do we take a security deposit?

[STD Warehouse]

If my wife rents a house she owns for 1 year and they pay upfront, then she takes a security deposit of say 10k or 20k in case of damage etc.

 

If its 2 years and they pay upfront in full for the 2 years, then I agree again she should take a security deposit.

 

But if she rented for 30 years, and they paid upfront for 30 years, would she still take a security deposit of say 10k, and assuming no damage at any stage, give that security deposit back in 30 years time?

 

And if no, not for 30 years, then where is the cut off? Assuming they always pay upfront, 25 years yes/no? 10 years yes no? 3 years yes/no?

[Peterw42]

There are no hard and fast rules, whatever your wife is comfortable with.

Its probably a good idea to keep a lease to a smaller manageable time-frame, 1 year etc and renew each year, then you can put the rent up, throw them out, renegotiate each year if the need arises. To much can happen over a 30 year period.

Also, It would maybe come down to what are the terms of the lease. Some Thai leases the tenant is responsible for repairs, hotwater, airconn, pumps etc, then you may need a smaller deposit.

[scorecard]

I've rented 2 properties mainly to Farang man and Thai wife, but also to farang husband and wife. In my experience farang husband and wife were the worst tenants.

 

Every time I had to repair substantial damage.

 

My view is as follows:

 

- Must be a security deposit, must be at least 10,000Baht but at least 20,000 if the property is 'luxury'.

 

- Must be a clause indicating the owner will, with the prospective tenant present take numerous photos of every aspect of the outside and inside of the house, garden, pool ?, etc., have them printed quickly and request prospective tenant to sign and date all copies, owner signs also. Tenant gets one set of photos

 

- Must be a clause indicating that the owner will do a total inspection every 6 months and owner must give 48 hours notice.

 

- On inspection if estimated repairs to damage is more than 5,000Baht the owner has the right to immediately remove the tenants with no refund of any future rent paid.

 

Tough? Yes, but I had too many bad experiences. 

[STD Warehouse]

@scorecard So if you leased a basic property for 10 years and the tenant paid upfront in full, you would take a 10k deposit and give it back in 10 years?

 

@Peterw42 Assuming you cant keep the lease short for what ever reason, and the tenent had to pay upfront in full, would you take a deposit of 10k and give it back in 10 years? what about 5 years? 3 years?

[watcharacters]

1 hour ago, scorecard said:

I've rented 2 properties mainly to Farang man and Thai wife, but also to farang husband and wife. In my experience farang husband and wife were the worst tenants.

 

Every time I had to repair substantial damage.

 

My view is as follows:

 

- Must be a security deposit, must be at least 10,000Baht but at least 20,000 if the property is 'luxury'.

 

- Must be a clause indicating the owner will, with the prospective tenant present take numerous photos of every aspect of the outside and inside of the house, garden, pool ?, etc., have them printed quickly and request prospective tenant to sign and date all copies, owner signs also. Tenant gets one set of photos

 

- Must be a clause indicating that the owner will do a total inspection every 6 months and owner must give 48 hours notice.

 

- On inspection if estimated repairs to damage is more than 5,000Baht the owner has the right to immediately remove the tenants with no refund of any future rent paid.

 

Tough? Yes, but I had too many bad experiences. 

 

I don't  see any mention of reasonable "wear and tear".     Surely after a period of time you'd not expect paint and carpet would be in the same condition it was upon moving in.

 

If an owner  felt that was unreasonable, I'd be OK just to move on and find another place to live.   

 

It's not as if there's a shortage of housing units in thailand 

[Peterw42]

19 minutes ago, STD Warehouse said:

@scorecard So if you leased a basic property for 10 years and the tenant paid upfront in full, you would take a 10k deposit and give it back in 10 years?

 

@Peterw42 Assuming you cant keep the lease short for what ever reason, and the tenent had to pay upfront in full, would you take a deposit of 10k and give it back in 10 years? what about 5 years? 3 years?

I little hard to answer as I wouldn't enter into a lease more than 1-2 years, to many variables that you would be locked into. 

If I did do a 10-20 year lease, I would maybe want some way of increasing the security deposit over time, in line with rent increase, rising cost of repairs etc.

A security deposit of 10k now may represent 1 months rent, in 10-20 years it could be 1 days rent.

 

[scorecard]

1 hour ago, STD Warehouse said:

@scorecard So if you leased a basic property for 10 years and the tenant paid upfront in full, you would take a 10k deposit and give it back in 10 years?

 

@Peterw42 Assuming you cant keep the lease short for what ever reason, and the tenent had to pay upfront in full, would you take a deposit of 10k and give it back in 10 years? what about 5 years? 3 years?

Yes I absolutely would and I do recognise that some things suffer wear and tear, e.g. after 10 years of constant use the fabric on a sofa would obviously be ready for replacement; that's wear and tear in my opinion and my expense, not the tenants responsibility.