Rental nightmares in Cambodia

I personally did have a bad experience in Kampot.  I rented a house outside of town.  The house was nice .  After moving in things went south .  I was inundated with insects including many roaches.  The AC would not keep the house cool.  I'm American , my neighbors were all Americans . They turned out to be snobs who wouldn't even speak.   The area was  some what isolated from Cambodian neighbors.     I started wishing I was closer to town.  I signed a years lease but after 3 months I decided to leave . I signed the lease with a finger print.  I paid up the rent and electric for the month then left with out a notice.  I immediately left Cambodia.  Now I want to return but leary of immigration since they have my finger prints  from the lease.     

I have just moved to a new apartment. I spent a year in a well-known condominium in Phnom Penh. I failed to do due diligence and only found out after moving in that there were two small shops where delivery drivers would congregate every night for some serious drinking and singing. This often went on until well into the next day.

The management company did not really care and just told me that the local Sangkat was not willing to intervene. In desperation, I had double-glazed windows put in at considerable cost to myself.

However, the problem was not solved as now a lot of noise started from within the building; I suspect from some machinery. Sleep was impossible and my physical and mental health were taking a hit. Once again, the management company couldn't care less.

Add to this all the other small issues such as a serious cockroach infection, smoking Chinese tenants everywhere, and a bad layout of the apartment, and it was time for us to pull the plug. Normally cockroaches do not bother me, I live in SE Asia after all, but numbers here were ridiculous.

We now move to a brand new building with zero noise and an owner that goes out of his way to make our stay comfortable.

We live in rural Siem Reap in a three bedroom house my Khmer partner found for $220 a month. It is not where I would choose to live so my advice is to spend a little time on the location. Our landlord will only repair or maintain things if our renewing the lease is close. Otherwise not much really gets done. The house is generally okay to live in but our neighborhood is noisy and since it's a few km from town, one needs to have a moto or take passapp. I spend each day walking some miles so I can get to town when I want. I would advise to carefully look at properties and their location. Ask the agent or take your time to look around a bit. Our house has no real grocery stores around besides local shops. Coffee shops which I spend a lot of time in most days have become more present. Look at the road and its condition especially in "green" season.  I would always advise if you can to have a concrete road servicing your apartment. Take a lot of pictures of the roof and the conditions in the house as it is when you move in. Never can tell when they will come in handy. One barang here told me it's all about "location location location". This is very true here in Siem Reap. But it's also easy to just move. I would not really care about breaking the lease since it's one month's rent we paid and I've felt it would be worth it to find another place.

Finally look at the inside of the house. Does it have basic comforts you may want? Where are the electrical ports in the bedroom and the AC units? How does the kitchen look? Are the bathrooms generally okay looking?

We lived before in a much nicer house and the owner was over to ask after us and whether anything needed fixing weekly. He lived a few blocks away. Now the landlord lives across the street. I don't much care for that. I think sometimes if the owner lived further away things would be better. I don't like the noise in the evenings and the lack of privacy.

Just some things that we found a few times in Siem Reap renting properties. Some good, some bad. Some like this house somewhere between. A few places I think are nice to go looking include Wat Bo, Wat Damnak and Taphul Street. These places are blessed with really nice restaurants, pubs, coffee shops and service locations. its worth it to take a little time and renting or changing is not hard.

I have had exceptionally good experiences renting in Siem Reap. Of course, there are always scam artists, but Ex-Pats can be scam artists too, which is one of the reasons that landlord will vet you so carefully; some folks will just skip town and hope to get away with it. This leaves the rest of us stained by association.

My experience has been that once your integrity is established, it becomes much easier to navigate. I had to leave in the middle of a one year lease and asked to end the lease early. My landlords would not go for this, but they offered to downgrade me to a smaller unit in the same building thereby saving me a considerable amount of money in the long run. Now that I have established a relationship based on trust, things are much easier because I can return there or get recommendations from them.

Read your lease carefully (in English obviously) and get other eyes on it to double check it. Video everything in real time during your walkthrough and as you are signing the lease. Often times, landlords will agree on camera to fix or modify things while they are on camera. Video as a record of a business transaction can have a positive effect memories of verbal agreements.

Vet your landlord as carefully as they are vetting you. And be sure to ask about noises during holidays and celebrations. One place I lived was marvelous but I was awakened many mornings by blaring music from nearby 6am aerobics classes.

In my experience renting in Phnom Penh is easy as long as you are careful.  Prices are a lot higher than other parts of the country but you can find reasonably well-kept accommodation for not much money.  My last apartment there was a 2 bed flat, over 100sqm in BKK2/3 for $450/month.  No gym or swimming pool but it was reasonably quiet and tidy. 

1. I'd recommend using a reputable estate agent like realestate.com.kh or camrealty.com.
2. Listings you find online are hardly ever actually available.  They usually work more like adverts to get people to contact estate agents.
3. Always visit the property before signing anything or handing over any money.  There are lots of very badly maintained buildings in Phnom Penh that stink of cigarette smoke and have a generally unclean presentation. 
4. Consider renting higher up if you want to avoid mosquitoes and noise from the street (above 6th floor is usually enough). Do not expect to be able to avoid cockroaches or ants from time to time.  It's not possible.  They will find a way in.  Just accept it and move on.