My owner e-mailed on Oct 31 to increase rent 3,000HKD starting 01/01/2012. We refused, but asked for a few months more as my husband and I were supposed to have our honeymoon over Xmas holiday, he refused. So, now were are flat hunting. Later he came back with "I'm sorry, don't hate me, do you hate me? and I'll give you until Jan 6th. Then we said "No, because we already cancelled our travel plans and I need back surgery in Dec, so we'll get it done by your original Jan 1st." Next, owner responds "Will meet you on 6/1/2012 for final inspection of the apartment: proposed time is 8pm on 6/1/2012. this is the only legal plan." He knows we're here moving and we'll need that money on Dec 31, but for his convenience he's not here anyway, so he'll charge us for those days, whilehe's on holiday! He won't give us his phone number and won't meet us face-to-face. I don't want to give this guy a dime in the new year. Frustrated with the owner, do I have a next move? He's not sticking to his original agreement, we're not getting our deposit back before the holiday when I need money before the holidays for let's see.. deposit for a new apt, back surgery and dental work which my school doesn't cover. 2 teacher making an honest salary, do we have a next move? I need our damage deposit back from the owner asap. Post-dated cheque perhaps, owner is a grinch, what can I do?
happy holidays to all the grinches out there
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Maybe get your estate agent to help you out on this. We have a problem few years back where the landlord wanted his apartment back after living 1.5 yrs there and told us to take our time. We decided to move in December so we called the guy's pager (no mobile) constantly leaving messages which he didn't not get back to us. So we started moving to our new apartment cos we told him on his pager that we've moved. Next thing he calls out of the blue and said he will only pay us back half the deposit cos we didn't give him the one month's notice. My husband had been calling him for one month. Its not our fault you don't answer. In the end we went to our agent (who is a really nice guy) and sorted it out without us having to meeting the landlord. If your agent is good or at least get a manager from the agent you used to help you out. Better than dealing with a scumbag like that. Hope it goes well for you
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We wanted to withold Dec rent, but he started freaking out...getting tres dramatique or paranoid about the state of the apartment and if we ruined something and planned to flee! We are in touch with the agent, who's fairly savvy and realizes she doesn't want to be fully involved, smart lady. I'll talk with her again, although we are planning to sign with another agent, she may not feel as obliged to help. Owner hasn't contacted her, probably knowing well enough that she might get involved in the situation, he's obviously switching agencies b/c she has no idea the flat would be going on the market. She did all the heavy lifting in the deal while the owner lifted the pen to sign a contract and a good agent at least when it came to setting up the all the little particulars of the deal, is not getting repeat business, it's a shame.
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honestly, it is not uncommon if you get the deposit back between few days and a month after ur last day of accomodation, if no terms and conditions is written in this regard in the contract.
You could ask the property agent who u are now meeting for your next rented place. Tell them ur situation and ask if by any way u could get ur deposit back on Dec 31.
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All I hear from ex-pats is that they generally NEVER get their deposit back and that people don't pay the last couple of months rent because of this. One friend only got the deposit back after threatening to take the landlord to court over it. I know several people who have lived here for years with different landlords and they all tell me the same thing: landlords keep the deposit and are notoriously hard to find when it comes time to refunding, have all kinds of excuses, and the end result is that renters are resigned to it and just don't pay last two months rent.
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Very dodgy not paying last two months. Most leases have a clause about late payment after 7 days. If you are later than 7 days then landlord can file with the courts and it will end in costing money and very time consuming. It's not often landlords don't pay the deposit back and if they don't it's really easy to file with the small claims. So if you are leaving HK then you may get away with not paying last two months if not it really isn't worth the risk.
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here's one expat who has moved 5 times in 7 years, and each time i've received my deposit paid in full on the day I moved out...haven't had a bad landlord yet.
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JJChan and funbobby, that's great info! Thanks for that. It's great to hear a different story from other people with other experiences. I've honestly not heard a good landlord story since I've been here!
I was told that it's sometimes a matter of the electricity bills being in the landlord's name and they want to make sure the final bill is covered so they delay refund. My electricity bill is not in my name (which I would have preferred) but is in LL's name. Anyway, I don't plan to leave any time soon and I DO plan to be a good tenant. I would hate to be owing rent and having the LL after me. I like to be a good tenant and I'm glad to hear there are some good LLs.
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Here's another good (sucker?) landlord story. We paid back the full deposit to our last tenant on the day he handed over the keys after just a cursory inspection of the flat. Anyway, we subsequently discovered a rather large crack in the corian kitchen countertop, but which we never billed him for.
Just saying that there are fair landlords out there, and I don't think it's necessarily fair to withhold last month's rent on the assumption that you may not get your deposit back.
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Fixer
13 yrs ago
Housed, true -both sides of the coin and I am sure for every bad landlord story there are equally the same tenants-from-hell stories to tell.
And withholding rent as a means to what may or may not happen is totally wrong and goes against the lease agreement. Bad advice.
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Fixer
13 yrs ago
Absolutely Travel101!
Why would you want to hold the rent for something that may or may not happen, it's theft.
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my previous lease - we paid the rent on time every month, landlord never bothered me, i never bothered him, when we surrendered the flat, he inspected the premises and was satisfied and then read the various utility meters and we figured out what we owed in utilities and paid the landlord there and then and he gave us back our deposit - there are fair landlords out there
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withholding rent is against the agreement, the best practice that my agent suggested me was to let landlord inspect a few days before you are vacating the place and let him see the place is as he rented it initially.
take deposit back immediately at the time of handing over the keys
if landlord does any drama at that time then just do not hand over the keys since any legal action for him will take months and he would be the one losing over on renting it out to a new tenant.
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