House Lease Contract Problem

[Dmitry]

Hello guys.

Inexperienced farang needs your help.

I've rented a house here, at Pattaya, Jomtien area, for 45K bats on a pay-per-month basis.

Its a good, newly build house with a pool, and everything inside. For me its a fair deal, especially

after I did not required to sign a 6-mo contract. I've also paid a rental deposit of 30k.

Anyway, we've prepared a custom contract for it, in English, just one list.

There is a line there:

The lesser agrees to lease the house at *address* at a per month basis, counting from the date of: 7 MARCH 2008.

So last time I've made a payment, the house owner helper woman(house owner herself is away out of thailand with here farang husband at switzerland) take her copy of contact with her, and made a change in it right at my eyes!! can you believe it???

what she made is as follows. She changed the above by appending - 7 JUNE 2008 as the end date, so now, in her copy of a contact this line appears as:

The lesser agrees to lease the house at *address* at a per month basis, counting from the date of: 7 MARCH 2008 - 7 JUNE 2008.

My copy of the contact is still unchanged. I asked politely what has just happened but did not understand the answer, since the woman english is very basic.

What bothers me also:

1. We do not have any per month signing (payment confirmations), that I give her money for the next month - is it critical , ie can they insist that i'am not paid anything for the house because of it? Should I try to make this payment confirmation log now with confirmation signatures from both sides?
   
2. Last time, i believe I was slighly cheated with electricity bill, ie I've start using only one air cond out of 3 i believe, i cutted the usage by 70% ,but its still 5000 bat per month. But I'am not 100% sure on this.
   
3. They asked me to make a copy of my passport (only now), after 3 month of living.
   
4. originally when signing the contact the house owner repeated several times: "no contact - no problemo"
   

The only valid option is that they need to pay a taxes for their rent business and need a fixed rent date - can it be the case here?

any other thoughts?

Thank you, Dmitry

[midas]

didnt you ask for a written receipt for the payment of money ?

I always insist on it at the time of handing over ANY money -an not

" i will give you one later " as some people say

[Khun Jean]

If you have doubts about the electricity just ask the original bill. And if you don't feel comfortable about her changing the contract say so. Many other houses for rent, me think.

[Dmitry]

didnt you ask for a written receipt for the payment of money ?

I always insist on it at the time of handing over ANY money -an not

" i will give you one later " as some people say

no, i don't . what problems can i face with it - at least i hope they can not say, that i did not pay for the house for all time. paranoia

they've changed their copy of the contract on my eyes before i opened my mouth.

[Khun Jean]

Once a contract is signed you can not change it. Changes on a contract can be made but then have to be signed again with the mention about what was changed.

Doing this means they have absolutely no clue about contracts.

Getting receipts IS critical. Don't just trust somebody.

If it is not the real owner you're dealing with it can be even more so.

Because the 'middleman' can put this money in the pocket and disappear.

Now is the time to start changing this. ALWAYS a receipt! And also CHECK the receipt!

If you get the famous 'i'll give you later' reply with ok 'i'll give you later too'.

[Dmitry]

Once a contract is signed you can not change it. Changes on a contract can be made but then have to be signed again with the mention about what was changed.

Doing this means they have absolutely no clue about contracts.

Getting receipts IS critical. Don't just trust somebody.

If it is not the real owner you're dealing with it can be even more so.

Because the 'middleman' can put this money in the pocket and disappear.

Now is the time to start changing this. ALWAYS a receipt! And also CHECK the receipt!

If you get the famous 'i'll give you later' reply with ok 'i'll give you later too'.

we have a contract in 2 copies (one stored with me and another - with them) - they changed their without mine permission(see original post). what can i do - they add the end data and after asked is it ok? after a several seconds shock, i start saying something but they do not understand anyway..

this is the house owner helper woman - she lives with them and i think she is ok ie not a middleman.

she brought me bananas last time also saying that they are from her garden.

house owner appears to be fine.

i now think that they need it for the land office to register the lease because as the same time they asked for the passport copy. anyone can think of the same?

anyway, if i am going to be ripped off in some way i'll cry loud. but i think they are not that stupid to put themselves on a blacklist...

uh..

p.s. thanks for all replies

[pumpuiman]

It seems to me this date is the "start" date.

the lesser agrees to lease the house at *address* at a per month basis, counting from the date of: 7 MARCH 2008.

Did you start renting on March 7th?.....on a monthly basis?

So now...it's a new month, new start date..June 7.

Next month expect a new amendment as well. (July 7)

It's a month by month contract....badly worded, and thus requiring the new "start date"

Thats the way I see it.

Good luck.

[Dmitry]

not sure about this since they do so after 3 months already passed: MARCH, APRIL, MAY.

anyway, from their contact it looks like i've rented the house on a per month basis for 3 months from march to june, and already should not be staying here.

the only valid explanation is that the land office required the end date and this is why they put it in their copy of the contact...

[Khun Jean]

There is no requirement from the landoffice. That is only needed when a lease is longer then 3 years.

I find it puzzeling too. Not everybody is out to take your money and my own experience is that there are a lot of nice people, although they not really do things good 'officially'. The 'officialy' part makes us westerners more comfortable, but here it is more 'loose'.

It might be that you rent from a company, and for the administration of that company some sort of contract in this form is necessary. Leaving out an end date suggests an open contract and that is maybe not what they want.

[longball53098]

Without seeing the complete contract as written its hard to judge about this but it seems like it is poorly written/worded and leaves a lot of confusion.

As for receipts? GET ONE EVERY TIME YOU HAND OVER SOME CASH! Especially to the "middleman" as was stated already.

[DisainaM]

dont know, if she is playing with her tax,

anyway, you should make some authorized copies of your contract,

and place it in your banks deposit box.