Landlady refusing to give 130,000 baht deposit back after moving out-what can I do?

[PGSan]

12 minutes ago, katatonic said:

Fortunately the law now protects against unscrupulous landlords.

Please can you tell us which law this is? 

[PGSan]

On 1/15/2021 at 9:44 AM, seancbk said:

You won't get more than 1 decent sized bedroom for 20K a month.   

You can where I am.

[jomtienisgood]

5 minutes ago, PGSan said:

Please can you tell us which law this is? 

Murphy's Law..

[Pilotman]

As I have written previously, you need to forget about any deposit that you pay.  Divide that deposit amount by the number of months that you are in the rented property and look upon that as the actual realistic rent. If you get some thing back then good, but often you will not. From what I can tell, anecdotally,  farang owners will normally be quite straight with you,  but far too many Thai owners are no more than thieves, as they know that you have no real recourse in law. Forget it and move on. 

[PGSan]

On 1/15/2021 at 12:25 AM, Captor said:

mention the depth on Facebook

The what?  What is ‘the depth’ and on ...?  

[PGSan]

On 1/15/2021 at 12:40 AM, richard_smith237 said:

130,000 baht - not uncommon at all. 

Where?  

[FritsSikkink]

28 minutes ago, Pilotman said:

as they know that you have no real recourse in law. Forget it and move on. 

Nonsense

[ChipButty]

38 minutes ago, Pilotman said:

Thai owners are no more than thieves, as they know that you have no real recourse in law. Forget it and move on. 

Thats not the case my friend I've had a couple of run in's with Thai's and got my money back, Once in BKK 2 months deposit it took me a couple of months, but I got it.

[4MyEgo]

On 1/13/2021 at 7:19 PM, mangyH2obuffalo said:

She simply says that she doesn't have the money.

 

I don't know the legal aspects of you getting your bond back here, but as it appears Thailand doesn't have an independent bond board to hold your money and release it when the landlord signs off on it, if not then a tribunal can decide whether she has grounds to stop the board releasing it to you, that is the way a bond should be held.

 

The above said, I would suggest anyone renting, hold off on paying rent equal to the bond amount before they vacate, if the owner gets upset, that's their problem, sometimes you have to protect yourself best you can.

 

Hope it works out for you, low act on her side. The article in the link below might assist, it says Consumer Complaints Board, might be a start, or the people in the article might be able to assist ?

https://www.khaosodenglish.com/featured/2018/05/16/thai-law-landlord-not-playing-by-new-rules-heres-what-to-do/

[Pilotman]

59 minutes ago, ChipButty said:

Thats not the case my friend I've had a couple of run in's with Thai's and got my money back, Once in BKK 2 months deposit it took me a couple of months, but I got it.

'a couple of run ins' rather proves my point doesn't it?

[Pilotman]

1 hour ago, FritsSikkink said:

Nonsense

well the OP will find out for himself won't he.

[FritsSikkink]

16 hours ago, Pilotman said:

well the OP will find out for himself won't he.

One case doesn't make a general rule.

[mstevens]

On 1/16/2021 at 8:38 PM, Pilotman said:

As I have written previously, you need to forget about any deposit that you pay.  Divide that deposit amount by the number of months that you are in the rented property and look upon that as the actual realistic rent. If you get some thing back then good, but often you will not. From what I can tell, anecdotally,  farang owners will normally be quite straight with you,  but far too many Thai owners are no more than thieves, as they know that you have no real recourse in law. Forget it and move on. 

 

I stayed in 6 different places in Bangkok, ranging from 10,000 - 25,000 baht per month - all good, solid, mid-range places. Three were apartment buildings i.e. the one building was owned and administered by the same people, and three condos which were each individually owned - two by Thais, one by an American. In every case I got my deposit back in full when I left. In the case of one of the condos I had to wait a few days for the last power bill but they refunded all but 5,000 baht and then gave me the balance (about 3,000 baht from memory) when the final power bill arrived and the final tally was done.

