dave111223

I'm some what confused with the service charge laws. My wife and I were discussing the condo building 'situation' with the condo 'officers' (the employees who manage the condos affairs); as bulding is in need of some maintainance.

They said that their budget was seriously limited due to the amount of residents that simple just dont pay their service charges.

As i understand it the only way the service charges are enforced is when you go to sell the condo you *must* have all the service balance paid off, or the department of land will not allow you to transfer ownership.

However what if someone never pays their service charges, and never sells their condo? Eventually it must become impossible to sell the condo?

For example if you bought a condo was 500,000 baht 10 years ago, and never paid the service, and say the balance after 10 years was 600,000 baht, so if you sold the condo you'd lose 100,000 baht? So obviously in their situation you'd just never sell the property?

Is their any kind of recourse that the 'building' can take against dead beats that never pay their service charges (causing the rest of us residents to lose money on our investments)?

(Obviously this is Thailand so i'm sure the budget is also limited by lots of people skimming off the top here and there, but save these comments for another thread)

I would be really interested to hear your thoughts.

Thanks

Good, thanks for the invite, so I assume I can pretty much say what I want.

I detest Eastenders, same with Coronation Street, Emmerdale Farm or that ridiculous rehash of Cross Roads that they tried to force upon the chip fat soaked UK population recently and any other marginal program that claims to be entertainment..... all UK soaps pamper to one thing, the watchers thoughts..... "my life is better than yours"

Sorry it isn't..... while people in the UK spend endless hours watching that box in the corner of the room for some sort of self satisfaction it has the same effect as morphine for the masses.

If I got a full hour of Top Gear however

^^^ So why is it that you actually detest these shows?

I get like 60 channels of UBC, but i can't seem to find this BBC prime/entertainment you speak of? To feel bad for the watchers though, especially replacing Eastenders with Footballs Wives (absolutely rubbish program)

I think , my 2 cents, it can be better if they get ride of those encrochers, and on the same time be more flexible for the legal bars. I wish, but it's a wish, they do the same for any encrochers who are on the streets (DVD, VCD , .... sex .....) you know what I mean I do suppose.

Whats wrong with the DVD sellers! We need them around until the internet here gets fast enough to download!

There are alot of shops at MBK that do this kind of thing, store owners may get p*ssed off if you go down there trying to steal their employees though (but worth a try).

Do they earn much more than normal workes who get between 4000 and 6000 Baht per month

What 'Normal' workers are you referring to?

I'm guessing you'd need to pay atleast 10,000 per month, i highly doubt any decent painter is going to work for the same salary as a street vender.

Is is possible to have Tri-Citizenship?

I have both US and British citizenship, and my wife is Thai, so would that mean our kids would be Thai, US, and British?

Thanks guy, i will give BUPA a call and check out their options/pricing.

Just to make sure; you guys have actually been able to collect on claims with them?

I just ask because it seems like the insurance companies are always happy to collect your premium, but then when its time to pay out 'You dont have a work permit, so you've violated the policy' seems right up their alley?

You can image the kind of people who will be hanging out at that bar...

Is it possible to get health (and/or) life insurance in Thailand without a work permit? According to my wife's insurance company its not.

Does anyone have any recommendations for how to get health insurance here, and if its in fact possible or not, which companies, rough costs, etc...

Even if you cant cancel your airline tickets you might be able to reschedual the dates, and just make a week or 2 vacation of it.

"When life gives you lemons...make lemonade"

I agree with the OP somewhat, the laws here do seem strange sometimes.

If my wife and i moved back to the US she could apply for a green card and then go apply to work at any company she wanted. (Or start a business with no financial requirements)

Or even no doubt be happily collecting a wellfare check within 5 years.

But for me i've got to have money every year, i cant work without getting a work permit tied to a specific company and location.

But the laws here dont really seem to be enforced the way they are back home, so who cares.

I dont think 98% of Thais even know immigration laws exist here.

"I estimate that no large amount of Thai baht has been converted into overseas currencies. However, I don't know whether the money could have been packed in suitcases and taken abroad because the Immigration Bureau is responsible for this matter," he said.

I wonder what exchange rate Thomas Cook would give him for 50 Billion Baht

If you want to have a bit of a giggle, check out this thread on the FlyerTalk Forum. It's a breathless trip report by a guy who was staying at the Sheraton Grande when the coup went down. He cut his trip short and checked out of the hotel in the morning, took a limo to the airport and boarded a plane first class. He reports on it as if he got the last seat in the last chopper leaving Saigon.

American...say no more.

BITE ME...from an American...where was your country around 1944?

Atleast you have found a way to enhance America's international image.

If he wants to keep the CDs he could always toss the plastic cases, and buy some 100 disc spindles, pack the 10 spindles (1000 cds) into a box (along with the printed materials) and bring it on the plane as checked bag.

An oven that cooks a pizza in 4 minutes and costs only 60 euro?

Are you talking about a microwave and frozen pizza slices or what?

