Return Of Deposit Money

[BKKjohan]

Our bedroom is leaking on both sides of the sliding door. The husband of my friend's wife is a mechanic and he came to have a look.. According to him the sliding door should've been built on a 10cm high wall in order to prevent leaking and he recommended to do the job proper. Our landlord thought this was unreasonable and came with her own mechanic. This man could do it a lot cheaper by spraying silicone on the corners, also he could fix our leaking kitchen (we have a waterfall in our kitchen during a heavy rain) for just a fraction of our guy! He would do it all next week (weeks already passed since we complained), he never showed up.. Since then we only get apologies from our landlord!

We told the landlord that we would not give the next month's rent in order to pay for our mechanic to spray the silicone and fix some other problems in the house (the gate fell down). Landlord agreed on this. The mechanic also found that the protection bar of the bedroom was electric as the wires were faulty.. After spraying the silicone it is still leaking.

My heavily pregnant wife almost slipped on some water just now, lucky she could grab the wooden towel-rack (which is broken now), Our baby is almost born and the house we are living in is a complete mess! I am fed up and want to move out..

I know that getting your deposit money back from a rental contract is tricky, but what is my legal position if I want to break the contract based on the fact that our landlord is not providing a live-able environment?

[maxman71]

I had rented an apt. in BKK off Ratchada and cancelled it about 1 year ago. I got the deposit back, but then again, I had a Thai cop friend staying there when I wasn't, as I travel for biz 75% of the time.

[MikeyIdea]

Not provide a live-able environment is very untrue and bad choice of words. I am sure that there are many Thais who can say that they have never lived in such a good home environment as you do. True in your home country but wrong here

Saying that though, if you do take this to court, then you will probably win and get back your deposit and some of the lawyers costs, perhaps even more than half of what it will cost you to win

Do what the Thais do, talk nicely and negotiate, if it doesn't work, move. Go half way between what the landlord wanted to spend and what you suggested cost and then suggest to pay it yourself if she accepts to sign that you can deduct it from the monthly rent. Never accept word-of-mouth when it comes to deduct from rent, get signature. Be tactical

Good Luck

Edited August 6, 2010 by MikeyIdea

[katabeachbum]

avoiding to pay rent as agreed on in rental agreement, you loose all your rights including refunding deposit. Its your responsibility to inspect apartment before moving in

If you want to move, ask landlord to sign an agreement on paying back deposit when moving.

If you want to stay, wait for landlord to repair, or do repairs yourself and hope to maybe have something covered.

lifting sliding door to avoid having water coming inside sounds very drastical. I have at least 30 aluminum sliding door down to the floor, and no water inside. Usually a lack of drain only, just look where the water comes inside and make it possible to go out

[MikeyIdea]

avoiding to pay rent as agreed on in rental agreement, you loose all your rights including refunding deposit. Its your responsibility to inspect apartment before moving in

Agree. Johan - get signature

Good luck with your child, that is sure to change your life

[aussiebebe]

Hi BKKJohan, welcome to the forum. Congrats on the baby, and you're probably stressed out about everything right now. I've rented before and I know what it's like when a place floods and leaks, you can never relax when it's raining can you? Sadly, Thailand's very much 'buyer-beware' and you are free to contact a local lawyer, but my opinion is that you'd be unlikely to sucessfully instruct someone to pursue this case in a reasonable time-frame. A civil matter such as this simply wouldn't be cost-effective even before you factor in legal fees.

My advice is to find somewhere better, and not pay the rent on the final month you stay at your present place, thus loosing half of your two-month (is that right?) deposit. Write it off as a lesson learned.

In the short-term you can make the home more comfortable by buying plastic flooring from any hardware store or supermarket. At least make it safe while you apply pressure to the landlord to make the necessary repairs.