The benefit here might be that he has already sat down and discussed this specific issue directly with the owner. Often Khmer landlords don't even bother to read the leases they are signing. They don't care what's in them, as long as that wad of cash deposit is there. So by pointing this out directly in person it may have some kind of honor or face aspect. Hopefully encouraging the landlord to not break the agreement. In my experience that's never worked here, but it can't hurt.gavinmac wrote: Maybe what you guys are saying is that, in Cambodia, "Landlord agrees to lease the property to tenant for five years" isn't binding on the landlord, he can breach that at any time without consequences. But if it says "Landlord agrees to lease the property for five years unless Landlord becomes destitute" then this is a totally binding, virtually airtight promise by the Landlord to lease the property for five years and he can only terminate the lease with genuine proof of destitution. That makes no sense to me, but a lot of things in Cambodia make no sense.
Just like everywhere in the world some landlords here are good, some are bad, some are great, some are terrible. Unlike most western countries, the landlord always wins and will do what they want.