I always lose alot of weight here, but think its not the food, but the heat.

I eat Thai food for most meals, but still manage to find a pizza joint or KFC a couple of times a week. I probably lost about 30lbs in 3 months.

However i tend to eat alot more frequently here but still lose weight.

However the opposite is true when i go back to the US i put on weight very quickly.

The answer to the second question is that in SOME cases mom and pops outperform. Let's get away from cigarettes and so on, and talk tiles. Boonthaworn, although not the typical mom/pop is far better than say Homepro or Tesco Lotus for tiles and the like. That's what they do, specialise.

What are you talking about?? Boonthaworn is massive, it's spread out over both sides of the street, its way bigger than a Home Pro store. And its totally the opposite of a mom/pop store, if Boonthaworn fall sinto the "Mom & Pop" category so does just about everything else.

Seems to depend what your shopping for, if your looking for rice, bananas etc... you may be better buying from the small shop (especially if its closer). But for items like cheese, bread, etc... big store is the way to go.

I feel bad for the OP that doesnt have the choice.

I'm still surprised by some stuff that you cant seem to find here... like bagels and good beef steaks or minced beef. (I have to go to au bon pain to get bagels and they cost an arm and a leg)

Most of the big supermarkets seem to have good prices, but some of the non-food big stores seem to be a rip off (homepro, central etc..)

Thats interesting, the last time I looked Ratchatewi BTS is about 400m from Pantip and the Ferry if you want to go that way on the Kong stops on the other side of the road.

If you combine all the walking required to get to the ferry or BTS.

The Big Pantip signs are kind of a give away ... and asking someone on the bus is not too hard either!

but since the OP asked "which bus" ...........

I've never noticed the "Pantip" signs? I thought it said "Computer City".

And more than likely if you walk up to someone on the bus and a say "Where is Pantip" (in English, assuming that the OP doesnt speak Thai), you will not get the correct answer.

Dont take a tuk tuk from Kahosan Rd. You've got like a 90% chance of paying more than the taxi would have cost.

Dont mess around with the buses unless you know what pantip looks like (as there will be no one to tell you when to get off).

All Canal/BTS options involve a quite a bit of walking. (So don't do it if your in a hurry or you don't like walking the street in the heat)

So best bet is just take a taxi. Make sure you get in a taxi where the drive is sitting in the car, in the road. If the guy is standing outside the taxi waving you over his meter is probably "broken".

Let me guess another 1 post poster it gonna come along and say "Go here XXXXXX.com, they have great deals on t-shirts!"

You need to save money, so you want to buy your clothing directly from Thailand, how about just wear your existing clothes and don't buy anything new at all?

I would guess that we spend around 300,000 baht per month. It would roughly be split into a third for household expenses (staff salaries, food, clothing, utilities, maintenance, petrol, insurance etc), a third for schooling and a third for leisure and entertainment (travel, golf, nightlife, eating out, Thai lessons, books, Cds, DVDs, satellite TV, internet etc). Only a rough guide and it obviously varies from month to month but probably more or less accurate.

You spend 100,000 per month for "schooling"?

If your not getting married you are getting ripped off.

If you are getting married you are getting off really cheap (even if you were Thai).

I was at a Thai wedding today (both Thais) and the grooms family paid:

299,999 baht plus 29 baht of gold (over 340,000 baht)... So total more than 600,000.

On my wedding i agreed to pay 200,000, but we will get most of money back after the wedding (except money to cover the cerimony).

Anyways, unless your mad i'm guessing your not getting married after 2 months, so it has to be a scam. You can be sure theres no Thai guys gonna be forking out any $$ to mum just for dating her.

If you give this 40k now, you'll never hear the last of it, next it will be a car for mum, then a house for mum, etc... etc...

Every time you arrive at a new place, put your backpack on the floor and piss all over it, (paying special attention to the zip areas). This should deter some theives from attempting to look inside.

In the case of online fraud, does not all merchandise purchased have to be sent to the billing address for the card?

You could definately rack up quite a bill online with someones name/credit card #/ Expire Date

There are plenty of online stores that allow you to ship to a different address from the billing address...and plenty of them dont require the CVV.

And thats not even mentioning the non-shipped virtual products you could purchase (software, games, websites, *porn site memberships?*)

Credit Card security here is a joke.

I went into Koncept funiture at MBK last week to buy a kitchen, and handed them my credit card to pay. The woman started writing down the number and expiration date on the invoice paper... I stopped her and asked <deleted> are you doing. She responded "This is the way we do it with all credit card orders", and proceeded to go and fetch the invoice book to prove it.

She started flipping through the book and showing me saying "Look, see all the credit card numbers".

She then put the invoice book (the one containing the 100s of credit card numbers, and expiration dates) down on the coffee table where i was sitting, and wandered off to get some more paperwork or something, 15 minutes and came back, then wandered off again for something else.

All in all the book was sat on the coffee table unwatched for 25 minutes. When we came back i quickly scratched my credit card number off the invoice and said "I'll go get some cash instead"