tamaraofarabia
Hello to you all!
Can anyone give me their advice / personal experience on paying upfront for a 1 year villa rental.
It isn't a new concept paying such a huge amount in one lump sum as it is done here in Dubai. However it is very easy to get burnt here too !
If it is the norm to do so ,how safe is it and what are the best precautions to take ?
I have read here on the forum about having a Notary for the lease agreement ( great advice , thanks)
Im assuming going directly through the landlord is always the best !?
Thanks,
Tamaraofarabia
ronb
And it is also common enough to pay a years rent with no written contract, perhaps just a receipt, or perhaps nothing more than a handshake.
tamaraofarabia
appreciate you comments ronb
In your experience how do you know you can trust such a setup?
If they are the landlord ,surely I could ask to see the leasehold/freehold deed ,IBM and pondok wisata.
Any other pointer and advice would be greatly appreciated .
SquarePeg
Hi, Same with mostly everything, there is rarely an "always" answer. My wife and I rented a property in Sanur this January for 1 year. We went through a number of agents and local "finders". We wound up going through a finder as he found what we wanted, where we wanted it. The landlord pays the finder's fee, we signed a rental contract and all is good - so far. It's not always done to engage a notary for a 1 year agreement, but you can. We didn't.
Make sure the landlord's responsibilities are clearly stated on the contract. Our landlord has been very accommodating before and after payment. I have heard others have different experiences and they have needed to negotiate with the landlord for assistance with property issues.
Nearly always pay up front - but you can negotiate and see how you go. In fact, our landlord would not sign the rental contract until we had paid!! Not logical, I didn't like it, but I didn't want to walk away either.
ronb
Yes, maybe they are reasonable requests. But your aim is to figure out whether the guy you are talking to really has the right to offer you the rental property. Maybe an approach is to ask locals simple questions - like "I am thinking of renting X from Dewa (or whoever), will it be easy to park a car/get laundry done/travel by ojek?" From these conversations if there is something fishy about your prospective landlord you may get the hint. My point is that most Balinese property owners are straightforward to deal with.
tamaraofarabia
Thanks for your prompt reply squarepeg
Hope you are enjoy your stay thus far .
More questions if I may ;
What documentation do we need, if any ,for leasing and signing a contract?
Does the signed contract just remain in the hands of the landlord/tenant or does it get registered somewhere ?
Does it matter what sort of visa you have to rent for a year?
How did you pay that one lump sum ( can you believe it's done with cheques here still ) ?
How are the utilities usually paid , does the landlord give a monthly bill for electricity and water . What about Internet , is it easy to get it connected in your name ?
Lots of question , I'm so sorry . Just want to be as prepared as possible , as they say 'forewarned is forearmed .' Although even then you can still get shafted .
Markit
Just take the landlord to a notary and get the deed signed and witnessed there.
That's what notaries do...
ronb
Enjoy your year there. I'm sure they will deliver on their side of the deal.
Jade
Hi there, my partner and I are about to sign our lease on a villa for one year today. We had to pay a down payment in cash first to hold the property, then we meet again today once I have done the bank transfer for the rest of the money and we all sign the contract. I was able to find the villa via Facebook, I posted what I wanted and what my budget was and then people just came to me with what they had. So we met with what I suppose you could call a 'finder', although we didn't have to pay her anything, but she works on behalf on the owner of the property. So when we viewed the property both she and the landlord were there.
She has since emailed me a draft contract, which looks very professional, which we will sign today once I have done the final transfer. She also gave me a receipt of the cash down payment we made last week. I asked to view the landlords deed of ownership on the land and house and his ID, which he was all to happy to provide, even had photocopies ready for me to take home. I guess in the end it's still a large sum of money to pay in one hit, and who knows if these contracts can be enforced so you do have to have some level of trust! It all seems to be above board so far, so fingers crossed it all goes smoothly.
We only had to provide our passports for the contract to be drawn up, we tried to negotiate to rent the villa for 6 months to start with, but the owner was set on renting it for one year, said he needs to pay the mortgage! We really love the place, so decided to go for it!
JohnnyCool
Jade wroteHi there, my partner and I are about to sign our lease on a villa for one year today. We had to pay a down payment in cash first to hold the property, then we meet again today once I have done the bank transfer for the rest of the money and we all sign the contract. I was able to find the villa via Facebook, I posted what I wanted and what my budget was and then people just came to me with what they had. So we met with what I suppose you could call a 'finder', although we didn't have to pay her anything, but she works on behalf on the owner of the property. So when we viewed the property both she and the landlord were there.
