Question Regarding Who Pays For New Aircon Unit In Rented Property

[Amusements]

Are you paying the government rate for electric, or are you paying the landlords rate?

If it was me, and I was paying the government rate, I would offer to pay the landlord an extra 500 Baht a month. Failing that, if I really did not want to move, I would pay for half of the air con, but only if it was spread out over at least a year, or over the term of your new contract. New air con units must have 5-10 years life?

[Beetlejuice]

A farang who has financed a property other than a condominium and is a part of a renting real estate business, in the majority of cases is classified as owning a property and working illegally.

Anyone considering renting a property where a farang appears to be in charge, should question whether the assumed landlord is a bona fide owner of the property, and whether he/she has the applicable work permits to run a property renting business or to act as an agent for the actual owners.

Otherwise under the law, any contracts made between the so-called owners and the tenants maybe null and void and could involve a lawsuit in order to obtain the refunds of any deposits or breach of contracts.

You have been warned and take on these tenancies at your own risk and discretion.

And there speaks the voice of reason.

What a guy.

You asked questions on what are your options regarding this AC problem and I have given you some suggestions, including where you may stand legally.

If you don`t like the answers, than why bother to ask? Or what else would you prefer to hear?

[mickjn]

In LOS never rent a house from a Farang

[OZEMADE]

If you like the home you are staying in, sign the new lease and put another large A/C in at your expense, one that will do the job in the part of the home you say is hot.

Leave the original where it is and if need be, run them both until the home reaches the desired temp and turn one off, the other will maintain the room temp.

When the time comes for you to move on, take the large A/C you bought with you to the new place. Repair the wall where yours was fitted and everyone is happy. I did this twice years ago when I moved around a bit trying to find the area I wanted to live in.

In the end, I finally fitted it to the home I bought.

[Stradavarius37]

you rented the property and accepted the terms and conditions .why should the owner/renter upgrade at his own cost the A/C just because now you have realised it is not up to the job...If you are not happy rent another property ..there's plenty to be had

idiot.

I don't see anything wrong with that advice. Calling names makes you look foolish.

How is that 'advice'??

If he read my first thread I clearly say that I am signing a new lease, therefore I am flagging this as a problem before I enter a new contract. It's not as if I have signed a contract and then brought up this issue.

Capice?

As for lookign foolish well I'm certainly in good company, now run along and eat your 30 baht noodles you have for your dinner.

Name calling doesn't hurt me, because you are so far off its ridiculous. But when you are in a hole, it's a good idea to stop digging.

[Beetlejuice]

you rented the property and accepted the terms and conditions .why should the owner/renter upgrade at his own cost the A/C just because now you have realised it is not up to the job...If you are not happy rent another property ..there's plenty to be had

idiot.

I don't see anything wrong with that advice. Calling names makes you look foolish.

How is that 'advice'??

If he read my first thread I clearly say that I am signing a new lease, therefore I am flagging this as a problem before I enter a new contract. It's not as if I have signed a contract and then brought up this issue.

Capice?

As for lookign foolish well I'm certainly in good company, now run along and eat your 30 baht noodles you have for your dinner.

Name calling doesn't hurt me, because you are so far off its ridiculous. But when you are in a hole, it's a good idea to stop digging.

Yes, but it does place light on why he calls himself, HotandHumid and it seems that this AC problem is making him even more hot headed.

Do what the wife and I do during the hot season, walk about the house totally naked and throw buckets of ice water over each other.

[isawasnake]

He is pretty much saying "pay or get out". I see both points here; if you don't like it I would leave. You requested it, he kinda said "no" (I would NEVER pay for half of his air con), so I'd be inclined to go. No hard feelings. If moving is worth a lot to you, you may offer to pay 20% of it or move, something like that. NEVER 50%, no way.

[metisdead]

A flame post has been removed as well as the replies.

[Carib]

I had some advice about this, same thing happened to me and there was a nice solution for it, but after reading the way the OP addresses the ones giving advice, and that is including the now deleted postings in which he starts name-calling, I will keep it to myself.

