About the deposited fee

As I work as a real estate agent I often see many problems between landlords and tenants. It is kind of my job to act as a judge who determines, as a neutral party, how these kinds of issues should be solved.

The biggest problem seems to be the deposit and there have been many issues concerning that. For many tenants there is some confusion about the idea of deposited money. The thing is that it is meant to be a guarantee and it can not be used as the last rental payment of the contract. It is also not meant to use for paying bills just before the agreed rental time ends.

All tenants should understand, that landlords (or people who are acting on their behalf - such as real estate agents) want to have a guarantee in exchange for their apartment and that amount of money is kept deposited until the tenant returns the key. The deposit works as a guarantee for the real estate itself and personal property in it.

I have seen many times that tenants make suggestions to landlords that they would pay the last rent from the deposited fee. In other words, they suggest that they would not pay the last rent at all. As a result, landlords kindly tell them that it is not possible, which causes a hassle between them. Usually tenants think they have been such good and punctual tenants that it would be ok to leave the last rent unpaid.

Unfortunately, in Thailand, there are thousands of cases where a good and trusted tenant suddenly becomes a monster. That is why there is no possibility to use the deposit as any payment of rent. If there was, it would be almost impossible for locals to try to catch you after your departure back to the North. In the worst case scenario for landlords, the tenant has sold the air conditioning equipment together with refrigerator and there is only a 15 000 baht bill of phone calls waiting for them in an otherwise empty apartment.

In this part you might think that it is now ME, and I would not do that. Yeah right, but how can any landlord be sure about you? The only way to get any surety is to have a deposit until the tenant leaves the apartment.

Some tenants argue that this deposited fee is not wise for them because they don't use Thai baht as currency in their homelands. True, but what can I say, well, it is not the landlord's problem, it is your problem if you don't want to exchange baht to your currency. Because it really is possible in most of the countries and there is quite small loss when exchanging money, even if it has been exchanged twice. If you have no money to do this, please stay home, because then you don't have enough money to travel to Thailand. Some of you may have thought to have a very strict budget when having a long holiday in Thailand and because of that eager to get more spending money. My advice: stay home.

In some cases the landlord returns the deposit not until several days or even weeks have gone by. He has the right to do so and it is reasonable because most of the bills (for example telephone) arrive some time after the tenant has left.

Paying the deposit and getting it back is something that can be agreed on a contract and real estate agents make these conditions fare for both parties. It is always possible for you to ask your landlord if it is possible to get deposit returned before you leave but it is unreasonable to get angry if the landlord says no. If you feel uncomfortable with this kind of arrangement with deposits, I personally think it is better for you to stay at a hotel then. And there are a lot of good hotels in Pattaya and Jomtien and they don't ask for any deposits.

I also ask you to understand the other side of lease agreements. Landlords do not try to fool you every time when things are not going as you may have thought. They will return your payment if it is said in a contract. Still, it may take a little time. But it is good to remember that even this deposited fee is the landlord's right, it is also his obligation to return it.

Please be understanding and have a nice vacation in Thailand!