Your Two Months Rental Deposit

[Umlungu]

On 9/30/2024 at 7:47 AM, JBChiangRai said:

Sorry but as I said before, only some landlords can only charge one month deposit. Specifically, those with 5 or more rental units.

 

Those with less than 5 units can charge 2 months deposit as the new law doesn’t apply to them.

 

I am advised by my lawyer, however you can get free here…

https://www.sunbeltasia.com/new-rental-laws-in-thailand

That is correct. Different rules for owners with 5 or more properties. Those regulations were initially more tenant-friendly, but have been tightened up to now protect the owner. Rental contract vary a lot and the devil is in the detail. Owners need to be precise in their demands and responsibilities covering both parties, and tenants need to read contracts and understand them. Agents need to be more professional in their contracts, the industry is not very well regulated and some agents have no clue how to set out a contract and also subsequently manage their client (be it the tenant or the owner). Most will just pop up a month before end of contract and enquire about an extension, with the sole intent of pocketing another / second monthly rent amount as commission - which is illegal, btw.

[thesetat2013]

12 minutes ago, Umlungu said:

What you say is wrong. The local police agreeing with you is irrelevant - they are not the ones to adjudicate rental law and potential legal issues.

Perhaps i was not clear... i brought my contract to the police that control the area where I live. The landlord was threatening to bring the police and have me evicted for not paying the last month. But in my contract it was clearly stated last months rent was 1 month and damage deposit was another months rent. I made a police report and the police said if she attempted to use them to get me to leave that they would not enforce i and i only needed to show the police report i made. 

[Evil Penevil]

I don't know how common it is, but some farang landlords who rent out through AirBnB in Pattaya do keep the deposit as a scam.  It works like this:

 

The landlord will make a big thing of offering a discount on the monthly rent, but then keep the deposit to make up for the discount.  Say 15,000/month is the "going rate" for a six-month rental of an apartment of a certain size/standard in a certain area.  To attract renters, the landlord will cut the monthly rent to 13,000/month.  However, he gets back the discount plus 1,000 baht by keeping the deposit.   On a one-month rental, the landlord could slash the rent all the way to 10,000/month and earn a much higher margin by keeping the 10,0000 deposit.  

 

Scumbag landlords know farang tourists who are in Thailand for one to six months aren't going to take the matter to court, especially since they haven't really lost that much.  The renter ends up paying what would be the normal going rate. 

 

When I lived in Pattaya, I knew of a farang landlord who'd done this for years.  He finally got in trouble because an irate former tenant reported him to the immigration police for working without a permit.  You don't need a work permit to rent out apartments  and can do it on a retirement visa, but it has to be entirely passive.  The farang owner can't actively advertise, handle or manage the apartment rental unless he has a work permit.

Edited 2 hours ago by Evil Penevil

[JBChiangRai]

12 minutes ago, Evil Penevil said:

I don't know how common it is, but some farang landlords who rent out through AirBnB in Pattaya do keep the deposit as a scam.  It works like this:

 

The landlord will make a big thing of offering a discount on the monthly rent, but then keep the deposit to make up for the discount.  Say 15,000/month is the "going rate" for a six-month rental of an apartment of a certain size/standard in a certain area.  To attract renters, the landlord will cut the monthly rent to 13,000/month.  However, he gets back the discount plus 1,000 baht by keeping the deposit.   On a one-month rental, the landlord could slash the rent all the way to 10,000/month and earn a much higher margin by keeping the 10,0000 deposit.  

 

Scumbag landlords know farang tourists who are in Thailand for one to six months aren't going to take the matter to court, especially since they haven't really lost that much.  The renter ends up paying what would be the normal going rate. 

 

When I lived in Pattaya, I knew of a farang landlord who'd done this for years.  He finally got in trouble because an irate former tenant reported him to the immigration police for working without a permit.  You don't need a work permit to rent out apartments  and can do it on a retirement visa, but it has to be entirely passive.  The farang owner can't actively advertise, handle or manage the apartment rental unless he has a work permit.

The best threat you can make to a landlord refusing to give you your deposit back is to threaten to report them to the revenue department.

 

Very few landlords actually declared the revenue and pay tax on it.

 

Particularly for Airbnb landlords as Airbnb will supply all the revenue paid going back to the very first rental to the Revenue department on request.