The op seems to have all the answers and everybody else is an idiot, wonder why he asked the question. Even making silly remarks about cheap meals, which make me think the op is doing so much better. So, just fork out the money and stop complaining.

[NeverSure]

There are about 2,000 houses for rent and about 15,000 condos for rent, right here on ThaiVisa's classifieds. Check it out. That's just ThaiVisa ads so who knows how many rentals there are in Thailand. There is almost no coverage on ThaiVisa outside of the bigger areas like Bangkok, Pattaya/Chon Buri, Chiang Mai etc. No coverage in Isaan.

So if ThaiVisa has 17,000 rental ads, there are a lot more out there advertised elsewhere or not advertized.

I would ask the farang landlord to make the aircon right, or I'd walk and let him use the fridge for his own spare beer. There is also no reason for you to pay as much as you are in this market, either.

[flashysite]

I'm a landlord for 2 condos.

If the aircon is still in working condition as when you move in, even tho you may not like its performance. If you want it a bit better performance, you (tenant) has to pay to replace it. But when you move out, you have the right to take it with you.

But if it's breaking down and you can prove it "in its performance over the year", then the owner has to fix or replace it w/ his own expense.

If he's not reasonable or doesn't have a basic common sense, there is no need to talk further with him. JUST MOVE ON

Why you have to put up with thing you don't like, when paying that much in rent?

If its breaking down? Then i might just sabotage the airconditioner so i can get a replacement...keep on doing it till i get a bigger one that can cool the living room.

In my opinion landlord should and most definitely will get a 2nd a/c, thus keeping tenant for another contract year.

[isawasnake]

I was thinking a little on this, and it dawned on me that there is probably a big difference between a landlord who owns and one who is paying a mortgage. I will keep this in mind next time I rent.

Imagine 2 landlords, one has a mortgage of 15k a month, and the other own outright. Asking each of these owners for any type of improvement I would guess the general trend would favor much more success with the owner without a mortgage. He will constantly be striving to "break even" with the mortgage for the month.

I guess the owner could just lie if you ask this question before moving in, but I find it at least worth considering.

Edited March 18, 2013 by isawasnake

[Langsuan Man]

The TV mantra is to RENT , so that when problems like this surface you can just pick up and move

At least this problem is occurring at the end of your rental contract so you have to make a decision on whether or not you wan't to enter into a new contract under these new conditions

[JLCrab]

I wouldn't think the owner is not in any way obligated to install a new air conditioner unit although it would be a good thing for him to do long-term. The house rental agreement I have here in Thailand states that any permanent alterations to the house become the property of the owner.

The price at even the high-end of the estimates, in this case, is really about the same as one month's rent. i would suggest making sure the outside compressor and the inside wall blower unit are priced separately. Then if the lessee wants to move out, he is free to take the outside unit with him (or sell back to the owner) as it really is just sitting out there on blocks. All the electricals and the refrigerant hose into the blower unit would remain.

Portable air con units are a joke.

[NanLaew]

The OP's landlord has made more than half a million from the OP over the last year. The OP has made the landlord aware of the lack of cooling capacity in the lounge area and the landlord apparently agrees. The landlord should think about getting another half-million plus from the existing tenant and buy and install the second air conditioner at no cost to the tenant. Any deal on splitting the cost is totally unworkable and the OP should give notice to vacate and move on if the landlord refuses to install it.

[easyride]

I do not believe there are any laws requiring a landlord to offer air-conditioners here, and a tenant is free to choose to enter into a rental agreement based on the existing state of the property.

I think splitting the cost of a new, larger AC unit is a recipe for disaster. Either the landlord should purchase the new AC unit, perhaps in hopes of retaining you as a desirable and reliable tenant, or you should buy the new AC unit with the understanding that it is yours to take, or sell at the end of the contract. It seems weird that the landlord would risk losing you as a tenant over this issue. Personally I would insist that the landlord install the newer unit prior to extending the existing lease, understanding that I might have to re-locate.

Quite. You've lived there for 12 months seemingly happy. You should have bought this up when you moved in not now.

[CWMcMurray]

First thing I would do is start looking for a new place to see what is out there and the prices in the current market for similar places.

