Thinking of renting a house in Udon Thani. I understand it is normal to pay 2 months rent in advance as deposit. But once the rental is over this can be very hard to get back from the landlord.

Any advice please/experience?

One month rental as deposit is all I have ever paid.

make sure you get a receipt saying that the deposit should be refunded within one week of vacating the house

One month rental as deposit is all I have ever paid.

make sure you get a receipt saying that the deposit should be refunded within one week of vacating the house

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1 to 3 months deposit is typical, with at least part of that being a security deposit for damage and unpaid bills...

As Thetyim said, get an agreement in writing regarding you getting back your deposit. For sure, the landlord isn't going to give you all your money back until all the bills are in, including water, phone, and electricity, which can be delayed a month, or more, especially with CAT's bills for overseas calls. you might get your money back sooner if, for example, you cancel your CAT overseas phone service a month or so before leaving... This is the bill most landlords are worried about with farang tennants.... The landlord might also agree to checking your meter readings for water and electricity usage up to the day you leave, and tallying up your bills from that...

I've rented many many places here over the years and have never had a problem getting my money back, but you must be reasonable in your expectations, too.

I agree, although my experiance is limited, every one of the dosen and more houses I looked at wanted rent + 3 mos rent as deposit. (rent X 4 upfront). I cant comment on depositt returns.

Also a good idea is to check the house throughly,and mark any defects on the contract.Look for broken tiles,marks or holes in the walls,oil stains on the parking area.These are all the type of things they try and deduct money for at the end of the contract.

Or simply stop paying rent 3-4 months before you expect to leave.

It seems that its normaly 2 months deposit if its furnished or 1 month if you have your own furniture but this can sometimes be negotiated. A friend recently negotiated to pay 12 months rent in advance on an unfurnished house and paid no deposit. As Ajarn says you cant expect to get your deposit back untill all of the bills are in. Usually the utillities remain in the landlords name and he is only covering himself.

The tax on rental property income is quite high. I think 20% ,and very few Thais pay this . So if the landlord is being totally unreasonable in returning any of your bond you may be able to use this as a lever.

Or simply stop paying rent 3-4 months before you expect to leave.

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I charge 2 months deposit on our rental property now.

If all is ok, 100 per cent will be paid back without question. If rent is not paid for a month by your advice madsere, the tenant could expect to be removed with no comebacks.

Also they would have to negotiate for there belongings back until the backlog is sorted and then whatever is left out of the deposit would be paid back to them.

Only rented for just over a year and the first tenant stitched me up big time.

Ran me up a large phone bill, didn’t pay rent or electric and water for a couple of months and trashed the place. Also as I was too trusting with my first rental, no deposit was charged. Had to replace the beds and most of the furniture too, before I could re-rent it.

Do not get me wrong, but we landlords are not all rich and have to protect ourselves too.

Once bitten, twice shy.