Who Pays for Pool and Garden Care in Phuket?

Who usually pays for the pool and the garden?

The general rule on the island is simple: what depends on how you live is paid by the tenant, and what belongs to the property is paid by the owner. Electricity and water are yours, while the estate's charge for the grounds and security usually stays with the owner. The pool and the garden are where that line most often blurs.

On short stays the owner or the management company almost always arranges both, and all you need is to know the schedule and not be surprised by people on the plot. On stays of several months both versions turn up: some owners keep paying the pool team and the gardener, others pass the work on to the tenant.

In estates and complexes the service is most often included, since a shared team does it and the tenant hires nobody. Renting directly from a private owner without a management company is different: there, cleaning and pool service are organised by you or not organised at all.

Send your dates in the chat with the number of guests and bedrooms. We come back with houses we have looked at and, for each one, who services the pool and garden, how often, and what we did not like. Ask us for the current rate of the houses that fit.

How often does a villa pool need service?

A pool in the tropics needs service two to three times a week: cleaning, a filter check and chemicals. Any less and the water clouds within days, and cloudy water is the complaint guests raise about villas more than any other.

The rains raise the pace. Downpours and leaves cloud the water, the pump runs longer and plants grow faster, so the pool and the garden need about twice the attention. Left alone, a pool turns green within a week in the rainy season, and a once-a-week visit that is enough in the dry months is not enough then.

The tenant's share between visits is small. Leaves on the overflow grille and in the skimmer are worth clearing yourself, because a blocked skimmer cuts filtration and the water clouds sooner.

The garden

A garden here grows fast, and a large plot needs a gardener on a regular schedule. On a long stay that is a noticeable line in the budget, so find out who pays for it at the same time as you ask about the pool.

TipThe leaf net usually sits in the technical cupboard next to the pump. Two minutes with it in the morning and complaints about the water mostly stop.

What changes on a long lease?

On a year's lease the owner becomes a landlord, and much of what happens inside the gate becomes the tenant's responsibility, down to the state of the garden. That is why the pool and garden lines need names next to them: who does the work, how often, and who pays for it. Our page on long-term villa rental covers the rest of that shift.

Many long-stay tenants switch to their own helper two or three times a week for cleaning. It costs less than a management company's service, but you find and brief the person yourself. The pool is not like cleaning: its visit schedule is the one thing in the house that cannot be put off.

Consumables are a separate question: pool chemicals, rubbish bags, light bulbs and gas for the stove. Small items, yet on long contracts they sometimes sit in the fine print.

Electricity belongs on the same list. The pool pump runs whether you are home or not, and it ends up on your meter, so read our page on villa electricity bills before agreeing a tariff. Some houses have a separate meter for the pool; photograph it at check-in along with the main one. When you own the villa instead of renting it, pool care joins the running costs listed in fees and taxes when buying a villa.

• Who services the pool — the owner, a management company or you
• How many visits a week, and the plan for the rainy months
• Who pays the gardener and how often they come
• Who buys pool chemicals and other consumables
• Whether the pump has its own meter
• Who calls and pays the technician if the pump fails

Worth knowing'Utilities included' with no breakdown is the riskiest phrase in a lease. Ask for the lines — water, internet, rubbish, pool, garden, grounds — and next to each, who pays. If the pool line is not agreed before signing, the pool simply stops being serviced.

Who pays when the pump or filter breaks?

A breakdown from normal use is for the owner or the management company to fix and pay for. The tenant pays when something was broken through their fault, or when the contract hands that part to them in so many words.

Small items usually sit with the tenant: bulbs, batteries for the remote, a replacement drinking-water filter. Where the contract is silent, ask in advance. An argument over a light bulb sours a tenancy faster than a major repair does.

Speed matters as much as who pays. The good set-up is a management company with a technician who comes the day you call; the poor one is an owner abroad who answers once a day. How these two set-ups differ in daily life is the subject of our page on renting from the owner or through an agency.

Whatever you agree goes into the lease contract: who calls the technician, how fast a breakdown is fixed and what happens if the house becomes hard to live in while it waits.

What should you check at check-in and check-out?

At check-in, look at the pool as closely as at the bedrooms: how clear the water is, whether the pump runs, the state of the tiles and the ladder, and whether the pool lights work. What you find on the first day is the owner's question; what is found at the end becomes yours.

At check-out the pool is on the same list as the air conditioners and the dishes. A working pump and a clean basin are among the usual reasons money is held back from a deposit, so if pool care was the owner's job during your stay, make sure that is in writing before the walk-through.

If a private pool is the reason you want a villa at all, our page on private pool villas goes through the pool itself: sun, depth and privacy. For families with children the first pool questions are depth and whether there is a shallow step.

How do estates and shared pools work?

In managed complexes the rent also covers the grounds, security, rubbish collection and use of the shared pool and gym. The estate sets the shared pool's opening hours, the noise rules and how guests and deliveries get in.

Everything inside your own fence stays on the owner's side: appliances, your own pool, the garden, the internet. In estates such as Laguna in Bang Tao there is almost always a management company, with security at the gate, the pool on a schedule and a technician on call.

For a long stay that predictability is often worth more than flexibility, especially in a house with a pool and a garden that need regular work. A private owner can agree to almost anything quickly; a management company keeps to its rules, but the pool team comes on the day it is due.