If you find something much cheaper or the same price but with better air con situation, then may make sense to move. If you start looking and find that all of the similar size places are more expensive, then it may make sense to pay for half the air, as you would still be better off.

At the end of the day, in most cases, it is not worth "being right" if it means it will cause you to be worse off...

I faced a similar issue about 5 years ago... the place I was renting had a really old a/c unit that seemed to just suck up the power and electric bills were very very high.

I mentioned it a couple of times to the landlord and I also started looking around.

I ended up finding a new place just a couple km down the road that was just as nice (or perhaps a bit nicer) for 5k less per month in rent and no A/C problems.

So gave the notice and moved to the new place.

Although if I if I had looked and all the other places were just as much or higher in rent, would have certainly handled it differently.

If you find a decent place for less or same rent(with no A/C issue), you can always go back to the landlord and show him the listing and rent being asked... he may change his tune pretty quickly if he sees that he is about to loose a paying tenet.

Also normally after 1 yr, the lease will just automatically go 'month to month' if nothing is done, so you could offer to sign another 1 yr or 2 yr lease with him if he will replace the A/C unit.

Also for all those that say he shouldn't complain as he did not mention it before moving in... he has honored his initial 1 yr lease and did not complain during that time. Now that his lease is coming up for renewal, there is nothing wrong with bringing up this issue.

Edited March 18, 2013 by CWMcMurray

[candypants]

Can you not buy a portable AC unit that is free standing ,and can be moved around the house at will.

And of course is yours to keep.

Somebody else said this.

Now much are they? I assume you just plug it in the wall and without significantly increasing the electric bill?

you assume wrong, no air conditioner operates without significantly increasing the power bill

[hotandhumid]

All sorted! The landlord has agreed to buy a new unit.

Cheers for the replies.

H&H

[isawasnake]

All sorted! The landlord has agreed to buy a new unit.

Cheers for the replies.

H&H

Can you expand on what you did though, so we can get a clue how to handle these folks.

[hotandhumid]

All sorted! The landlord has agreed to buy a new unit.

Cheers for the replies.

H&H

Can you expand on what you did though, so we can get a clue how to handle these folks.

I told him I would walk!

[FunFon]

I have paid for three A/C units myself over the years, and secured in writing permission to install/remove them as I see fit.

Of course I have to make sure it looks right when I go, but a bit of plaster and paint's usually a tiny part of the needed work, not an important cost factor either way.

In one case the landlord paid me to leave the unit in place, I let him have it for 50% of the price, a Mitsubishi, bit less than two years old.

My approach is to make sure my monthly rent is very below-farang-market prices, and then have a decent budget for such self-funded improvements, personally find it much better than trying to work with the landlord like this.

[OZEMADE]

I tried a few A/C out over the years all sizes and outputs. The best I have come across are DAIKEN Inverter A/C both here and in Thailand.

I am currently running 3 reverse cycle in OZ and 4single cycle in Pattaya and 4 single cycle in Lop Buri. Never had a problem in the last 6 yrs with the Daiken. in fact have only had to get 2 re gassed over that time.

[biopsych]

I just asked the landlord of my small apartment about me buying an aircon and installing it...the reply was that if I buy it and install it she will charge me 500 Bt extra per month for having the aircon {this is the same rate that is charged for other rooms that have aircons that she bought and installed}.

The second option given was for me to buy the ac and then she will buy it back at 50% of value because installing the unit would 'damage the building'. I dont want to do this because I dont know how long I will be here, if Im gone in 3 months she gets a hell of a deal.

Am also looking into a portable unit, not the crap at Tesco but a 14000 BTU that cost 24,000 baht but I would prefer a proper ac unit.

Am also being charged 7 baht a unit for electricity not the 4 baht from the government.

Greedy and stupid!

[farang000999]

Just tell him you are moving. It cost about 5000 baht to use a Thai professional moving service who will come and pack everything and move it.

If he is not a moron, he will realize that it is better to buy a second ac then to leave the property vacant while he searches for a new tenant.

And to the above poster, find a new apartment. Duh!