SKB
Hello Everyone :)Long time lurker, first time poster, so please be gentle!Firstly I'd like to say a big thank you to everyone on this forum- we have learnt so much and clarified so much information from your responses to things throughout the forum :)My partner and I have decided to make the move to Bali in January. We are initially renting for one-year to see how we go before making any longer term decisions.On our recent trip over we looked for a property to rent, having no luck with the real estate agents we walked the areas that we are interested in and called the advertisements that we found on the poles around the area.We found a place that we are very interested in and have agreed on a price with the owner, through the Finder. We are organising a trip back to meet the owner, go over and sign the contract (once all agreed upon) and pay the deposit.I have received an email today from the Finder saying that we will be paying some of his fee, I was under the (perhaps wrong?) impression that the owner would pay it. Is this correct that we should be paying the fee? It was just something that we hadn't budgeted for..We will probably have many more questions as we get closer to the big move but will start with just the one ;)Thank you in advance for any help/advice.
davita
If you found the property from a pole....you are the finder...the rest is B/S...ignore him.If the owner asked that 3rd party to find a tenant then he pays the fee. Of course...depending on how much is being squeezed there may be a compromise, if not much money, just to keep the peace.If threats are involved...you threaten to call the police and see the tout and the owner run....'coz I'll bet they are NOT complying with law somewhere. I highly recommend you pay a notary to do the transaction and ensure the 'owner' is genuinely the owner.
SKB
Thanks for your response Davita :)I didn't think it sounded right. There have been no threats (yet!) just a simple email asking for a percentage of the yearly rental cost as his fee. We'll have a think on how to respond as I don't want to get off on the wrong foot, so maybe best just to accept it and move on.Thank you for the advice, we will definitely get a notary to go over everything before we sign or hand any money over! Do you have any idea of the costs involved?Do you know of many people that have found rental properties this way? We were feeling very good about it but now getting a little worried..!
Smoke
The seller or renter pays any fees.to be more specific the one that recieves the money pays the commision
SKB
Thank you Smoke. That's also what I thought!
DenpasarHouse
Hi SKB, when we rented out our current house a couple of years ago we definitely didn't pay any extra for the agent. But I did learn a lesson that has stayed with me ever since.That is, you can't trust a single thing the agent/finder tells you. Every single person between you and the actual owner is just another for opportunity for them to play Chinese Whispers.For example, the agents ad for our house mentioned AC, we then inspected the property with the agent and the AC was pointed out. We've signed the lease and I ask about getting the remote controls for the AC units and I'm then told that none of the AC work and it's not included in the lease. Aduh! I hit the roof and got what I wanted, but I then realised that I'd destroyed all the good will between us and the owners.In short, I suppose the lesson is to double check all the details with the owner before you sign.Also, all lease agreements have to be reported to the Kantor Lurah and a tax paid. It's pretty likely the owner will not do this, but I'm not sure if this will have any ramifications for you, probably not. We ended up paying, but I'm not sure if we were supposed to. They only reason we did this is because my wife had to enter the local banjar so that I could get my KITAS (or was it the SKTT, I forget).Middlemen truly are a curse. Good luck!
SKB
Hi DenpasarHouseThank you for your response. This certainly has me worried and questioning everything the Finder has told me! I will be sure to go over all of the information we have received from him with the owner.Did you use a notary when you first rented your place?Do you mind me asking how much the tax you paid to the Kantor Lurah was?Thank you again for your advice, we will definitely remember that!
Smoke
The owners are supposed to inform the Banjar with a copy of tenents ID ( usually passport copy is used)maybe ask owner about Banjar monthly fees and garbage collection fee also
SKB
We have already asked about the Banjar and garbage removal fee. The 'Finder' told us that the Banjar, garbage removal and security are all included in the cost. However, I will be triple-checking that with the owner after the advice from DenpasarHouse!He also told us that it was used as a holiday rental, that was rented out by the day. We asked about a website where it was listed (this was purely to show family photos) but we were told there isn't any. I have also trawled the internet trying to find some information on it to no avail.The sign that we found this rental on had a company name on it, their website has now been down for the past few days. It's all becoming a bit concerning..
spicyayam
Here is my suggestion:Make an agreement at a notary's office with the owner and the owner's spouse if they are married. Bring a local friend as a witness. Make it clear in the agreement who pays for garbage collection, repairs, staff, electricity etc. For example: First party agrees to pay.... Second party agrees to pay.... Also include is you can rent/sub lease the property out, if that is what you want to do. Also, what happens in the event the owner sells the property, like getting a refund on the remaining rent. Get the agreement translated if you can't understand it. That is all I can think of for now.
DenpasarHouse
You're welcome SKB, I hope it helps.Did you use a notary when you first rented your place?[/QUOTE]Nope, but I did translate the contract myself using [URL="https://translate.google.com/#id/en/"]Google Translate[/URL] and [URL="http://indodic.com"]IndoDic[/URL]. Luckily it was fairly simple and legit.Do you mind me asking how much the tax you paid to the Kantor Lurah was?[/QUOTE]Sorry, I don't remember. It wasn't too much, maybe 5%. Again, I don't think you should worry about this. We only had to have it registered so that my wife could enter the local banjar so that I could get my KITAS (or SKTT, I forget now). It was about 4 months after we'd moved in and although the office clerk look annoyed, there were no penalties for being late.
