Advanced Notification On Rent Increase

[ThaidDown]

To give the OP an idea as to the cost per unit charged to the bill holder I have just dug out my last bill for the period to 7th July, I live in a condo but we all have our own meters and are billed directly.

I used 502 units, I was billed for 150 @ 2.2628 Baht, 250 @ 3.7362 and 102 @ 3.9360, so a total of 1,749.95 for the power consumed.

On top of the charge for the power there are charges of 38.22 and 150.60 for I not know what and 135.71 for VAT.

My total bill was 2,074.48, which equates to 4.13 Baht per unit. OK, probably not one hell of a mark up for the OP, but multiply that over the year and how many units there are and it adds up.

Not quiet sure of the need to mark up, apart from extra profit, I suspect all the power used in the common areas is paid for out of the monthly maintenance fee.

As a matter of interest the price increase is 30 Satang per unit.

The 150.60 is Units (502) times the Ft charge (.30) which for me, was added from the June bill, don't know about the 38.22.

Since the rate per unit increases the more you use if there is a combined bill for a condo building the rate per unit will be higher, do not know the exact figures but as a comparison here are 2 of my bills, different premises ( both for June)

1) 329 units at cost of 1314.02 Baht = 3.99 baht/unit.

2) 1017 units at total cost of 4408.81 Baht = 4.335 baht/unit.

Both PEA bills in Rayong.

[brit1984]

I think the OP might be slightly over thinking this issue. There is probably just some confusion about which billing date applies to which month's power usage or maybe the employee who printed the posters made a mistake, or was misinformed.

I doubt this is a management led scam to defraud the tenants of 1 baht per unit of electricity for 1 month. If it is indeed part a cunning and evil plan by management, the OP should probably be thankful that this is the best / worst they could come up with.

Sent from iPhone; please forgive any typos or violations of forum rules

[theoldgit]

The 150.60 is Units (502) times the Ft charge (.30) which for me, was added from the June bill, don't know about the 38.

So that'll be the increase they have advised about I suppose, thank's for that, I do now see that it was set as zero on previous statements.

[thaifkrlim]

small matter here , just leave it give them some tips

[hedonist44]

You're not in Kansas anymore Dorothy!

[draftvader]

I love all this roll over and stick your bum in the air advice.

Write them a letter setting out the facts , include a copy of their notice and finish by stating that you will deduct the excess. Deliver the letter with your adjusted payment and get a receipt.

If they cut you off call the police around.

...and find out that they are paying the correct monthly "contribution" or are about to start. Funny,

[kawaiimomo]

Someone ask about advice on renting laws but gets nothing but flames. Get a life, losers.

BTW I got charged the old price after complaining. You can keep agreeing on everything and living in fear for future reprisals if you complain.

[draftvader]

Well done you. Genuinely surprised.

Sent from my HTC Desire using Thaivisa Connect App

[Sayonarax]

Get ya arse moved.

[GuestHouse]

Double post deleted

Edited August 9, 2012 by GuestHouse

[GuestHouse]

The OP should learn to bend over and take it like all the others here who are willing to take whatever is dished out to them and stop reminding lilly livered expats what whimpy surrender monkeys they all are.

[GuestHouse]

Oh and if you really believe you will have trouble getting your deposit back, spend some time looking for good places to hide fresh fish before you hand the keys back

[hellodolly]

Of course they were already overcharging at 5 Baht per unit.

Yeap

Just out as a point of interest what is the correct government rate?

Not as simple as a single rate, your unit rate depends on usage...the more you use the more you pay, if memory serves bottom rate about THB 1.5/unit upto about THB 3.5/unit.

One assumes in the case of the condo, overall usage is consider "high" as the power in would be single supply metered in for the owner and then onto indivudal meters for the Units (I am not electrial, but sure one of TV residents can shed light on this)

But lets assume high usage bracket for Condo owner is paying THB 3.5 unit as a base rate, then there is obviously maintenace/admin costs on this for the condo owner, so this is how they reach THB 5.0/unit to the user...so very high rates charged in condo, may not be very high, depends on the base rate the owner is getting charged.

All this assumes domestic supply and there will be different unit rates applied for industry/business/factories..ie really big power users

Some poster will remember a few years ago...electrial usage below 50kwh was free for a certain period of time

You are correct. That is the case here where I live one power source i ad each unit has a meter. There is a overhead that the building uses for its own electricity . Where we are there is a 5 baht charge. I would imagine that the charge would be in relationship to the number of units and other services in the hotel such as air con in the lobby elevators lights and what not.

I believe the poster is with in his rights to complain but to do it over such a trivial amount of money seems pretty senseless to me and will create a lasting impression oi the manager. And it won't be a good one.

When I had doubts about the aize of my bill I went t the manager and discussed it with him ad he had the meter checked. There is a department in the government that does this. My meter was K s I just dropped it paid up and went on my way. I later asked him if he could relocate my air con and he said yes. He came up looked at what I wanted to do and said yes. He sent up a crew to move it and clean it no cost to me. It pays to be on good terms with management. You never know.

