Rent Deposit, Not Returned,

[chingching]

Hi,

I entered a verbal agreement to rent a house in Pattaya. The landlord wanted a 6 month contract. I gave him about 3 months rent and a little more (9K a month; 35K total). I stayed there only 2 weeks before I realized it was not right place for me. Now he refuses to return any of the deposit. He claims that this is the way it is done here.

He is no pauper by any means.

So. ... Is he right? If I am entitled to a return of some of the deposit, is there like a small claims court or arbitration. Open to suggestions.

Thx.

[Simmo]

I had a similar situation with a deposit where a quick call to the tourist police got an immediate backdown by the apartment block owner. Worth a try.

[geoffphuket]

Hi,

I entered a verbal agreement to rent a house in Pattaya. The landlord wanted a 6 month contract. I gave him about 3 months rent and a little more (9K a month; 35K total). I stayed there only 2 weeks before I realized it was not right place for me. Now he refuses to return any of the deposit. He claims that this is the way it is done here.

He is no pauper by any means.

So. ... Is he right? If I am entitled to a return of some of the deposit, is there like a small claims court or arbitration. Open to suggestions.

Thx.

So just to clarify, Youve stayed there 2 weeks, paid 35k - and can't get anything back. You could have a problem because there should have been a signed contract between the two of you...words mean nothing here

[soap]

Hi,

I entered a verbal agreement to rent a house in Pattaya. The landlord wanted a 6 month contract. I gave him about 3 months rent and a little more (9K a month; 35K total). I stayed there only 2 weeks before I realized it was not right place for me. Now he refuses to return any of the deposit. He claims that this is the way it is done here.

He is no pauper by any means.

So. ... Is he right? If I am entitled to a return of some of the deposit, is there like a small claims court or arbitration. Open to suggestions.

Thx.

i am curious to know whats so adverse about the place,you must be intending to stay in pattaya for at least 6 months.when you agreed to rent didnt you check out the place before paying your deposit

[~G~]

Hi,

I entered a verbal agreement to rent a house in Pattaya. The landlord wanted a 6 month contract. I gave him about 3 months rent and a little more (9K a month; 35K total). I stayed there only 2 weeks before I realized it was not right place for me. Now he refuses to return any of the deposit. He claims that this is the way it is done here.

He is no pauper by any means.

So. ... Is he right? If I am entitled to a return of some of the deposit, is there like a small claims court or arbitration. Open to suggestions.

Thx.

I just don't see your point. You agreed to stay for 6 motths and paid for 3. Now you suddenly want to cancel the agreement unilateraly? why should he agree? That is exactly the point in paying in advance - making sure you stay.

[taxexile]

sub let and move on.

[steveromagnino]

Hi,

I entered a verbal agreement to rent a house in Pattaya. The landlord wanted a 6 month contract. I gave him about 3 months rent and a little more (9K a month; 35K total). I stayed there only 2 weeks before I realized it was not right place for me. Now he refuses to return any of the deposit. He claims that this is the way it is done here.

He is no pauper by any means.

So. ... Is he right? If I am entitled to a return of some of the deposit, is there like a small claims court or arbitration. Open to suggestions.

Thx.

He could take you to court for the other 3 months as you have a verbal deal. You are shorting him 3 months.

However, since verbal contracts are hard to enforce, and essentially worthless, I'd suggest either trying to sublet, or try to persuade him to accept 3 months of rent as payment, and get about 8k back (35 - 27= 8k). He might listen, but most wouldn't.

If you take him to court, you stand to lose, not gain.

[jdinasia]

Verbal agreements ARE binding to the best of my knowledge in Thailand <though extremely hard to enforce>

It would seem that you verbally agreed to rent his place for 6 months and physically took possession. Meaning if you did go to court you COULD be held liable for the remainder of the lease not to mention the utilities etc accrued during that time (minimal if empty)

Possibly you could get a refund of part of the money back if he re-rented during the time you have paid in advance for .... but I doubt it.

Do you even have a reciept showing the money you paid and what it was paid for?

[bendix]

You dont have a leg to stand on. You agreed to rent it for 6 months. You paid for three plus months in advance . . that is completely up to you. And then you reneged on the deal, and you want HIM to reimburse you?

Why would he? Why should he? You're the one who broke the deal, not him.

