Rented Apartment - Repairs..?

[ChrisP]

I am renting an apartment (an owned condo) in a building with a Management Office.

The AC has broken down, and I'm told by the Management Office that I must pay for the repair (it's not a big problem apparently). I maintain it's the owner's responsibility to pay for repairs to fixed items.

My Thai makes the (Thai Logic) case that we should pay for the repair because we are the ones using the AC unit...! I don't agree.

What if it needed the whole thing replacing..??

Btw, the lease contract (of several pages) is ALL in Thai (which I don't understand.)

ChrisP

[EVO]

Technically, it would usually be the Landlords responsibility, but i have found that paying for small repairs myself in the end reaps big dividends when something major comes up.

[fxm88]

My Thai makes the (Thai Logic) case that we should pay for the repair because we are the ones using the AC unit...!  I don't agree.

I don't agree either. These kinds of costs are supposed to be accouted for in your rent. If anything your cost to repair it should be no more than proportional to how much you've used it by its total lifetime use (including before you got there). But I don't think it's the Managment Office's responsibilty, unless you're saying that they're the owners. Who do you pay your rent to?

[Dragonman]

I am renting an apartment (an owned condo) in a building with a Management Office.

The AC has broken down, and I'm told by the Management Office that I must pay for the repair (it's not a big problem apparently). I maintain it's the owner's responsibility to pay for repairs to fixed items.

My Thai makes the (Thai Logic) case that we should pay for the repair because we are the ones using the AC unit...!  I don't agree.

What if it needed the whole thing replacing..??

Btw, the lease contract (of several pages) is ALL in Thai (which I don't understand.)

ChrisP

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Leases and rental agreements invariably include normal wear and tear as part of the landlord's responsibility. What if the floor collapses, presumably you will be responsible because you walked on it Get a translation of the lease, it will help in future even if you pay for the repairs now. Depends how much the repairs are.

[ChrisP]

We pay the rent to the Management Office.. who presumably are the "agents" for the Owner of the apartment.

ChrisP

[eljeque]

If they would simply allow you to contact the owner about it, but that is anthema to their practices. It might be possible to go down to the land office and find out the foreign address and contact details of the owner, but is it worth all of the headache?

To make your life easier, not to prove a point, which is a waste of time here, pay for the repairs yourself. It might cost a little to get freon, or even to recondition the compressor. Better yet, if you need to recondition the compressor, replace it with a reconditioned one, and leave the old one when you move out.

ANything that you need to do to make the place liveable while there, that the owners or agents refuse to do, take with you!! I do not mean tiles and anything that is stuck for good to the unit, but if you need to replace seals in a toilet tank, take them away when you leave. The same goes for a faucet that leaks. Take the new seals or the new faucet with you and leave the old one in place.

Always keep the receipts and the box for the new items that you have purchased. The unit below my friend's had water coming into it. The apartment building's worker went into his place to find the cause. Two month's later, my friend had a 3,000 baht water bill. This was not from the former leak, but was instead from the worker damaging a seal.

The apartment building refused to take responsibility for it. He will take the seals that I used as replacements when he goes.

In this country, no one takes responsibility for anything. That works OK out in the fields of a century ago, but not in the city in the modern era. Anything that goes wrong (and that is a lot with incompetence and irresponsibility) is going to generate a bill and you are going to receive it. You simply need to find a way to get a little back.

[Axel]

The standard contracts that I used over the years included repair-clauses.

Minor repairs for acount of the lessee, (usually Baht -2000).

At home, if the A/C is broken, call the management-office who in turn sends the inhouse handy man to fix it. Well, I can live with this although this 'engineer' is a bit of an all round man, fixes A/C, floor tiles, electric wiring, bath tubs a.s.o.

In the office, that I rented, the owner kept the rent asame over years, but meanwhile accpted that I do not bother for repairs below Baht 5K.

[zzap]

Beware of in-house repair guys!

In my last place, the guy was always drunk, asking for tips, cigs and booze as soon as he entered the apartment. I finally threw him out and complained, after I inspected the (dripping) leak-prevention device in my bathroom ceiling, consisting of alu-foil, plastic bags and some attached string!

[The Coder]

So in house repair guys are alike! I will never allow the guy at my building to step inside my condo again and I just rent it. He's the ultimate in crude hack jobs and aesthetic blunders.

AC repairs are an interesting topic as this really isn't spelled out in contracts is it? I have always asked the owner to take care of it and they do, even regular cleaning. Anything else I just take care of myself.