briley

The gagging order only applies to England and Wales ............................. not the UK

Delight - If a Condo is being run in a way that is definitely wrong, and not just in a way that you do not like, then you have only one option. Change the Juristic Manager.

The committee has very little powers. They must meet twice a year, they must keep a check on the Juristic manager and (this is their big power) they must appoint a Juristic Manager if the existing one can not carry out their duties.

If you have a genuine problem with the existing Juristic person and the majority of owners agree with you then you can change the Juristic person.

Firstly find someone who is willing to do the job who you trust and the rest of the owners will trust.

Secondly get 20% of the owners to request a General meeting. If it is not called then you can call the meeting yourself.

At the general meeting sack the old Juristic person and appoint the new one.

At the same time you might like to vote onto the committee new members if there are less than 9 existing members of the committee. As someone else said there is no provision for getting rid of committee members.

Then you go to land registry and register the new Juristic person.

But you must do everything correctly. You must have copies of ID cards of all owners who attend and vote and their proxy (if applicable). These must have original signatures, not faxed or e-mailed signatures. You must keep to the time limits given in the law. Ask Land registry what is needed before you call the meeting - in Chiang Mai they are very helpful with their advice.

But to do all this you must have massive support of all owners, especially the Thai owners who make up at least 51% of the owners. Personally I would be looking at 75% of owners supporting you - at least half of them being Thai - and have Thai people fronting the action. It is very useful to get the Condo's bank accounts frozen if there is any possibility of fraud by the old Juristic person.

I've been there, done that, and it took 3-4 months to sort it out. Then we had the difficult bit, managing the building and putting it back on track .................................

I agree that land registry will do nothing about infringements of regulations etc as it is not their job, it is the job of the courts.

But who brings the case?

If the owners bring a case against the management - who is the representative of the owners - are the owners bringing a case against themselves?

I am aware of one case where an owner wanted to take action against the committee for refusing his application. But since he was part of those that elected the committee surely his only real option is to get rid of the committee otherwise he is suing himself?

In other words if the condo is not managed properly it is the owners who should/must take action. Vote the people out who are mismanaging the condo and install a new, reliable committee or juristic person.

Use a can of insect spray around the unit before you go out - reduces the chances of coming back to an infestation of something nasty.

I very much doubt that the Land Office will do anything.

It is up to the owners to take action if things are not being done correctly. Get 20% of the owners together and call for a General Meeting. Replace the Juristic Person and clean up the mess with a new committee to support the Juristic person.

It is not difficult to do if you have the support of the majority of owners. The law is reasonably clear in this area.

LED lighting is available, but at a price - 800 baht or so for a 2 watt bulb last time I looked.

There is still a lot of debate about what wattage you require from a LED to make it better than 'background' lighting.

Personally I think LED lighting has a few years to go before it is main stream and worth installing.

I looked into allowing a Condo to accept pay-pal.

Firstly you would need about 10% extra to cover the charges made for this that and the other.

Secondly it seemed impossible for a Condo to get a pay-pal account linked to a bank account.

Ditto

Every day at the same time my modem logs me out from TOT in Chiang Mai.

I've set the modem to automatically log me back in but streaming stuff stops, as does security connections.

I can not see any reason why nor can I stop it - darned annoying.

Googled the log information but I can not find any answer.

Tend to agree with 12drinkmore that any changes made by the government benefits them - not me.

But with this pension change those who have paid in the minimum or near that will lose out, getting around £100pw instead of £144pw (today's figures before inflation). This will apply to a lot of us who retired early to Thailand having only paid the minimum, or who made voluntary payments.

Obviously those rich bankers who had to pay lots and lots in NI contributions might (and should????) lose out.

And does anyone expect the UK government to ever give us pension increases?

PS - believe the Dutch government is going ever worse than the UK government - pensioners outside Holland will get their pensions reduced in line with the local cost of living.

Beano - the retirement age is not 60 and 65. Women have already been increased and men get an increase soon. By 2020 it will be 66 or 67 for everyone.

