Rental security deposit - need advise

[yt2611]

What are my options?

Stayed in a rented condo for 2 years (full contrat tenure), a written 1 month notice was given when moving out. Post move out owner claims costs pertaining to - Painting of the condo and floor polishing from me. Contract covers damage recovery , with acceptable wear and tear due to usual use. No furniture was moved to ruin the polish , there were 8 nails fixed on the walls to fix some photos. In my opinion this is normnal wear n tear when you rent out a condo.Owner has earned 1.2 M Thb in 2 years and is now claiming Thb 45000/- towards these costs from me. As I understand she is using my deposit amount to refurbish her appartmetn to rent it out again. Seems unethical , what can I do? What are my options to ensure I only pay for somethig that is actually considered as damage or cleaning costs.

Any advise appreciated.

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[TramsRepus]

Let everyone here know who she is and which condo we should avoid in the future. I had the same problems at Sukhumvit Park at Soi 10 in BKK. I got ripped off on 100 000 Baht from a really bad person who just ignored me and my phone calls. The law-firm i contacted, did not help much either.

Edited August 3, 2014 by TramsRepus

[konying]

You have a number of options.

The easiest and most effective one would be to ask the owner for tax invoices for all the damage they would be fixing,BECAUSE you will be contacting Tax Revenue Department to make sure all is paid.

My bet, owner never paid any tax on rental property, you would find his/her attitude change to your favor pretty fast.

Thai tax office is no different to other countries but unlike many other agency in Thailand, they do not sweep reports under the rug, they actually go after money owed.

Not a pleasant experience.

[yt2611]

Thank you for the input !

I understand "legally" probably no hope and stand no chance.

Requesting tax receipts , may help I guess , I have been paying rent through bank transfers ,doesnt that mean it is "accounted for" as income and liable for tax? Atleast that's how it works back home. But good suggestion, I can at least be sure she actually paid for what she's claiming from me

Incase it helps, please beware before you rent - the condo is in 33 Tower, sukhumvit soi 33, unit 66/33 or 6/1 .

Thanks again

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[konying]

Thank you for the input !

I understand "legally" probably no hope and stand no chance.

Requesting tax receipts , may help I guess , I have been paying rent through bank transfers ,doesnt that mean it is "accounted for" as income and liable for tax? Atleast that's how it works back home. But good suggestion, I can at least be sure she actually paid for what she's claiming from me

Incase it helps, please beware before you rent - the condo is in 33 Tower, sukhumvit soi 33, unit 66/33 or 6/1 .

Thanks again

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Bank account payments do not count because in Thailand , nothing is connected.

Landlord actually has to register/ declare rental property, but nobody does.

If you owned the property , why would you if no way to check.

So the "threat" of reporting landlord does usually work as revenue department would want back tax from the day he/ she bought it plus interest plus a fine.

[ginglee]

From a landlords point of view, the property should have been put back as it was when you moved in. So the nails should have been removed, and walls re-painted or touched in. As for the floor, ask her for photographic evidence, and receipts for work done. In any case 45,000baht seems far to excessive, taking into account the average working guy gets 400baht per day. Don't let it go she's taking the p**** out of you.

[Cuddlycat]

From a landlords point of view, the property should have been put back as it was when you moved in. So the nails should have been removed, and walls re-painted or touched in. As for the floor, ask her for photographic evidence, and receipts for work done. In any case 45,000baht seems far to excessive, taking into account the average working guy gets 400baht per day. Don't let it go she's taking the p**** out of you.

I agree that B45,000 is way too much. I used to rent a service apartment in Soi 16 and Ratchada. Both places mentioned how much it will cost us when we move out.

I remember with the Ratchada one the contract said it will be 20% of the rent. I told get it's too much. As we did not nail anything on the wall just let it be the way it was. I negotiated to be B1,000 for the cleaning. Of course, it was not a luxury condo compare to Soi 33.

B45,000 sounds ridiculous to me, if I may say.

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[yt2611]

thanks for the inputs guys ! Atleast Iam glad Iam not the only one feeling cheated with the situation.

Will work with some ideas and let you know how it goes. Cheers

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[TVeronica]

Find your own contractor and get the quotation then fix the property back to its old conditions and habitable, job done.

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[Cuddlycat]

Find your own contractor and get the quotation then fix the property back to its old conditions and habitable, job done.

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Nice thought. But I don't think the landlord will let him.

In the past, any contract I used to sign always mentioned how much it would cost me for a nail and painted. I still feel that what she/he asked from OP is way too much.

Hopefully they can compromise

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[TVeronica]

Yep its all depends on the Landlord.

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[yt2611]

I proposed that already when he mentioned the costs to me. she came back claiming she's already got the job done, as she wanted to put to place out for rent again. Apparently she didn't want to wait or waste time !

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[Cuddlycat]

I proposed that already when he mentioned the costs to me. she came back claiming she's already got the job done, as she wanted to put to place out for rent again. Apparently she didn't want to wait or waste time !

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If so there is nothing you can do but take it as a lesson. If you plan to rent other place I would suggest you to let them mention the amount in the contract.

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[yt2611]

Well ! Trying to talk her into being reasonable didn't work ! When I asked for tax receipts for the work she got done - she expects me to pay VAT as well , beat that. I refused to give in and now waiting I see how much deposit she actually refunds ! Most likely she won't give a damn n deduct a months rent !

Question - is there any way I can initiate a tax audit for her , to ensure he has to pay tax for the rent I've been paying last 2 years? (Which most likely she hasn't paid).

Thanks

[johndulong]

My one of friend faced this problem; you should take care while you deposit the rental security.

www.sellhalifaxrealestate.com

Edited August 25, 2014 by johndulong

[Bear0Mack]

I have also had trouble with rental property owners. I authorised a 1 year contract based on this advertisement. The advertisement states that the property is 700m from the MRT, but in fact it's a 2100m walk. This is a huge difference, and a deal breaker. Before you ask, I was not in the country at the time. My girlfriend found and rented out the property after consulting me.

As such, we'd like to move out immediately. The owner, Pong, out right lied to us in Thai and English. But Pong will not return to us the 2 months rent deposit.

I have researched Thai law, and found that it is illegal to advertise incorrectly or to mislead in Thailand, so he is definitely breaking the law.

Any advice on how we can handle this situation?

[blackcab]

In reality you are going to get nowhere. Trying to enforce advertising law in Thailand is going to be a long and costly affair. It's going to cost you more in lawyer's fees than what you could recover.

It's not nice, but welcome to Thailand. Never trust anyone who is selling you something. Be sceptical and do your own research first. Not everyone is like this, but it happens enough that people should take care.

In this case a quick check of Google maps would have allowed you to measure the distance yourself.