Do decent landlords even exist in Hong Kong?

[axama]

Genuine question. Had a couple things give out and need replacing during my year long contract. Landlord never fixed/replaced anything though indicated she would (and not my responsibility to pay for). Now washer/dryer breaks. Landlord moving slow and putting off repairing/replacing. Excuses about needing time to get quotes for the cost to repair or cost to replace with a new one instead.

Really tired of it. Don't want to ruffle her feathers too much because I'm moving out in 2 weeks and want my deposit back.

Is this the typical standard for landlords in Hong Kong? Do I have to literally beg her so she can just take basic care of her own property? I don't get it.

So, what are your landlord horror stories?

[Plutark]

out of 10 years and 10 different landlords, I only had one that was shit but I fucked off after a month and got my deposit back. The one I have now is awesome, she replaced our AC, Fridge, Microwave, all the locks in the flat, never argued about the price etc...
I'm touching wood but I have been lucky so far.

I even had a landlady giving me 1 month of rent free because she made us leave early. And another one offering free rent after I lost my job.

[ByeByeEngland]

My previous landlord was fantastic. Anything needing fixing and someone was round same day, sometimes within the hour, always by the time stated. It was a ridiculous
Rent hike after six years that made me move.

The place was fantastic but this place is even better except for the landlady. Any excuse not to perform repairs. One AC leaks to which the answer is don’t use it. I could live with that but the big one in the living room went bang a few weeks back. Excuse after excuse (Covid blah blah blah).

My rent is up for renewal next month and I have more than just a feeling she’s going to be asking for 10 to 15 percent when in reality i would have thought I should expect a reduction or worst case flat. To compound that she refused and continues to refuse tonstamp the rental agreement so I don’t get the tax break (and I understand that I’m jointly culpable).

Thing is 1 I don’t want to leave 2 I don’t want the upheaval and cost of moving 3 I haven’t had a meaningful pay rise for years and am expecting zero for the third year on the spin this year, so I’ll probably argue down to 6 or 7 percent. I know others would probably be stronger than me.

[traineeinvestor]

Plenty of deadbeat tenants out there. But most of them pay the rent and don't trash my property so I'm not going to generalise based on a few bad experiences.

[D.YU]

Ive lived in 9 places in 8 years.

I can safely say 7 out of 9 are money grubby douchebags who only care about money and avoid all landlord responsibilities if possible. 1 out of 9 is "okay", no issues because she was never in HK and I paid on time.

Only 1 landlord, I can say hands down, the best. My current landlord. She cooks for me regularly and even cut my rent when I asked. She offered to cut more than I expected so I decided to pay 1k over her reduced rent...

You guys will never get a landlord like mine. Lol

[aw451]

Mines alright. If anything goes wrong he just asks me to get it fixed / replaced at my convenience and deduct it from the next bill. We don't have a formal contract anymore so we're both taking a bit of a risk but it's working out so far.

[FrancisX]

Had good, had bad. The bad only materialised when we were moving and they tried to hustle money off the deposit. Lesson learned and I never left a house waiting on a deposit - used it as last month(s) rent instead. Otherwise my experience is of landlords leaving us alone. Mostly.

Current landlord is great, although we haven't tried to move out yet

[Rob2020]

I've had the same landlord for a very long time... Been very good, if something breaks it gets fixed ASAP.
This has included AC's (of course) and even a broken water pipe.
Even the rental increases (unwelcome as expected) have always been fair.

No complaints whatsoever.

[Cegaiga]

Had 3 landlords. All were great.

Although I never had a problem and always paid on time. Deposits back with ease.

Don't know if this is a factor to consider, but always lived in estates.

[fruitsalad]

I've always rented renovated appartements with recent appliances. The rents are a bit more expensive but at least it tells me the landlord is willing to attract tenants and not trying to cut expenses. So probably not relying solely on that property as an income.
So far so good !