Hua Hin property rental cowboys abound

[richard]

Have had three friends turned over IMO in recent weeks.

1) Guy wants a condo for 1 week and likes the ambiance and location of Condo Chain. Reception say no rooms. Agent outside steps in and shows him rooms at Sports Villa and Condo Chain. Despite my advice he takes a studio (run down) room in CC for a week. 6000 Bht plus 4000 deposit

2) Guy seeks the same but at least a month until settled. Condo Chain he thinks ideal. Reception say no room. Agent steps in. Result reasonable studio room for 11000 a month for 3 months minimum and a deposit of 33000 up front.

3) Guy moves out of guest house and finds a condo near soi 80 for 5000 a month. Takes it for a month with 10000 deposit only to find the electrics are incomplete. No going back as staff 'not understand'

OK, many will say they are stupid and got what they deserve. All agreed they should have listened to me and others before parting with money.

The agent in the first 2 cases is a waitresses I been told in El Murphys.

So all newbies use the forum firstly for advice, secondly ask around.

As a long term tenant of CC I had thought about raising it with the new management committee but are reluctant to put my oar in. Despite the fact I rent privately I still utilise CC facilities. Methinks it is either the new committees policy or some backhanders are going between staff and an agent or a combination of the 2. I shall be curious to see if the ones in CC get any of their deposits back

ADMIN and Mods, please note I have encouraged to use the facilities offered by the forum but as they say 'you can lead a horse to........' I would say I get asked at least three times a week about selling, renting out by many punters

[JW]

I guess guy number 3 found the place himself - it cant be called a condo it sounds much more like a room in one of the many apartment buildings.

Also sounds like the title should be rental cowgirls!

[Spitfire]

Why put your 'oar in' Richard when it will come to nothing anyway? I hardly think they will 'give-a-toss' what you think.

No surprise that there are swindlers around everywhere these days and staff of all businesses, whether car showroom or hotel/accommodation related to restaurant to hookers are all dreaming up scams to rob anyone they can of whatever they can in this economical climate, but especially tourists that are not 'on-the-ball'.

Just make sure that you're not amongst the 'cannon fodder' for the scamsters.

[ste860]

ive read that twice now wheres the scam ,reception have no rooms but agent has as long as they rent them and owners are happy whats wrong ,

and richard where are el murphys involved in this ,your always having a sly dig at them

[richard]

richard where are el murphys involved in this ,your always having a sly dig at them

I have nothing against EM's. Don't use it cos it's not the best in town for me.

I couldn't care less where the Thai 'genie like' girl on a motorcycle supposed agent comes from. Hilton, Sofitel, no name bar or a food stall in the market.

My post was to warn others that in Thailand 'things/people are not always what they seem'.

Even prices on menus are not always what they seem

[sateeb]

I think most regular members do know that Dick has a vendetta against El Murph's. He just forgets what he writes sometimes.

viewtopic.php?f=3&t=17373&hilit=el+murphs&start=120

[tonymaroni]

My post was to warn others that in Thailand 'things/people are not always what they seem'.:

[/quote]


I've always found that nothing is at it seems, especially in housing transactions.

Tony

[Siani]

You do have to be one step ahead...foresight is a good thing Last year I took a place with a leaky pool...the first week I paid 1000 baht a day for the water truck to top it up, foolishly After they repaired it, it still leaked...no good, every morning the water level was below the filter/ trap, so it would not clean. I had paid 3 months up front...it was not a cheap property. They also knew about it before they let it to me, very bad really. The pool man said to me "problem before"

My son nearly got ripped of for electricity...be careful on that one, especially if your using the aircon. Take photo of the meter readings...when going in and out

[Takiap]

For all the horror stories one hears, there are the good ones too. When we first moved down to HH from Bangkok we rented a house 50 meters from the beach in Takiap. Rent was 13,000 baht per month, and we were asked for one month rent as a deposit. During our time there, rent went up for all the other units as tenants came and left, but ours stayed at 13,000 until we left two years later to come and stay in Bofai. And we got our full deposit back without any hassles at all. We had similar experience in Bangkok as well, and never once have we lost our deposit. The only time I've ever lost a deposit was when we rented a place from a farmer in Scotland............lol. Then again, he did have a reputation of being a tight bugger and we had already been told to expect it......

[buksida]

After a lot of searching our rental story was also a good one, 3 bedroom place out on the canal road for 8k per month - rent never increased in the 6 years we lived there and full deposit was returned. So - if you do your homework and a lot of searching you can get decent rentals and landlords despite the doom and gloom on here!

A note about rental agents: they will only list higher quality, more expensive, places as the landlords on the cheaper ones wont pay commissions (or to advertise them) and the agent isn't going to do all the running about and leg-work for nothing, they have a business to run.

[JW]

The staff at CC get nothing from a rentals except additional work, so they have a ""sub contractor"" who will share any commission. The girls are just taking care of each other, I doubt it even enters their minds that they are ""ripping off"" the renters - at the end of the day if the client is prepared to pay the price they ask then he deems that its worth it, that's just common business practice.

Very true coment from Buksida -

""A note about rental agents: they will only list higher quality, more expensive, places as the landlords on the cheaper ones wont pay commissions and the agent isn't going to do all the running about and leg-work for nothing, they have a business to run.""

[glassdude007]

[quote="buksida"]After a lot of searching our rental story was also a good one, 3 bedroom place out on the canal road for 8k per month - rent never increased in the 6 years we lived there and full deposit was returned. So - if you do your homework and a lot of searching you can get decent rentals and landlords despite the doom and gloom on here!

Any more like this available that you know of with same landlord???
any reccomendations from your expieriance ???
rental house wanted...LOL
cheers

[Nereus]

I will post this here, rather than start a new thread, as the prick is definitely a “cowboy.”

Last week, somebody that I know related the following to me.
He does not live in Hua Hin full time, so has his house listed with a local agent for rental. The property was let over the Christmas period to a European family for an amount in excess of 65K Baht, plus electricity at cost and maid service.

The owner has a copy of both, a contract and a pro forma invoice, setting out the details such as commission etc., and a clause saying that the rental due to the owner will be paid within three days of the client leaving the property.

Well, despite several emails and promises, the funds have still not been paid to the owner, and now emails are being ignored. This particular agent is well known in Hua Hin, although it turns out now that he no longer lives in Hua Hin, or has an office here. His Website is showing a couple of different address’s, and also a couple of different trading names, but none of the address’s are local, one of them just a PO box number.

Anybody have an idea about what can be done about this? The owner is not here, so it is difficult for him to take any action. I know what I would do, but it is not legal!
After making a few inquiries I have my doubts that this prick even has a work permit, despite all of his BS on his website, so he deserves to be deported.

So, any of you absentee owners that want to rent out your property, be warned!