The landlady raises the monthly rental by 500 baht for "garbage collection and common fees"

[spidermike007]

48 minutes ago, Mark1066 said:

Just to give a balanced view: The last time I rented a house in CM, my 2-year-old daughter poked holes in the insect screens. Landlord didn't seem to have noticed so I mentioned it to him and he still returned our full deposit. Not saying you aren't right about most landlords here but thought it should be mentioned that some are very nice.

Yes. There are some outstanding, honest and righteous Thais out there. Most are not landlords. LOL. But, some are. Ours is very fair. A truly kind and honest woman. 

[EricTh]

4 hours ago, BritManToo said:

I pay 250bht/year for refuse collection in MaeJo/SanSai.

Who do you pay to?

[Maybole]

In our village between Hang Dong and Sanpatong, we have to put the rubbish in a distinctive bag supplied by the Tambon. We buy a pack of 50 for ฿500. The rubbish collected weekly.

[MrBrad]

Here in San Pi Seua my cost for weekly garbage collection is ฿240 per year.  Quick figuring makes that ฿20 each month.  I pay it directly at the tessabahn office; my landlady is not involved, and that's fine for both of us. 

 

At ฿500 a month (or ฿6,000 annually) the landlord is seriously taking advantage of the potential farang renter.  Walk away.

[JimmyJ]

Walk!

 

Do not consider renting there.

 

And do not use that agent ever again - Agent is assisting/enabling.an obvious ripoff.

[FriendlyFarang]

17 hours ago, amy28 said:

Yesterday I asked the realtor about where to dump the garbage and any fees for garbage collection. Today she replied that the landlady will charge 500 baht more per month to cover "garbage collection and common fees".  

By asking them about garbage collection fees (which aren't your concern, as they should be included in the rent) you showed that you have no clue and might agree to pay extra for them. So they tried to take advantage of you and to charge you more.

As others pointed out, even if these fees were charged extra (as said, those fees should be included in the rent), they would be more like 50 baht per month, not 500.

The agent is very well aware of this, so obviously involved, maybe would get an extra cut from the owner if you agreed to it. So better don't interact with this agent anymore.

[SammyJ]

16 hours ago, sammieuk1 said:

Had 10 years in CM 500pm is the right price usually paid yearly ????

If you paid that, then you got ripped off also--the actual fees are as has been offered in other posts here--40 baht or something a month, and common fees for whatever, are built into the rent--not paid separately,--additionally, as has been suggested, check to see if electric and water are charged at govt rate or an artificial rate, often double, created by the landlord--so you could end up paying double for your air con use, etc.

[lordblackader]

They should be included in the rent payment. If you're in a private moo baan with pool and clubhouse, there will be a common fees but that is supposed to be part of your rent. Garbage fees should also be part of the rent and notably are not expensive - I live in San Sai just near the Doi Saket border and it costs us 300 baht for six months of garbage collection. You buy stickers from the local tambon office and put them on garbage bags to be collected.  

[steven100]

never had to pay extra for garbage collection .....    Normally the rent is fixed at xx,000 baht/month and that's it ....   you pay electric either 4 baht PEA or 7 baht condo/hotel + water 50-100 baht. 

this sounds like garbage to me ...

[WinnieTheKhwai]

19 hours ago, amy28 said:

Yesterday I asked the realtor about where to dump the garbage and any fees for garbage collection. Today she replied that the landlady will charge 500 baht more per month to cover "garbage collection and common fees".  

I'm frankly appalled at the 'answers' you got..

 

I'd almost apologize on behalf of what this forum has become.  Let's take a step back and make some sense out of the random chatter and general cluelessness.

 

* For monthly fees of this type, the first piece of key information that literally nobody noticed [edit: one exception above] is the difference between a house in a gated community, versus a house just in a regular village or city street. 

* For a house in the village, garbage collection fees are negligible.  HOWEVER, for a gated community, garbage collection is done by a privately contracted company, and the fee for this tends to be worked into the monthly 'common fees'  (ค่าส่วนกลาง - Kha suan klang) that also cover street maintenance and public lighting, gardening of any trees/hedges/garden areas, the security dudes at the entrance, the swimming pool, gym and sauna and whatever other costs the community has to make for upkeep and keeping things tidy.

* This fee can be quite substantial, it tends to be an amount per square wa of land that the house occupies.  We have three houses in gated communities, in one of them in the suburbs of Hang Dong the fee is 10 Baht per sq. wa per month which works out to 1000 Baht per month for a large house on 100 sq wa.  The others are in a gated community in the city which charges 35 Baht per sq. wa per month; as our houses there are much smaller (townhouses) the fee there is 700 Baht per house per month.