If anything he would have a good case to sue you for the remaining three months of the rental term.

If you go into a 7/11, buy a snickers bar, eat half of it and then decide you'd prefer a bag of peanuts, would you expect the shop assistant to reimburse you for the other half of the Snickers bar?

You can't suddenly change your mind about a deal, and then expect him to pay for it. And why is his supposed wealth relevant. A deal is a deal, regardless of one's assets.

Edited August 31, 2006 by bendix

[fxm88]

If you go into a 7/11, buy a snickers bar, eat half of it and then decide you'd prefer a bag of peanuts, would you expect the shop assistant to reimburse you for the other half of the Snickers bar?

This is a really, really bad analogy. An empty apartment is not an unsalable half-eaten snickers bar. There may be more to the story and the original poster simply failed to include all the relevant details.

I found myself in a similar situation one time a few years ago: I had a 3 month lease but I wanted to move after a couple of weeks. My landlord was constantly going on about how she had all these people who wanted to rent this apartment, so after then Nth time she mentioned turning people away I made my proposal. I figured it was win-win: I could break the contract and she could get a long-term tenant in there. Or maybe she was just BSing because she didn't seem very excited about this, but after a couple more weeks she did find a new tenant.

In the end it took about 3 months to get all my deposit back -- a few small deposits into my bank account and when I'd call she'd claim she had poor math skills and needed to have her son check the numbers.

[~G~]

Negotiate. Offer to move out now in return for some of the money.

If it's easy to find tenants in that area, the landlord might agree.

[yeasin17]

Hi,

I entered a verbal agreement to rent a house in Pattaya. The landlord wanted a 6 month contract. I gave him about 3 months rent and a little more (9K a month; 35K total). I stayed there only 2 weeks before I realized it was not right place for me. Now he refuses to return any of the deposit. He claims that this is the way it is done here.

He is no pauper by any means.

So. ... Is he right? If I am entitled to a return of some of the deposit, is there like a small claims court or arbitration. Open to suggestions.

Thx.

This is a common phenomena in Thailand. Me as a student, had a one year contract, even though we wanted to leave the house, we couldn't because of the contract. and we full filled the one year. but when we were leaving, the owner asked us to paint the whole freakin' house. We did... so.. but didn't get an penny back of the deposit amount that we gave.

for your case.. i don't think you can force a local to get the refund. if he is kind hearted (which seems he is not) they will refund you with no question.

my suggestion is that you, yourself look for someone who is interested in taking that house. And ask them to give you the advance deposit instead of giving the owner.

had a bad experience b4.. so best thing to do is never go for a long term contract.. and if u do .. try to check the place properly.. and judge yourself if you really wanna stay there or not..

good luck..

[Oleg_Rus]

All's b.s.

frist of all - go to any shop and buy cheapest tape or digital recorder.

second, go to motherF... and try to "negotiate", but make him say that he did rent that s**t hole to you and received 35K

third, go to any nice law company and ask them to put what you taped on the paper and verify it.

forth. go to police and claim felony.

don't let them lure you into any other coinversation than full 100% refund. Promise to call to MFA, to Bangkok head office, get all policemen involved, get their names, call to UN, to C.Annann, C.Rise - make as much noise as possible -> you'll play on thai weakness of "keeping face" or "not loosing one"

smart ass will pay you back just to get out from the spotlight, beleive me.

Don't give up, or else you'll be screwed in siam on daily basis

[steveromagnino]

All's b.s.

frist of all - go to any shop and buy cheapest tape or digital recorder.

second, go to motherF... and try to "negotiate", but make him say that he did rent that s**t hole to you and received 35K

third, go to any nice law company and ask them to put what you taped on the paper and verify it.

forth. go to police and claim felony.

don't let them lure you into any other coinversation than full 100% refund. Promise to call to MFA, to Bangkok head office, get all policemen involved, get their names, call to UN, to C.Annann, C.Rise - make as much noise as possible -> you'll play on thai weakness of "keeping face" or "not loosing one"

smart ass will pay you back just to get out from the spotlight, beleive me.

Don't give up, or else you'll be screwed in siam on daily basis

Only problem. There is no felony, there is a verbal contract for 6 months, and the OP has decided that they don't want to honour the terms of the contract.

