Beng

Mine is expiring in October.

How many months in advance can I get this done here in Chiang Mai ?

Can someone please advice about the documents needed as well. Thanks.

Nice video.

Good.

Excellent piece of journalism.

They are not mentionig the recent 3 days of rain in upper Thailand. I hope this will ease the situation and we will be able to get through this El Nino phenomen.

Thanks for sharing.

I see this every day. A cop is operating the traffic light manually, messing up the intersection, while one of the volunteers in front of a school is standing helpless amid the chaos.

Unfortunately there are quite a few of us who do not mind to pay more.

Munich is a much nicer airport.

Why not take the night train to Chiang Mai and then the green Bus ?

RIP. Where is Khun Si waterfall ?

Did you replenish yhe sinking fund as well ?

You may have a corruption problem –but that is not your main problem.

The condo that you refer to is on its way to financial hell!

The number of floors and the number of rooms is irrelevant

What matters are the number of chargeable meters..Based on the data supplied you have approx,2778 chargeable meters

The condo where I live has 3658 Meters

The cost to run this condo will be about the same as yours. Approx 1.9M baht per year.

That said your management charge is higher so 2 M baht /year is realistic

This assumes that you have gardens –swimming pool – security etc

Therefore the charge needs to be 60 baht /M

Should you not have any security the cost reduces to 51 Baht /Meter

If the co –owners are generally happy then I simply suggest that the fees are raised as per my earlier post.

Also the management charge is reasonable .You are unlikely to find cheaper. This assumes that the charge covers JPM services and a Building Manager.

I attach an Excel document which gives real live costs of the condo where I live. It covers the 1^st 11 months of 2015. You may wish to compare this with your condo costs.

Note: our Management fees are only 50K /month. This is because of our association with other condos. If we were alone then it would be 65K /month.

Of course you will have to charge more than I have stated if you wish to replenish your now depleted sinking fund

I could well be very wrong with the number of your chargeable meters. The more meters the lower the unit cost.Suspect that the 2 MvBaht/year is about right

Small condos are expensive

Thanks for the spreadsheet, good info.

Just to add my pennyworth.....experience in our new condo was that the management (in this case the builder) was indeed raiding the sinking fund and did not hold AGMs at which this could be challenged. After 3 years of this the owners got together and called an EGM themselves, at which the current management refused to attend. We finally voted in a new management structure consisting of unit owners, and successfully sued the builder to get our sinking fund back (about 1.5 million baht),

It can be done..if you ignore the treats of violence etc

Wow !! Good to hear. In fact, this sounds similar to my situation.

some folks over estimate themselves. Years ago, I met a muscular french guy by the name of Zoltan.

He went into the sea at Maenam beach and said 'I gonna swim over to Koh Phangan', Tried to talk him out of it, but he wouldn't listen.

Great picture. That must be fun being in the middle of this herd.

Unfortunately the amount of trash dumped alongside the roads will grow as well.

The majority of those road checks were done by these volunteers in their tents anyway, as the coppers have better things to do.

I like the ones that are set up apart from each other and use the space between them. That way, you can have 2 bedrooms, bathroom, kitchen and a nice living area.

But US $ 40k without the land ? One can buy a 2 storey house with car port and little garden here for 50K. Thais only of course.

Many people would be very surprised by the real extent of such corruption here. It is massive and sickening.

Agreed.

At our first (one and only) meeting a management company was already in place. They are not the developer, but must have put there by the developer.

In the meeting, everybody was asked to sign a paper, stating that we choose this company as our manager.

The majority of our expenses goes to the management company. Our budget is around Baht 1 Mio/year for a 6 storey building with 78 units.. The management firm is charging us 750K (which all co owners think is too much), that leaves only 250K to pay the daily bills and that is not enough. So they take money from our sinking fund to cover the gap.

Can I asked the JPM to arrange a meeting ?

Your condo is situated in Sukhumvit Soi 50?

No, its in Chiang Mai.

At our first (one and only) meeting a management company was already in place. They are not the developer, but must have put there by the developer.

In the meeting, everybody was asked to sign a paper, stating that we choose this company as our manager.

The majority of our expenses goes to the management company. Our budget is around Baht 1 Mio/year for a 6 storey building with 78 units.. The management firm is charging us 750K (which all co owners think is too much), that leaves only 250K to pay the daily bills and that is not enough. So they take money from our sinking fund to cover the gap.

Can I asked the JPM to arrange a meeting ?

This is normal. They advertise at 30 baht as a marketing angle not at realistic costs. Also if the developer is involved that just adds a further complications. You need to ask for the minutes of the committee as to where it was discussed that the sinking fund needed to be used.

How to deal with it.

1. Read the financials and then send your questions to the managing agent.

2. Request that this be bought up as a topic at the next agm.

3. Ask for a list of committee members and ask them the same exact questions.

4. Request a copy of all the committee meeting to date. Use of the sinking fund should have been discussed and approved.

5. Ask for a list of all major expenditures.

Reduce headcount, stop spending..revisit costs..they cannot increase the 30 baht unless approved at an agm..

This is somewhat normal in a new build. Good luck.

On transfer of ownership in 2014 (new building), every owner had to pay 300 Baht per sqm into a fund (fixed deposit account) for future repairs/renovations.

Besides this, one time payment, all owners do annually pay a 30 Baht/sqm/month fee into a savings account for the monthly operation and maintenance of the communal property (cleaner, gardener, security, elevator and pool service, electricity, water, internet)

The new bill for 2016 is still at 30 Baht/sqm/month.

Out of interest, I looked up the balance of both bank accounts. Apparently, the condo management is spending more money than is available in the savings account and using some money from the fixed account as well.

As a result, the savings account is almost empty, while the fixed account has shrunk from 750K to 250K over 2 years.

The management is overspending our annual budget by 250K.

Has anyone ever encountered a similar situation and how to deal with it ?

I have been listening to people say that Thailand isnt what it use to be for 40 years. For me it just keeps getting better.

One thing. Iced towels. Used to get them in every bar, and small business even in Bkk. Where did that charming gesture Go?

True.