With that type of landlord you were never going to get your deposit back anyway , they would have found something..
This is the truth.
Many of the contracts in Thailand are so basically worded that it leaves a lot of room for interpretation. And also denial to cover what should be their responsibility.
They are not going to seize your passport and the police would not even want to waste their time with something like that.. making a threat like that in itself could be considered a crime.
Send a copy of a contract to a lawyer..
Obviously that person thinks they can bully you, because you are a foreigner.
Unless they can prove that you did something wrong or negligent that caused that damage
( I doubt you went and destroyed a pipe on purpose as no normal person would do that)
That would be covered under normal wear and tear which is usually always worded in some way.
I had a bad landlord and settled with only getting 60,000 back out of my 120k deposit when I moved here for the first year . I lost 50% of my deposit even after installing an extra air conditioning upstairs. Not everyone is so great.
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Usually a lawyer will consult with you remotely for free and sometimes they will even send a notice of intent to take legal action for a small fee! .
I've lived here for 7 years. I have one Thai bank account but I almost never use it.
I know people here longer that don't have one.
The maximum insurance is only 1 million baht. So you can't give a large amount of money in there.. I keep only what I need for the LLC and regulations.
Even shopping I use Western debit cards. Good Western banks will refund any fees