Supposedly, we have one more month to go before we finally move out of our current apartment. But due to unforeseen circumstances, we have to go. Oh and we can’t seem to find our apartment owner anywhere. So there goes our deposit…
A couple of weeks before I gave birth, we went apartment hunting. Now, the apartment that I want has been occupied already. Now, I’m left to find another apartment within the week ASAP!
I’m seeing more apartments I don’t like. Like this:
The kitchen is the first thing you see when you get in. 😦 The sadder part is that this apartment is really nice except for this feature! All the other rooms are terrific! I wanted to weep.
To top it off, I received a hate SMS from my agent who thought I was an agent:
“Hi Lyra. If I found you r an agent and try to trick me u are in deep trouble with me. You cant never do bussiness in Phu My Hung.”
That’s the exact message. :((
For the love of God, I’m looking for an apartment and not looking to steal your products woman!
I wanted to report her but to whom?
Sigh.
Hello Saigon! 
Seriously!! Id be reporting her to her boss for starters.
Secondly to the police. However, you are in Vietnam.. so I do not know how things *work* there.
As for your current land lord disappearing.. How can they make you vacate IF they cant be found? You are entitled to your deposit. Sounds VERY fishy to me. Someone , somewhere knows and is making money off your back. I am horrified to read you are going through all this.
Hi Sara! The trouble is the agent I believe is THE boss of her own agency. And I haven’t met her but she sends her minions every time I go apartment hunting.
Would love to report her to the police but I’d probably have a difficult time explaining. 😦
As long as you are clear of your old apartment you should be OK.
Send a REGISTERED LETTER (the VND6,000 rate which gets you proof of delivery – the VND 3,000 doesn’t) to your landlord and state you have vacated your property but you will not surrender keys until you get a deposit refund.
Also contact rental agent, if you had one, Rental laws are very weak in VN and often LL siimply bribes the local Cong An to act tough. They usually back down if you get angry with them. Type out a bilingual document using Google Translate (it’s what the police use now) to explain your situation. Keep on waiving a piece of paper with the amount of the VND deposit – one thing police understand is money.
If a condominium, the condo office should have contact numbers.
There is no realty business association, just another unsupervised crowd of sharks. As it is a civil matter Cong An have no business in it.
Besides, what’s your old man doing about it?
Thanks Jay for the suggestion. The number of the owner is unlisted unfortunately. The agent I used has fled as well. I have a lead on where the owner lives but every time I come by, no one answers.
So, no need to surrender your keys then, right? hard to understand who’s making you move out even – this is one of those posts that cries of injustice everywhere!
Hi Michael, we don’t exactly need to move out but we have to process our residence certificate and need “papers” from the owner which we need for the processing. Sad to say, the owner never gave us the “papers” and we our residency is expiring so we need those ASAP.