6 month lease at 9k per month = 63k. Has already paid up 35,000b. Therefore... your tape and going to a court will require an additional payment, not refund.

This leasor is not a MF. The poster leasee has a contract, and is trying to wriggle out of it, by making the leasor go to the effort of leasing the place again to someone else and then get money back.

Recall the 1/2 eaten snickers. Perhaps a better example is something with intrinsic value.

Having been a landlord (and therefore rich enough to own the place I was renting) I can't see why the landlord should be unreasonable, but I also can't see why the landlord should be made to give the money back unless the OP find the landlord another tenant.

[~G~]

smart ass will pay you back just to get out from the spotlight, beleive me.

Chances are the landlord is much better connected with Pattaya police than this guy.

And what kind of spotlight do you expect to get for a 35K deal?

If I was the landlord and someone pulled this kind of shit on me, I'd file a complaint for harrasment plus sue the tenant not only for the next 3 months, but for hundrends of thousands of baht "damages" to the unit. Then see who blinks first.

[~G~]

All's b.s.

frist of all - go to any shop and buy cheapest tape or digital recorder.

second, go to motherF... and try to "negotiate", but make him say that he did rent that s**t hole to you and received 35K

third, go to any nice law company and ask them to put what you taped on the paper and verify it.

forth. go to police and claim felony.

don't let them lure you into any other coinversation than full 100% refund. Promise to call to MFA, to Bangkok head office, get all policemen involved, get their names, call to UN, to C.Annann, C.Rise - make as much noise as possible -> you'll play on thai weakness of "keeping face" or "not loosing one"

smart ass will pay you back just to get out from the spotlight, beleive me.

Don't give up, or else you'll be screwed in siam on daily basis

Only problem. There is no felony, there is a verbal contract for 6 months, and the OP has decided that they don't want to honour the terms of the contract.

6 month lease at 9k per month = 63k. Has already paid up 35,000b. Therefore... your tape and going to a court will require an additional payment, not refund.

This is not the point - Oleg_Rus is suggesting that the OP will try to intimidate the landlord . Didn't you know we have a Mafia Boss on board?

[bendix]

One of the most annoying things about modern life is people's unwillingness to accept responsibility for their own actions. It's always 'someone else's fault.'

This is a black and white issue. He agreed to rent it for six months. He paid for three. And he is whining that he's the victim.

Victim my arse!

He is an adult with freewill. I assume he wasn't tortured into choosing the house and making the agreement. He then unilaterlly decides to break the agreement he freely entered into, because he suddenly didnt like the place. Oh dear, how sad. If he changed his mind later, why should that affect the landlord's rights to be reimbursed for that contract?

OK, maybe the snickers analogy is stretching it a bit much. Let's use a more relevant analogy.

Let's assume he bought the house, not rented it. One would hope he would be savvy enough to really decide it was ok before he bought it. If after two weeks of living there he then decided it was no good, would the seller be obliged to give him his money back? I dont think so.

Yes, there may be some issues we are not aware of. We dont know that because he didnt post it. He asked for views on the issue, and we provided views based on what he posted.

[Dragonman]

Hi,

I entered a verbal agreement to rent a house in Pattaya. The landlord wanted a 6 month contract. I gave him about 3 months rent and a little more (9K a month; 35K total). I stayed there only 2 weeks before I realized it was not right place for me. Now he refuses to return any of the deposit. He claims that this is the way it is done here.

He is no pauper by any means.

So. ... Is he right? If I am entitled to a return of some of the deposit, is there like a small claims court or arbitration. Open to suggestions.

Thx.

You would need to prove unjust enrichment through the breach. As you backed out, did not request a written contract, presumably paid cash and he is left with a property he may or may not re-let within the next 3 months, forget it.

[kudroz]

I am so aggrevated by the OP's message. What the hel_l are you thinking? The whole point of agreeing to pay in advance is so you don't back off in the middle of the agreement and he loses money.

You agreed to stay there for 6 months and regardless if you have a written tenancy agreement or not - it's the principle that you entered into an (verbal) agreement with that person saying that you were to stay there for 6 months. If you ain't - don't come here and cry because he keeps the security deposit...

Unless there is a major fault with the house of the landlord blatantly hid or lied about the conditions of the house or w/e - you have no grounds for crying over it.