briley

Anyone know for certain what the penalty for 'illegally' owning a condo?

I recall that a foreigner is deported but a complicit Thai (eg wrongly using a Thai nominee) can face up to 10 years in prison.

I'd say do check the Condo wiring first.

I stopped one owner who was running a thick copper wire down 9 floors to install his own earth at some expense to himself. I pointed out that the building did have an earth wired to a star whatever that went through all the electric rooms. But few owners had their unit connected to the earth.

For the cost of a good Choc block and a few metres of wiring we now have another happy camper.

Delight,

In some buildings a Thai buys the unit then the foreigner and the Thai sign a 'userfract' (whatever that is) that gives the foreigner full control over the unit and register the 'userfract' at the Land Office. There is often a feeling that the money has come from the foreigner.

I would agree that only the name on the Chanote can vote or their proxy. I am not very fond of technical methods used to overcome Thai law, it makes me feel very uncomfortable.

What is the position when a Thai buys a condo but signs a paper giving a foreigner full and absolute rights on a unit - how legal is that and who votes in the General Meetings, the owner or the foreigner?

No, I do not want everyone and their dog to know my details.

But by the time I have flown the country I leave, the country I go to and the airline all have my details. If the airline could pass ONLY to the two countries concerned (and not the USA) it can have advantages to me.

Firstly the airline will not try to stop me flying because I might not be allowed entry - this has happened to me on a number of occassions.

Secondly if I am pre-cleared there can be a faster immigration / emmigration process.

Not that there is much information in a passport if you only pass on names, sex, Date of Birth and nationality. Height, occupation and identifying marks have all dissappeared over the years. Much more worrying is the passing of credit card details, address, religion, meal preference etc etc required by some countries.

Yes I do know the taxes on my tickets, 700 Baht out of Thailand, about £100 out of the UK. Plus taxes in the Middle East. Often taxes are around 50% of my ticket price.

You lose the bet, please PM me my Chang!

Reading this it makes a lot of sense.

Why queue to check in then queue for immigration. Both times the passport is checked.

The report talks of passport number, family name and nationality passed from the check in counter to immigration, maybe date of birth. If it meant just one check instead of two then I would fully support it.

Have to agree that we should not pay more, after all the system should save staff and money for immigration?

Do view new content and look on the left hand side.

At the bottom filter by forum.

I think you can then select the forum's you want to see, just say no to the classifieds.

I do not want to fiddle with my settings as currently it allw orks well for me.

Certified copy from the British Embassy a couple of thousand baht plus the rest.

If your guy said translation tell the translators that is what you want, skip the certified bit.

As far as I know there is only a Thai version, no English Users Manual.

I did find a users manual in English for the Honda 125/S PCX but it isn't much use for maintenance. Unless you need help in changing a light bulb.

Yes, but it will cost and take time.

Your wife can ask inland revenue to pay to your account, either by direct payment or by cheque - but I think you'll have to return the cheque. It can not just be cancelled at their end.

Briley,

may I interpret your post as a possible answer to my initial question? In that case, do you suggest that there is a law firm called "Chiang Mai Properties"? Thanks for clarifying!

Yes, maybe.

I have heard of them but not very positive so wondered if they were suitable. They have a web site (http://chiangmaiproperties.co.th/PropertyManagement.aspx).

I also hear that they are the only company doing such work and that nobody else will touch Condo work with a barge pole. Having a little experience of Condos I am not surprised.

Did have a short dealing with a company in Bangkok who wanted 25,000 baht plus all expenses to look at a problem. Can't off hand recall their name and can not recomend them.

Also had a dealing with one lawyer in Chaing Mai to get rid of a manager many years ago. Again I would not recomend him. At that time not speaking any Thai I could have done better than him in the court room, total waste of 40,000 Baht.

To be honest it is not difficult to read the law and organise a meeting, if you have the vast majority of the owners on your side. If you do not have the majority of the owners on your side then don't bother trying to make changes. Sell up and leave if it worries you that much.

Anybody any experience of using Chiang Mai properties for Condo stuff?

Anyone know a time of arrival in Chiang Mai?

Thanks to all the comments, it must be something wrong with my setup.

Radiofeeds works fine for me, via VLC - I do not like media player.

I can not get Radio 4 and Radio 5 to stream live programmes, it works for a few minutes then fails. This has been happening since Sunday.

I can listen to anything from the BBC using 'listen again' - but not 'live'.

BBC web pages talks about being aware of a problem but do not date their message.

I am wonder if it is my setup, Thailand or the BBC? Do others have the same problem?

I have often wondered and thought maybe a Thai visa reader might know the answer,

There must be hundreds of people in Chiang Mai who go MAN-BKK and return each year. If there were enough to fill say an A330 what would be the cost to hire one?

Kad Suan Kaew - third floor. Plenty of shops that can do it for you.

See that you can not get to their website as they have exceeded their bandwidth.

Search Google for the 'chiangmaiballon' and you can see a cached version of each of the pages!

Despite the tax London or Manchester is often the cheapest.

Used kayak and lastminute websites and look at the fares and the tax. There seems to be no relationship.

I looked at Emirates from Amsterdam, Paris, Germany and London to BKK on the same date (almost)

Amsterdam has lowest tax, Paris the highest, London 2nd highest.

Total cost of the journey, London the cheapest, Amsterdam the most expensive.

Figure that out.

Place on Haey Koew (how do you spell it?) is fine but best to buy from a local dealer, then going backwards and forwards is easier.

500 baht discount if you haggle hard. The profit for the dealer is in the credit deal (that you can not get not) rather than in the price of the bike.

The price includes everything, insurance licence registering, number plates and fitting and a helmet. You pay extra if you want 1 or 2 years theft insurance.

Free parking for motorbikes, P5 I think.

Go straight in and almost at the exit you turn right. The Vans go up that way to park as well. 3-4 minute walk to the entrance.

Been a lot of complaints about the system from those who live near borders and cross regularly.

One set in particular from Hong Kong residents who work in China (and vic-versa) - one person flew to London to get a same day service passport issued.

Try going for a 'basic' bank account no overdraft etc etc designed for those with bad credit scores.

Otherwise a joint account initially can work with some banks.

Hope those who complain of problems opening an account in Thailand read this thread .............................

--Just seen, this is my post number 1000! Well done to me.

Talking of missing things:

Why is the 'mark all as read' hidden in a pop up menu at the bottom - moved from the top of the page on the previous version.

Didn't anyone else find having the exchange rates at the top of the page useful?

The "View new contents" and 'Quick navigation" buttons comes up on top of (or behind?) other stuff, the link to android apps at the moment.