage and/or a large electric/water bill.

 

I know there are few bad apples in the business, but here all taxes are paid and we are fair and honest with our customers.

 

In the last 4 years we have only had one bad renter who whinged about the amount we charged for cleaning his room when he left, he threatened to call the local government, but eventually accepted his bill.

 

He was a Thai who tought English, tried to pinch our room fan and leave his small one and left his room covered in talcum powder, don't think he was impressed when I told him I had seen pigs who kept their accommodation cleaner.

i can only recall one landlord, coincidentally the one i stay at now and keep coming back to, that didnt steal all or part of my deposit.

actually i would find a place with better internet if it wasnt for my experience with landlords in LOS.

how much did you charge the 'whinging' customer for cleaning out the room of all that powder ?

Edited November 1, 2018 by poanoi

[The Fat Controller]

I cannot remember exactly what he was charged for the cleaning, probably 300-500 baht, but the fact that he also tried to pinch our big fan seriously annoyed my wife.

 

We have had 4 checkouts in the last 2 days, 2 got full deposits back, 1 forfeited all their deposit because they only gave us 2 days notice, not the required calendar month.

 

The last one gave notice, but did a runner whilst we were out and before we could check the room, they knew they were unlikely to get much back as they left a real mess and had caused some damage to the fan. It will probably take 4 hours to clean up. Absolute pigs !

[tropo]

I have no sympathy at all for landlords and their problems...

 

That's life in this business. Sometimes the tenants get ripped off, sometimes its the landlord. In Thailand, due to no governmental control or 3rd party escrow of rental deposits, the landlord holds most of the cards. When it's a foreigner wanting his deposit back, he's even more likely to be screwed due to time constraints. It's not like it's cost effective to book a hotel and wait/hope/pray for it to be returned before he flies out of the country. Any legal avenues are totally off the cards. I have a 60k deposit in the hands of my landlord. Yikes!!!

 

There are always going to be human-pigs making filthy messes. There's no point complaining about it in your business. That's what deposits are for. It goes both ways... I got screwed for a 3000 baht cleaning fee in my last place that was clean when I left... and I'd been a good tenant for over 6 f*** years (paid nearly 2 million in rent). Yes, landlords can be real swine too. I didn't bother doing any extra cleaning because I figured he's going to charge me anyway. What can you do? They hold the money and make the rules. Any decent landlord would not have charged a cleaning fee after paying rent for over 6 years, even if it was not up to the landlord's standards. In my case, the swine was a greedy expat landlord.