 

One anecdote. The worst landlord I had in Bangkok was the one foreigner - an American. He wasn't "bad" per se, but he was nosy and wanted to come and inspect the condo every few months. I kept the place very clean and he should have seen that after the first visit or two but no, he insisted on stopping by every few months. No problem with any of the Thai landlords - all were great. They ranged from an old lady to a young guy who I think managed his family's numerous property holdings.

 

Some Thai landlords are rotten as you read on here.....but my experience was that all of those I dealt with were actually pretty good!

 

[XBroker]

On 1/13/2021 at 2:05 AM, mangyH2obuffalo said:

 It was a nice apartment arranged by my wife's employer.

Um.. I'm no expert, but I did sleep at a holiday inn last night. Contact the proper person at the wife's employer. They provide bulk customers to the agency that set her up w/ this. You'll have your money back in no time. .. pretty sure.. ????

[arick]

Under the 2018 tenant law your deposit should of been returned within 7 days 

 

[thonglorjimmy]

On 1/16/2021 at 2:38 PM, Pilotman said:

As I have written previously, you need to forget about any deposit that you pay.  Divide that deposit amount by the number of months that you are in the rented property and look upon that as the actual realistic rent. If you get some thing back then good, but often you will not. From what I can tell, anecdotally,  farang owners will normally be quite straight with you,  but far too many Thai owners are no more than thieves, as they know that you have no real recourse in law. Forget it and move on. 

 

You may well have written previously that you need to forget about any deposit, and that may well have been your personal experience, but I certainly isn't mine.

 

I've rented three condos in Bangkok and a house in Hua Hin, three from Thais and one from a European, in each case our deposits were returned promptly when we moved and without question, on the last occasion the Thai owner instigated a bank transfer on the spot.

 

I note that you're only citing anecdotal evidence, so no first hand knowledge then, just rumours?

[actonion]

She's spent the money....... Iike the Thai guy who smashed into back of my pick up truck   with no Insurance,  i took him to court  he pleaded,  " I have no money,   and no job"..i ended up  paying for my own truck to be fixed.... 65.000baht, ....That was not the first time this has happened too ...

[petermik]

On 1/16/2021 at 7:31 AM, PGSan said:

Please can you tell us which law this is? 

 

On 1/16/2021 at 7:33 AM, jomtienisgood said:

Murphy's Law..

And as a last resort Sods Law usually does the trick...

[ChipButty]

1 hour ago, actonion said:

She's spent the money....... Iike the Thai guy who smashed into back of my pick up truck   with no Insurance,  i took him to court  he pleaded,  " I have no money,   and no job"..i ended up  paying for my own truck to be fixed.... 65.000baht, ....That was not the first time this has happened too ...

Big problem in Thailand no insurance it happened to me mine 100k and he did a runner, he was seen so we was able to track him down and his family paid, 

[London Boy]

It happened to me just recently in August 2020. Despite living at the condo for 4 years I just knew I wouldn't get my deposit (฿30,000  2 months rent) due to the landlady's attitude to money i.e she just wouldnt pay for ny maintence. I spoke to a lawyer friend before I moved out and he told me that I was unlikely to get my depsoit back, unless I took her to court. So I refused to pay the last month rent and last two months electricty bill. She got really nasty and got a police order to evict me after 18 days of no rent. I had already bought my own place by then so it didnt bother me, and I moved into an AIRBNB across the road, temporarily until my new place was ready. But It did get me alot of satisfaction that I didnt let her just steal my depsoit without some comeback. The last three days living there I just left the a/c on constantly. A bit immature I know, but you reap what you sow

[Pilotman]

19 minutes ago, London Boy said:

It happened to me just recently in August 2020. Despite living at the condo for 4 years I just knew I wouldn't get my deposit (฿30,000  2 months rent) due to the landlady's attitude to money i.e she just wouldnt pay for ny maintence. I spoke to a lawyer friend before I moved out and he told me that I was unlikely to get my depsoit back, unless I took her to court. So I refused to pay the last month rent and last two months electricty bill. She got really nasty and got a police order to evict me after 18 days of no rent. I had already bought my own place by then so it didnt bother me, and I moved into an AIRBNB across the road, temporarily until my new place was ready. But It did get me alot of satisfaction that I didnt let her just steal my depsoit without some comeback. The last three days living there I just left the a/c on constantly. A bit immature I know, but you reap what you sow

I got metaphorically shouted down on here when I suggested that this was common occurrence, and it most certainly is.  Many Thai landlords are no better than thieves, out to make easy money for little effort. 

