i need to go to my home country in a couple months for a month, and was hoping to leave a house sitter taking care of the space, watering my plants (i have a LOT) and such. in my rental contract, it says that i am not allowed to airbnb or sublet without approval from the landlord, but as this would not be a for-profit situation, would it be allowed ? my landlord literally is unresponsive anytime i try to contact her about anything so i'm just not sure what to do here. thank you in advance !!

honestly, even if you're not charging, most thai rental contracts treat any non-named occupant as a sublet situation. your landlord being unresponsive is a red flag too - if something goes wrong (water leak, neighbor complaint), you'll have zero backup. your best bet is to find a friend or coworker who can stay and just not tell the landlord. key with any condo juristic office (the building management) is that they often check for unfamiliar faces, so make sure your sitter knows the building rules and can act like they belong. if you have a lot of plants, maybe prep them with self-watering wicks or ask a neighbor to pop in instead - avoids the whole contract grey area

honestly, the "not allowed to sublet" thing is the gray area. house sitting without payment isn't technically subletting, but a lot of landlords here in bangkok use that clause to mean "no one outside the contract stays overnight for extended periods." if your landlord is unresponsive, i'd just do it quietly and make sure the sitter knows to play it cool with neighbors or the building juristic person. for your plants, maybe have the sitter send you a photo every few days so you can relax about it.

ngl i'd just do it and not say anything. the clause is about profit, not about a favor. thai landlords usually care about two things: getting rent on time and not having noise complaints. if ur landlord ghosts u, they probably won't notice unless the building security or neighbors say something. tell ur sitter to just say they're ur cousin visiting if anyone asks, and keep the keys low-key. for the plants, maybe leave a watering schedule on the fridge so they don't kill ur collection

tbh i've seen this exact situation play out with a few friends in bangkok and the building management is usually the bigger hurdle than the landlord. most juristic offices have their own rules about visitors staying longer than a week or two - some on sukhumvit even require a "temporary resident form" for anyone staying 7+ nights regardless of the lease terms if your landlord is useless, consider making a small "house sitting agreement" with your sitter that's dated as a favor with no payment mentioned. keep a copy handy in case the building office asks. and definitely give your sitter a heads up about the soi dogs near your apartment if you're in a side street - those packs can be territorial at night and a stranger walking in alone might get cornered for the plants, i'd set up a line group chat with your sitter and maybe a neighbor who has the line id of the juristic office. that way if there's a water shutdown or something, they can coordinate without you having to be the middleman at 2am bangkok time

if your landlord ignores you for normal stuff she's prob not gonna show up unannounced either. just have your sitter keep the lights on a normal schedule and don't put mail forwarding or anything obvious. the main risk is if a neighbor complains or if your building has a strict doorman who notices someone new coming and going daily, otherwise it's pretty low stakes. maybe tell the sitter to use the service elevator if there is one and keep the keyfob out of sight