Landlords beware

[stevehhd]

A neighbour of mine has recently been scammed by the tenant that rented one of his houses. The story seemed familiar from a while back so I confirmed the MO and description with another friend. Seems there is a pattern emerging.

European guy, medium build, Thai wife that does not speak AT ALL. Probably late 40,s or early 50's. Drives an E220 merc in dark blue with lorimar wheels and a badge that says 'Turbo' along with the normal decals in chrome. Wears a bandana or baseball cap most of the time. Accent European but hard to place. Could be German, Swiss or Danish. Owns a ginger cat. Claims to have a new property office in Cha Am and a bike business in Phuket plus some kind of business in Udon Thani. Gives it the size twelve with paying the normal month up front plus month deposit in cash. Does not come through an agent for obvious reasons. Any agent worth their salt would have passport and ID card copies as part of the client profile and would make him traceable.

Moves in nice as pie then a huge amount of furniture including multiple computers, tv's etc turns up on the basis of storage. All is good so the landlord leaves the tenant to enjoy the property until next rent due. The guy takes everything of any value. TV's, stereos pictures, bed linen, cutlery and crockery, right down to the Buddha statues on the inside spirit house. Leaves all the aircon, fans, water into the pool running for several days so the landlord will not suspect. Massive electric bill of course and an unrentable property left behind with quite some internal damage done to the internal walls and electrics.

OK there was a deposit but it amounted to about a tenth of what was stolen plus the damage and lack of income whilst things are being put right.

Police reports have been filed but no joy as yet. Any info, to pass on to the authorities, would be appreciated by the aggrieved parties should anyone come across this person or have any information of other similar incidents.

Steve HHD

[Hedghog]

Your neighbor is now in a great position.

Re let unfurnished.

No worries about further loss of furnishings.

[ukrules]

Gives it the size twelve with paying the normal month up front plus month deposit in cash.

What does this mean ?

[Tchooptip]

You did not mentioned where did that happened! Phuket or Pattaya ?

[TerryLH]

" Moves in nice as pie then a huge amount of furniture including multiple computers, tv's etc turns up on the basis of storage."

Who moved this stuff there?

Landlord? Why would they move storage stuff into a rental? If stolen, doesn't seem to be planned ahead of time. Did anybody see this stuff?

Tenant? How would they know about the storage stuff?

[CanInBKK]

Why would somebody let their place to someone else without deposit and ID? Tenants aren't that scarce, you know.

[Som wat]

Sounds like a lax landlord issue.

[cgphuket]

Never rented without a passport. She will know better next time. Sounds like a lot of work to steal some plates and pillows....

[Mrjlh]

Any reasonable landlord would have made a copy of their passport and verified by looking at it to see if it was the same person.

But thanks for the heads up.

[Sayonarax]

Sounds like the dumbest scam ever...

[bkkjames]

sounds like a bunch of bs to me.

[stevehhd]

Bunch of BS? I know the property well as I rented it myself for 3 years and was a regular guest there of the previous tenant who moved out in march. So I know exactly what was in there. The stuff that was moved in was driven in truckloads straight past my living room window as I live just up the street. So, yes, people did see the stuff.

A lot of effort for plates and pillows agreed but many times the value of the deposit in stolen goods is a nice little earner. Tv's, stereos etc etc.

Landlord not lax just trusting by nature.

The storage stuff belonged to the tenant.

Back to the BS issue. I can understand with few posts some might think I am a troll. Believe me I am not.

Steve

[Thaiberius]

Sad story but the landlord really has nobody to blame but himself.

[YipYipYa123]

Any decent places I've rented have insisted on two months deposit and one months rent in advance

That means 3 months cash to play with and rent due in 4 weeks

There would have been nothing to steal that exceeded my deposit and u don't normally get to rent anything without id even in thailand...... Strange story

[AhFarangJa]

It is a sad tale for the landlord, but alas trust and naivety have no place in business. I always insist on passport copies, and a signed contract. Luckily, so far, I have had no problems.......touch wood!

[MonkeyLoo]

Bunch of BS? I know the property well as I rented it myself for 3 years and was a regular guest there of the previous tenant who moved out in march. So I know exactly what was in there. The stuff that was moved in was driven in truckloads straight past my living room window as I live just up the street. So, yes, people did see the stuff.

A lot of effort for plates and pillows agreed but many times the value of the deposit in stolen goods is a nice little earner. Tv's, stereos etc etc.

Landlord not lax just trusting by nature.

The storage stuff belonged to the tenant.

Back to the BS issue. I can understand with few posts some might think I am a troll. Believe me I am not.

Steve

Its not about trust, its about business. You should ALWAYS confirm the ID and take copies. Its so easy to rent here in Thailand noone ever asks for references etc.

So its high risk if the deposit doesnt cover the value of the goods included in the rental.

Sent from my GT-N7100 using Thaivisa Connect Thailand mobile app

[Beetlejuice]

My sister in law once rented out a furnished house to an Australian guy and his Thai girlfriend.

They seemed a nice decent couple and at the time my sister in law, being naive in those days, did not bother to take a deposit, she took the couple at face value (big mistake). A month later my sister in law went to collect the rent, but found the house empty, most of the furniture had gone and what was left was ruined as the couple had left the stuff outside in the rain including the electricity bill. They even took the house keys and all the locks had to be replaced. During their stay it later became apparent that they had run everything, including the air conditioning, at full blast 24 hours per day.

After that experience my sister in law decided that was going to be the end of her renting days and later sold the house.

I don`t think renting to tenants is worth all the stress and trouble.

[daveAustin]

And no-one noticed them moving out, carting all their stuff, and called them. Sh.it happens and they're stoopid for not taking IDs; however, it's still like Thai/farang 100000000/3.

[Seastallion]

And no-one noticed them moving out, carting all their stuff, and called them. Sh.it happens and they're stoopid for not taking IDs; however, it's still like Thai/farang 100000000/3.

That's probably the reason for the stored stuff, to act as a cover for removal of everything else.

[arminbkk]

And no-one noticed them moving out, carting all their stuff, and called them. Sh.it happens and they're stoopid for not taking IDs; however, it's still like Thai/farang 100000000/3.

That's probably the reason for the stored stuff, to act as a cover for removal of everything else.

I think what he meant was, when they moved out again, they had even more stuff to move, so how did that go unnoticed, also by OP?

[somchaismith]

Many landlords never return deposits.

[stevehhd]

How it went without being noticed? Fairly simple. There is an empty back road from the house that avoids all the residential properties in the soi and the main road of the village. Most of the neighbours work and/or have social lives so easy to time when nobody around or asleep.

Edited May 11, 2014 by stevehhd

[cup-O-coffee]

Landlords beware? How about, "Idiots, brace yourselves again!"

[chrisinth]

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Quote

Bunch of BS? I know the property well as I rented it myself for 3 years and was a regular guest there of the previous tenant who moved out in march. So I know exactly what was in there. The stuff that was moved in was driven in truckloads straight past my living room window as I live just up the street. So, yes, people did see the stuff.

A lot of effort for plates and pillows agreed but many times the value of the deposit in stolen goods is a nice little earner. Tv's, stereos etc etc.

Landlord not lax just trusting by nature.

The storage stuff belonged to the tenant.

Back to the BS issue. I can understand with few posts some might think I am a troll. Believe me I am not.

Steve

Steve, trusting or not, the landlord is/was lax. If they are willing to lease property without proper identification or a contract, signed by the tenant, then they are looking at trouble happening. Cover your @ss should be the key phrase here.

Yes, there are a lot of honest people out there, but also a lot of dishonest ones as well...................