10 years with no contact from my landlady

[OneMoreFarang]

10 hours ago, seancbk said:

 

I've got bank records to show I've paid direct to her account.

I kind of wish I hadn't paid the rent already this month.

Maybe tell the bank they should see what you paid already as a down payment for when you want to buy that place. ???? 

[1FinickyOne]

11 hours ago, seancbk said:

 

One of my friends is interested in buying it, so I could keep living here.   Will try calling the bank tomorrow.

absolutely - get in touch w/the bank as soon as possible... you may get a deal?? try and get an idea of going prices first... but be prepared to act quickly. 

[bojo]

It's really refreshing to read here about some tenants' experiences with obviously really decent and fair landlords who over quite long periods of time haven't incresed rents.............A far cry from what I have witnessed in Samui..................

[seancbk]

9 hours ago, soi3eddie said:

It's a shame that the OP will lose his home and a place that he must like. Also, he will lose his deposit too as nobody will refund that to him. If OP really likes the place (and has the means and will to buy) then he could try to negotiate with the bank. Try to keep it private from any others in your building or they may decide to try and buy it if they sense a bargain. I don't see the bank giving it away at under "market" value but you could always try to work out a deal.  Worth a try.

 

 

Thanks.  I've got 3 options that I am working on. 

a) Move into unit exactly the same on the same floor.  Which entails minimal hassle, no  change in rent (I could ask for a cheap rate because of covid but the rent is cheap enough and I'd like to start with a good relationship with the new owner). 

b) Move to a different floor higher up into a two room unit with a balcony and 30% more space.  Higher rent but I am trying to get a covid discount and the units I looked at have obviously been empty a while so I am hopeful they might take a lower rate, especially when the management office tell them I've been a tenant 10 years.  Of course its a condo so each owner is different.  

c) By some miracle things work in my favour and my friend is able to purchase the unit.  This is the least likely especially with the very short time frame involved.  But we'll see. 

Option (a) will have the least impact on my time or finances and be really no change aside from the view from my kitchen (no longer the pool so no looking at girls in bikinis lol! but it will still be a nice garden view).     Option (b) is my preferred for several reasons although it will have a moderate hit on my finances, which I am still not sure is a good idea.  The room is really nice and I'd be high up so I'd have a nice view. Plus the balcony would be nice for sitting in the evening or the morning with a coffee and handy for drying clothes too.  And option (c) as I said, least impact, no change but not likely imho.

 

 

[seancbk]

2 hours ago, scubascuba3 said:

Are you sure the bank took her to court and not the juristic office?

 

Yes the documents refer to the bank seizing the property for non payment of mortgage.  Also the juristic office were unaware of the judgement. 

 

[seancbk]

2 hours ago, OneMoreFarang said:

Maybe tell the bank they should see what you paid already as a down payment for when you want to buy that place. ???? 

 

Almost 1 million baht so far.   But I highly doubt they'd take that into consideration.  Would be nice if they did ????

 

[scubascuba3]

4 hours ago, seancbk said:

 

Yes the documents refer to the bank seizing the property for non payment of mortgage.  Also the juristic office were unaware of the judgement. 

 

Juristic sounds a bit sleepy, they should have sought court action years ago if in arrears for years

[Inala]

19 hours ago, seancbk said:

 

Yes, over the years my friends have joked that she must be dead or she would complain when I paid the rent late.  
They suggested not paying and seeing how long before she turned up, but I would just rather not see her. 

Deposit was 16,000 THB and rent is 8000.   35 sq/m studio room.  

 

Can't address your actual question, but what caught my eye was that you've lived in a 35sq m room for 10 years? Crikey. My gf's sister rents out a 35sq m condo in BKK and whenever we've gone to help her clean it, it always strikes me as so small!  That seems a very basic/sparse existence.....sometimes I wish I could live like that, I'd be a rich man by now. But each to their own.

[Shadychris]

19 hours ago, seancbk said:

 

Yes, over the years my friends have joked that she must be dead or she would complain when I paid the rent late.  
They suggested not paying and seeing how long before she turned up, but I would just rather not see her. 

Deposit was 16,000 THB and rent is 8000.   35 sq/m studio room.  

 

Well as it seems you will almost certainly have to move out fairly soon just stop paying rent now - I guess it may take a couple of months for the bank to evict you - so not paying rent for that period will recover the amount of the deposit.

[ukrules]

19 hours ago, seancbk said:

Obviously not getting the original deposit back off her, although after 10 years that is no big deal.

 

For sure you can stop paying rent until the day they throw you out as well.

 

[seancbk]

6 minutes ago, Inala said:

 

Can't address your actual question, but what caught my eye was that you've lived in a 35sq m room for 10 years? Crikey. My gf's sister rents out a 35sq m condo in BKK and whenever we've gone to help her clean it, it always strikes me as so small!  That seems a very basic/sparse existence.....sometimes I wish I could live like that, I'd be a rich man by now. But each to their own.

 

I lived in Hong Kong for 35 years where a 2 bedroom apartment would be about 35 sq/m and cost around 50,000 THB per month.   Admittedly I didn't always live in such small places (for example as a kid I lived in a house with the family) but I did for quite a few years.

When I first came to Bangkok I rented a 150 sq/m 40,000 THB place.  I realised after a while that I wasn't having many parties or visitors so there was noone to impress by having all that unused space. 

I ran into financial difficulties so moved into a studio.   Then when my situation improved and I decided to move to a nicer building I decided to that my current studio would still be ok (it was a bit bigger).  