So as you can see from the above, all the people who wrote 'oh I just pay 50 baht' without showing any realization that not every situation is like theirs, you can ignore those posts IF the house you're renting is in a gated community.  In summary: 

* If the house you're renting is not in a gated community then the 500 Baht fee is ridiculous and you should walk. 

* If the house is in a gated community then 500 Baht is very likely the landlord's actual cost for common fees.  The only topic remaining is if you can reasonably expect those fees to be included in the rental fee already:  if I rent out a house I definitely already include them and I do mention that it's included, along with all the other things we include like WiFi and cable TV. 

So if your rent is already very reasonable and it's just a case of the landlord forgetting about the common fees and now trying to correct their oversight, then you can accept it or negotiate something else.   But if the rent is already 25K Baht or some other high amount then you can reasonably expect the common fees to be included. 

Edited September 20, 2022 by WinnieTheKhwai

[amy28]

Many thanks for the replies.

 

The house is not in a gated community. No security, no gym and no swimming pool. It's in a regular village. 

 

The rental is reasonable. If the agent had made it clear that there's extra 500 baht per month for garbage collection and common fees when showing me the house, I would definitely take the house. But they decided to raise the rental only after I asked. It makes me feel they just tried to take the opportunity to charge me extra because they figured out I have no ideas how things work in Chiang Mai. 

 

I just have a hunch It's possible there will be more unreasonable charges after I move in. 

The house has everything that I look for but I've decided to walk away. 

 

I really appreciate your advice!

 

[elektrified]

If you live in a moobaan then 500 per month sounds right, but besides garbage collection it usually includes fogging for mosquitos, gardening services in the common areas, security and so forth. It could be a little less and it could be as much as 1,000 or more if there is a pool, etc.

 

But if you live outside of a moobaan then 500 is very high. It should cost around 40 to 150 top for rubbish collection alone.

[Mark1066]

On 9/20/2022 at 10:13 AM, WinnieTheKhwai said:

I'm frankly appalled at the 'answers' you got..

 

I'd almost apologize on behalf of what this forum has become.  Let's take a step back and make some sense out of the random chatter and general cluelessness.

 

* For monthly fees of this type, the first piece of key information that literally nobody noticed [edit: one exception above] is the difference between a house in a gated community, versus a house just in a regular village or city street. 

* For a house in the village, garbage collection fees are negligible.  HOWEVER, for a gated community, garbage collection is done by a privately contracted company, and the fee for this tends to be worked into the monthly 'common fees'  (ค่าส่วนกลาง - Kha suan klang) that also cover street maintenance and public lighting, gardening of any trees/hedges/garden areas, the security dudes at the entrance, the swimming pool, gym and sauna and whatever other costs the community has to make for upkeep and keeping things tidy.

* This fee can be quite substantial, it tends to be an amount per square wa of land that the house occupies.  We have three houses in gated communities, in one of them in the suburbs of Hang Dong the fee is 10 Baht per sq. wa per month which works out to 1000 Baht per month for a large house on 100 sq wa.  The others are in a gated community in the city which charges 35 Baht per sq. wa per month; as our houses there are much smaller (townhouses) the fee there is 700 Baht per house per month.

So as you can see from the above, all the people who wrote 'oh I just pay 50 baht' without showing any realization that not every situation is like theirs, you can ignore those posts IF the house you're renting is in a gated community.  In summary: 

* If the house you're renting is not in a gated community then the 500 Baht fee is ridiculous and you should walk. 

* If the house is in a gated community then 500 Baht is very likely the landlord's actual cost for common fees.  The only topic remaining is if you can reasonably expect those fees to be included in the rental fee already:  if I rent out a house I definitely already include them and I do mention that it's included, along with all the other things we include like WiFi and cable TV. 

So if your rent is already very reasonable and it's just a case of the landlord forgetting about the common fees and now trying to correct their oversight, then you can accept it or negotiate something else.   But if the rent is already 25K Baht or some other high amount then you can reasonably expect the common fees to be included. 

I don't live in a gated community (can't stand them to be honest) but I wouldn't say I live in a village either, unless you're strictly translating the term Moo Bahn as village. I live in the Amphur Muang, a few kilometres from the moat and pay about 60 baht a month. I think it used to be a gated community when it was built actually but that was about 20 years ago and it certainly isn't now.

[1FinickyOne]

It sort of sounds like by asking, you invited the response and the landlady is taking advantage... if you really like the place just say that is too much and you will keep looking, see if they change their mind... 

 

the other factors are if your rent is long term or seasonal?? reasonable or not?

special or not?

Edited October 17, 2022 by 1FinickyOne