[London Boy]

5 minutes ago, Pilotman said:

I got metaphorically shouted down on here when I suggested that this was common occurrence, and it most certainly is.  Many Thai landlords are no better that thieves, out to make easy money for little effort. 

I couldn't agree more. I know the outcome and so took action to protect myself. I still lost 15,000 but better then 30,000 and glad I wasnt a victim of her greed by naively trying to take some moral high ground

[moontang]

I have even refused to pay hotel deposits, on rooms booked through Agoda.  Yesterday, in fact.  Well known hotel on Sukhumvit.. told me 1000...i told them nothing in the confirmation stated that, nothing on the voucher.  Offered my visa card that I paid for the room with.. nope (they know it is much harder to scam a US Visa cardholder).  Then I said, I would simply take a refund, and not check in.  Of course not... and it is that exact refusal to give a refund that makes me refuse to give them a deposit. I was 10 seconds from calling 1155 for the first time in 23 years a few weeks ago at a hotel in HH.  Can be difficult to tell when they are playing dumb, because they act dumb so frequently, but I did get my 500 back, and will never return to their thriving hotel running at 5% occupancy. But yesterday, was even  more annoying, and the koont made some snide remark about me not having money.  I told her I had plenty, and one reason was because I didn't give it to liars and thieves. 

[CharlieH]

Reported post removed.

[ChipButty]

Did the guy get his money back?

[Maliproto]

On 1/18/2021 at 9:18 AM, actonion said:

 Iike the Thai guy who smashed into back of my pick up truck   with no Insurance,  i took him to court  he pleaded,  " I have no money,   and no job"..i ended up  paying for my own truck to be fixed.... 65.000baht, 

You had to pay B65k, didn't you have insurance either?

[pixelaoffy]

Never rent from private owned owners. rent from serviced apartments who deal with many tenants on a regular basis When you are screwed this way you have to hire a lawyer and then you get screwed again. No rights for tenants in Thailand

[pixelaoffy]

On 1/31/2021 at 1:11 PM, moontang said:

I have even refused to pay hotel deposits, on rooms booked through Agoda.  Yesterday, in fact.  Well known hotel on Sukhumvit.. told me 1000...i told them nothing in the confirmation stated that, nothing on the voucher.  Offered my visa card that I paid for the room with.. nope (they know it is much harder to scam a US Visa cardholder).  Then I said, I would simply take a refund, and not check in.  Of course not... and it is that exact refusal to give a refund that makes me refuse to give them a deposit. I was 10 seconds from calling 1155 for the first time in 23 years a few weeks ago at a hotel in HH.  Can be difficult to tell when they are playing dumb, because they act dumb so frequently, but I did get my 500 back, and will never return to their thriving hotel running at 5% occupancy. But yesterday, was even  more annoying, and the koont made some snide remark about me not having money.  I told her I had plenty, and one reason was because I didn't give it to liars and thieves. 

Well the fact is these hotels have been caught scamming the government on hand-outs for occupancy scheme it had. Damn sure they will try it on with tourists.. candy from a baby 

[moontang]

12 hours ago, pixelaoffy said:

Never rent from private owned owners. rent from serviced apartments who deal with many tenants on a regular basis When you are screwed this way you have to hire a lawyer and then you get screwed again. No rights for tenants in Thailand

Quite a bit of truth to that, but I hate getti g screwed on much needed electric. The reputable serviced apartments do settle up quickly, though. 

[Thainess]

Short answer: NOTHING. You should consider any money you put down as a deposit on a rental in Thailand to be part of the rent price and budget it accordingly.