I am upgrading now to a bigger room, but only because there are no nice studios currently available where I am, and I don't want to change location.  The location of my current building is perfect for me. 

I'm also single so I don't have to worry about another person getting under my feet or wanting to watch Thai TV, eat stinky food etc.   My space is my own and I've got all the creature comforts I need.   

[seancbk]

8 minutes ago, Shadychris said:

 

Well as it seems you will almost certainly have to move out fairly soon just stop paying rent now - I guess it may take a couple of months for the bank to evict you - so not paying rent for that period will recover the amount of the deposit.

 

The mother of one of my Thai friends suggested that to me, she said until the entire process is complete I can stay rent free.  However, I want to avoid any hassle so I will just move out to a different unit.  

[wombat]

curious asks....how much was your rent?

[Inala]

Just now, wombat said:

curious asks....how much was your rent?

 

8000/month. He listed it earlier.

[seancbk]

Just now, wombat said:

curious asks....how much was your rent?

 

8000 THB per month
Electric under 1000 
Internet 750
 

[seancbk]

Here is part of the view from my kitchen window 



 

[Captain Monday]

18 hours ago, digbeth said:

If you have rental contract, they can't evict you so easily if you had something in the clause of the original contract about renewing each year automatically, but the lease should be registered at the land office, even without the contract, if they decide to evict you legally, they'd have to post notice and take you to court, long time, if you have trouble finding new place or willing to negotiate, they probably won't mind giving you a few months 

 

Whoever bought it will also be on the hook for the management fees too

The condo fees are due to transfer ownership.

 

 Can a renter have a valid lease with a deceased person?

 

My building is slow to deal with these and abandoned cars for some reason. Otherwise very professional management, the units get bought in parcels by poo yai types and resold.

 

The only time i saw an eviction it was a deadbeat farnung. Police dumped his goods in the parking lot,

I don't think there was any "legal" process.

 

 

[Inala]

40 minutes ago, seancbk said:

Here is part of the view from my kitchen window 



 

 Nice view which can help make your space seem to stretch outdoors, I can see now why you've stayed there.

[Captain Monday]

1 hour ago, ukrules said:

 

For sure you can stop paying rent until the day they throw you out as well.

 

How would that be? If there is a valid tenancy with the deceased estate nothing says  you can live rent free!  An 1 year lease that automatically renews.

[digbeth]

7 minutes ago, Captain Monday said:

The condo fees are due to transfer ownership.

 

 Can a renter have a valid lease with a deceased person?

 

My building is slow to deal with these and abandoned cars for some reason. Otherwise very professional management, the units get bought in parcels by poo yai types and resold.

 

The only time i saw an eviction it was a deadbeat farnung. Police dumped his goods in the parking lot,

I don't think there was any "legal" process.

 

Paying the local police to throw out someone is probably cheaper and definitely less time consuming to hire a lawyer and take them to court.

 

Thailand has squatter's rights on the book as well, and in this case such law would be protecting the renter's rights, it can be difficult to evict someone that knows their rights and often lead to use of 'mysterious forces' rather than legal process. 

[Captain Monday]

2 minutes ago, digbeth said:

 

Paying the local police to throw out someone is probably cheaper and definitely less time consuming to hire a lawyer and take them to court.

 

Thailand has squatter's rights on the book as well, and in this case such law would be protecting the renter's rights, it can be difficult to evict someone that knows their rights and often lead to use of 'mysterious forces' rather than legal process. 

What would you do if a foreigner rented your condo. After 3 or 4 months he maid no payments, no rent, no electric, no condo fee. He apparently had enough money to go out at night riding in tuktuks across town to drink at guesthouses and pulling women?

[natway09]

If the bank does decide to sell it cheap, you can bet that someone on the Juristic Committee or staff will keep an eye on it & pick it up quickly

[Jai Dee]

An off-topic troll post and a reply have been removed.

[GrandPapillon]

the bank will probably have a reserve price for the property and it won't be cheap,

 

it's only cheap when someone in the bank is going to buy it ????

[JWRC]

Some Thai friends of mine inherited a lovely 3 bedroom house from a family member who had passed on. They rented it to a foreigner about 18 years ago for 2,000 baht a month. the same tenant is still there and the rent hasn't gone up. I have suggested to my friends that they increase the rent a bit as the cost of living has changed a great deal in 18 years, but they won't do it, and they can't explain to me why they won't, they say when this tenant moves out they will increase the rent for the new tenant.

[Satcommlee]

32 minutes ago, GrandPapillon said:

the bank will probably have a reserve price for the property and it won't be cheap,

 

it's only cheap when someone in the bank is going to buy it ????

Spot on!

[swm59nj]

That condo must be in extremely good shape.  No type of repairs had to be done in ten years.  Even basic cleaning of the air conditioning twice a year. Unless you were responsible for everything 

[seancbk]

1 hour ago, Inala said:

 Nice view which can help make your space seem to stretch outdoors, I can see now why you've stayed there.

 

Yes and the outside is very close.  So going to sit in the sun or have a swim whenever I felt like it was also very easy. 

[seancbk]

6 minutes ago, swm59nj said:

That condo must be in extremely good shape.  No type of repairs had to be done in ten years.  Even basic cleaning of the air conditioning twice a year. Unless you were responsible for everything 

 

I paid for all repairs and maintenance.   Don't see the need to bother my landlord unless its something major like needing a new AC unit (which the room could use as the remote no longer works). 

 

[DefaultName]

Strange to just disappear.  I'd wonder if she had some serious trouble or died.