Right now I am trying to get a few channels added and I talk to him about it he says can not do big boss say no. So I chuckle he chuckles and we repeat the performance about once a month. Maybe I can catch him when they sign the contract with the cable company.

[hellodolly]

Actually you can always threaten them with the tourist police.

[jacktrip]

Thanks for the few useful replies, and for the rest: yeah mates, you should continue agreeing to everyone who tries to take advantage of you; I wonder how well it worked for you back home

If you dont like it ,move .

"then why are you here? stop complaining or move. the thais did not invite you here. if you dont have anything nice to say move your arse back to whatever hellhole you came from and stop complaining. some people like thailand."

[barky]

Of course they were already overcharging at 5 Baht per unit.

It doesn't matter whether it's 4, 5 or 6 baht...It's the bottom line that counts i.e.: what's the total cost of the joint, and, am I prepared to pay it?

[mjj]

This is Thailand. The Land of Scams. Don't take it personally they do it to everyone, even there own families. BIG generalisation I know and I apologise to the honest Thai(s) out there.

I understand the frustration because it's just not right, but the only way to deal with it is to smile and plot how you will get your money out of them. If you can't get money out of them, make sure when you leave the place they will have to spend money on sorting out problems you have left them.

It's all very nit-picky I know, but basing any arguement here with reason and fairness is futile when money is involved.

[KeyserSoze01]

Someone ask about advice on renting laws but gets nothing but flames. Get a life, losers.

BTW I got charged the old price after complaining. You can keep agreeing on everything and living in fear for future reprisals if you complain.

So why come here and bitch about it?

Do you think you would get more advice and sympathy down at the corner pub? If not, why expect it here. It's not like you started this thread asking for advice, you were just whinging about a few baht. In the overall scheme of things, it's not worth getting worked up over. Mai pen rai.

[MrZM]

I pay 7 baht a unit in my rented accommodation, if it went up a baht, it would increase by an extra 150/200 baht!

Don't understand why people moan about this.

[MrRealDeal]

I'm not sure that raising the electric cost falls in the same catagory as raising the rental cost , the rental cost yes you would expect a notice , however the electric cost can be raised on the landlord and he would pass that on to you , IF they raised it without having their cost go up I could see your point but thats probabbly not what happened. If the water cost went up the same thing would happen.

If your worried about getting taken advantage of I would say you are not ..... back home you would have utilities included and would not pay more or not included and the same thing would happen , here your utilities are not included in the price they are an extra cost over the rent , and the real difference is only that the bill comes from the landlord and not the electrical company , so when the bill is raised from the electric company since your in a situation to pay your own electric naturally when it goes up you will pay more.

If you read your contract I am sure it will say that if not it would be because everyone in Thailand already understands that not because they are singling you out to take advantage of ..... like you said it was on all the doors.

You can be sure you are not the first person to question this and this is just how it's done here , different than where you are from perhaps but not a scam , just a different way of doing things.

[jcw]

Well, on the bright side of life, next contract you will learn to look after the power bill your self or fix a price eh !!!!!

In Thailand, what they write on a sign and what happens in reality are irrelevant.

Who ya going to call, Scam Busters

Edited August 11, 2012 by jcw

[phuturatica]

I love all this roll over and stick your bum in the air advice.

Write them a letter setting out the facts , include a copy of their notice and finish by stating that you will deduct the excess. Deliver the letter with your adjusted payment and get a receipt.

If they cut you off call the police around.

"Ohnoes mister police man! My land lord has cut me off because I deducted the excess of my electricity bill cause I threw a tantrum!"

[robblok]

I love all this roll over and stick your bum in the air advice.

Write them a letter setting out the facts , include a copy of their notice and finish by stating that you will deduct the excess. Deliver the letter with your adjusted payment and get a receipt.

If they cut you off call the police around.

"Ohnoes mister police man! My land lord has cut me off because I deducted the excess of my electricity bill cause I threw a tantrum!"

I love it how people think the police will healp in "civil" matters. This is something you need to fight over in court first after that if your lucky the police will help you enforce it. This is the way in the west and i doubt that its better here in the East with the underpaid police staff. Maybe you got more luck if you bribe them, but that could cost more then the whole problem.

[kaffeburk]

The title "Advanced Notification On Rent Increase" is of interest to me, but i can find no information regarding that in any of the 52 postings here. Anyone knows how long time in advance the landlord have to give advanced warning? Our landlord told us there would be a raise in the rent next month, so we got 3 weeks advanced warning. In other countries i think it is 3 month.

[BigJohnnyBKK]

The title "Advanced Notification On Rent Increase" is of interest to me, but i can find no information regarding that in any of the 52 postings here. Anyone knows how long time in advance the landlord have to give advanced warning? Our landlord told us there would be a raise in the rent next month, so we got 3 weeks advanced warning. In other countries i think it is 3 month.

Even if there were any such regulation of private matter here, which I doubt, it would come down to who's got the better "personal" connections with the authorities. Usually that means "up to the landlord", generally contracts aren't worth the paper their written on.

You can try to fight it, but rarely worth the time and energy, and could in fact be physically dangerous in some cases.

Best policy if such things are that important to you is to get on friendly terms with your landlord. Otherwise just move, no big deal.