She has since emailed me a draft contract, which looks very professional, which we will sign today once I have done the final transfer. She also gave me a receipt of the cash down payment we made last week. I asked to view the landlords deed of ownership on the land and house and his ID, which he was all to happy to provide, even had photocopies ready for me to take home. I guess in the end it's still a large sum of money to pay in one hit, and who knows if these contracts can be enforced so you do have to have some level of trust! It all seems to be above board so far, so fingers crossed it all goes smoothly.
We only had to provide our passports for the contract to be drawn up, we tried to negotiate to rent the villa for 6 months to start with, but the owner was set on renting it for one year, said he needs to pay the mortgage! We really love the place, so decided to go for it!
There is a difference between a lease and paying rent, even in this country. (At least in theory.)
With a formally notarised lease, the agreement terms can't be changed, like suddenly increasing the rental price. Unlike paying monthly rent on a property.
I have [B]never[/B] had to pay up-front for a lease [B]before[/B] the contract was signed. Doesn't sound quite right to me. Then again, maybe things are different in Canggu.
Good luck in any case - I wish you all the best.
davita
Jade...Im old and have lived in Asia for many years and have seen many ups and downs. From your post I would think you've done the correct process and would doubt if anything could go wrong...but such is life... be prepared and don't put all eggs in one basket.
You've met the owner and 'finder' and accepted they are genuine and signed a contract...if you or the owner are suspicious then engage, and pay for, a notary to escrow the contract and money.
Otherwise....enjoy your new villa and Bali and relax. Most Balinese [B]are[/B] honest.
Steve Rossell
Ditto Davita.
no.idea
After living in Indonesia for 17 years I recently came across a newly built 4 bedroom house for 35,000,000 a year. This is so cheap that I assumed something was wrong. I checked and everything was okay. I even talked to the owner who is in the military here. His brother was doing the deal.
Happily I paid 4 years in advance. After 4 months the owner came along and told me the price was wrong. His brother was "no good". I waited for the crunch.
He said "No! House only 25,000,000 per year. My brother rob you".
SquarePeg
tamaraofarabia wroteThanks for your prompt reply squarepeg
Hope you are enjoy your stay thus far .
More questions if I may ;
In my case, I dealt through the "finder" and met with the owner, swapped, signed and initialed physically at first, then over email with the finder when I returned to Aus prior to coming back to Sanur to live. I just provided copy of passport from memory. I got a copy of his local Id.
The owner of the property we are renting is a well known local guy, well respected, and a shop and business owner. I met his family and staff. I had a level of trust and confidence in his integrity so that I just "went with it" and didn't worry about whether anything got registered or validated by a notary. The 1 year up front rent would hurt, but wasn't going to kill my retirement if things went bad.
I obtained a retirement Visa and Kitas - sorry, I don't know what Visa you need to rent for a year. I don't think the owner would care generally. Note, the owner was required to register me with the local polisi - with a small payment and copy of my Kitas.
I did a bank transfer to the Owner's local bank account - with as many receipts and emailed sureties that I could get via my finder.
I have 2 x electricity meters - one is a postpaid meter box. This is in the owner's name - I take a recent receipt and pay at the Kantor Pos (Post Office) each month, along with mains Water usage and phone/internet. The other meter is for prepaid plus (credit). I also pay this at the Kantor Pos, but you can buy listrik pulsa at many places.
What documentation do we need, if any ,for leasing and signing a contract?
Does the signed contract just remain in the hands of the landlord/tenant or does it get registered somewhere ?
Does it matter what sort of visa you have to rent for a year?
How did you pay that one lump sum ( can you believe it's done with cheques here still ) ?
How are the utilities usually paid , does the landlord give a monthly bill for electricity and water . What about Internet , is it easy to get it connected in your name ?
Lots of question , I'm so sorry . Just want to be as prepared as possible , as they say 'forewarned is forearmed .' Although even then you can still get shafted .
no.idea
Squarepeg, you seem to have a bit of spare time today. Do you have any cold beer in your fridge? I may just call around.
SquarePeg
no.idea wroteSquarepeg, you seem to have a bit of spare time today. Do you have any cold beer in your fridge? I may just call around.
That would have been nice mate, but we've been back in Aus for a couple of weeks. Back home to Sanur tomorrow - looking forward to not splitting logs and stoking the fire to keep warm. Always a cold beer at the ready ....
