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 6 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.

[Umlungu]

4 hours ago, thesetat2013 said:

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. 

Why would your landlord have gone to the police to get you evicted if you had paid - as you say - the final month's rent via half of the deposit if you then had to leave on the expiry of your contract anyway? The fact that you argued your case after your final month's rent was deemed by the landlord as not having been paid (let's say within the 7-day payment deadline), and refused to pay it separately, and were still in the condo, you basically ensured that you forfeited your other half of the deposit (for damage etc) - even if there was no damage and no reason to hold it on the part of the landlord. The onus was / would then have been on you to retrieve it - and good luck with that. It would not have been worth the expense for a lawyer etc. You lost.

 

[Umlungu]

3 hours ago, JBChiangRai said:

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.

The best way is not to threaten anyone and just abide by the contract stipulations. That's how all the satisfactory rental agreements conclude - which, hazarding a guess, are probably the vast majority. But you don't hear about those. I had a Vietnamese lady staying in my condo for two years, the second year on a handshake extension. There was a 28k deposit. she paid every month on time, paid all bills, did no damage, cleaned the place to a degree that you could have eaten off the floor. I returned it in full. I had an American stay for a year, damaged the place and stole items, did no proper, personal handover, had three outstanding months of utility bills, was late with his rent, left an absolute mess. He forfeited 18k baht, his entire deposit. He also tried the police who laughed him out of the station. So it goes. Some great tenants, some really rotten ones.

[Umlungu]

5 hours ago, thesetat2013 said:

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. 

It sounds like a badly worded contract. It probable boiled down to "two months' rent as a deposit for rent and damages etc". The is no legally enshrined limit on rent or damage security bonds. The amount is defined by the rent amount times two. that has nothing to do with the defined purpose of the deposit as a whole. also, you are lucky that your contract didn't (or did it, in fact?)  state that the rent is due at a certain date, plus maybe an extra 7 days period of grace. That goes for every month, including the last one, as rent is always due in advance. My contracts always stipulate (and this is enshrined in Thai law as well) that failure to pay the rent - at any stage of the contract period - within the deadline (due date + 7 days) - constitutes a default of contract, resulting in the immediate termination of the agreement (i.e. eviction) and forfeiture of the entire deposit (without any further consideration of other potential deductions for damage etc). End of. Contracts vary a lot, it's always good to read and understand them, and not sign them if they do not suit. That avoids conflict and false accusations of landlords being scammers.