Back paying for the pension was well worth it - but in the last couple of years the amount need to pay has doubled. And the number of years needed has reduced so the calculations need to be done carefully.

My complaint is I made voluntary contributions in the past getting up to 35 years and planned to make the last 5 years on retirement. Then they changed the rules to 30 years so I made 5 years of payments that I did not need to do.

PS - I also felt the poll tax was a good idea, maybe poorly implemented and used as an excuse to increase local taxes but much fairer than the old rates or even the current whatever it is called system.

The UK state pension scheme is due another major shake up as from 2015 or 2016.

The idea is to bring in a simpler system giving all OAPs the same, either a single tier system giving £140pw for everyone or a two tier system giving every one £97pw plus about £1.60pw for each year you have worked.

I think the changes are a good idea BUT whichever system they bring in will only apply to those who retire after the implementation date (probably 5th April 2016)

If your retirement age is before 5th April 2016 you will get less pension for the rest of your life. I estimate you could lose out by up to £60,000 - that is (don't laugh) 5,555 cases of Chang beer.

It is possible for you to make your views known now either using the interactive web based system at:

https://interactive.dwp.gov.uk/a-state-pension-for-the-21st-century

or, more easily, by sending your views by e-mail to:

[email protected]

Don't forget -

This will impact on all UK nationals in Thailand over the age of 60.

It is much easier to get the government to change it's plans now before white papers etc than waiting until you lose out in 2016.

Very few people respond to these things, the poll tax had 117 people make comments, so your voice will be heard - if you want.

Tesco Lotus,

Often around 890 Baht - not sure how they manage to produce them at that price.

There isn't one. at least not in the UK or any country I've lived in.

All you can get is a 12 month thing that is basically a translation of your local licence for using elsewhere.

I autopay my TOT and PEA bills from Bangkok band and have done for 6 years.

Absolutely no problems.

And it saves a few satang since I pay exactly, even if xx satang. No rounding up. Must have almost save the cost of a small beer by now?

I don't think it is legal, everyone has to pay the same percentage of the costs of the condo as their percentage ownership (by area).

The only exception is if some units get extra rights (use of a pool etc) then those cost are just made to the units concerned.

The 100 baht is for the 'convenience' of being able to pay Air Asia for the flight.

It is just another annoying add-on that some companies (especially budget airlines) think makes them friends.

Don't know if you have them locally but Tesco Lotus and Carrefour sell glasses from +3.00 to -3.50 for under 200 Baht. At that price don't ask if they are designer frames or have bi-focals, tinting etc as they don't.

The desk used to be at the top of the stairs, go through the check and it was on the left hand side. You can wander there and take a look to see if it is still up there.

If you mean the yoga in the science block (Mon, Wed and Fri) then the keep fit is on downstairs, so I suspect the yoga is as well.

That website's prices are out of date. The Wave 125i electric is now more like 51,000 Baht

It is hard to get more than 500 Baht off the list price. Most of the profit is in the credit deal that very few foreign buyers need (or can get). So foreigners are not good customers.

If you are near to soi 4, Klong Cholprathan there is a copy shop half way down that has always done a good job for me.

Or else check the shops on Thanon Photocopy, the road from CMU entrance on Klong Cholprathan to Niman Road

"There's no capital gains tax so you won't be taxed on the difference in values."

I have always believed that you pay income tax on the capital gain of property when it is sold?

So under declaring does carry a potential problem when you sell.

Owners/proxies must give in a copy of their ID and this must be signed.

The sticking point always seems to be that any signature must be original, so fax/scanned signatures are not acceptable in Thai law.

That seems to prevent e-mail or fax voting.

zippydedohah

Add 30 minutes to the 'local time' for Thai time, was at 7.22am

Not quite sure what you are looking for but if you want a remote control switch with no limit to the 'remote' part look at:

http://www.gsm-secure.co.uk/GSM-Gate-Opener---GSM-EAGLE.php

They will deliver to Thailand if pushed.

I could not find a supplier in Thailand, but there was something from Malaysia and also China but I preferred this product.