dave111223

Beer Lao Dark

Seeing as for tax they use the higher of the land department valuation, or the sales price, then it wouldn't make much sense to declare a price lower than 4mil.

I don't get it. if these balloons are so important i would have taken a taxi instead of making a problem like that. They dont look as if they cant afford to pay a taxi, which, with 3 people boarding could have been cheaper as well...

That just proofs that farang sometimes do not act logical as well - same same as the Thais...

Maybe he already got beaten in the head by a taxi driver for trying to bring balloons into the car; the BTS was plan B.

I have seen many houses in my live when i was house hunting. Without exception the furniture and decorations were not giving me any ideas how the 'lifestyle' could be. It was just the opposite, most of them were like a dump, and lots were cluttered. The few exceptions were the 'model' houses and condos.

That's exactly what I was saying.

The worst thing is if there is people in the furniture. Was looking at one condo and there was a really old woman laying on a wooden bench in the middle of the room. Wasn't sure if I was viewing a condo or visiting a wake...didn't stay long.

2 jobs is for p***ys

Get 3 jobs

7am - 3pm

3pm-11pm

11pm-7am

Then mow lawns on Saturday, and if you are a softy take a nap on Sunday after church.

no such think like water on the floor. one could hardly hear the water in the toilet flowing.

You used 249,000 liters of water in one month and didn't notice any sound? Did you happen to fill up your swimming pool in the same month?

all of you "water experts" seem to possess a wealth of no idea. two years ago we had a leaking toilet (in a bathroom that was not used) and our water bill jumped from an average of 400-500 Baht to 6,079 Baht!

We have a townhouse building and refurbished it, the plumber was rubbish and there were at least 3 or 4 pipes leaking in the walls. It drained the water tank on the roof every 3 days or so. Took us a month to get a decent plumber in to fix all the leaks. The bill only reached around 900 THB. Normally we pay about 150-250.

You must have had one hell of a "leak" to reach 6000 (aka water pouring out onto the floor). Not what i would consider a "dripping sound" that the OP described in his situation.

I just went down to ask to see the meter and low and behold the manageress has gone home and the girls behind the front desk won't let me see the meters without her there. She won't be back today and I'm checking out at 7am in the morning. How convenient.

I'm starting to wonder if 100% of the bill is in fact 1300 Baht and they've decided to double it so that they can say they're doing me a favour by only making me pay half, when the bill was 1300 Baht all along?

More like the bill is 200 and they are going to pocket everything you give to them. They probably try the same thing with everyone they know is leaving.

That's strange that the meters are in a locked area with denied access? Is this the norm? In our condo the water meter is in the bathroom.

2600 is absolutely ridiculous. Go and check the meter units yourself.

There is no way you could run up a water bill that high from a dripping toilet.

Even if you left the taps on full blast for a full month I doubt the bill would even reach that.

Suppose "Aunty" (with HIV) is cutting some mango in the kitchen.

She slips and cuts her finger in the process drops the knife on the floor.

19 month kid springs into action and grabs the knife, also cuts his fingers when grabbing it.

I am understanding correctly that this case actually presents no danger of the kid contracting HIV?

Probably easier and less rude if you say what you've done that you are now concerned about.

I have done several land/condo/building deals and I'd like more information as to when/how/why an official from the land department might randomly show up X number of years later and say "Pay more transfer tax", or "You no longer own this property it's gone back to the old owner".

I'm sure a lot of people would be concerned if this type of thing could happen...but you do not seem to want to provide any useful information on how/why it can happen, other than just saying "it can happen".

I don't see how it is rude to ask for more information? I'm not asking for any specific names/dates, but just give us the general details that caused these serious consequences. As it would be extremely useful in helping others (such as myself) avoid these pitfalls.

Taxes -

'mistaken' calculation by officials needing rectifying

parties colluding to misdeclare too much

Can you please give more details on this? How does this process of collecting additional taxes even work? An "example" might be something like:

"A friend purchased some chanoted land, transfer all when through properly at the land department, 6 months later a guy from the land department called him and said he must return to the land department and pay XXXX baht additional taxes, because of land department miscalculation"? What happens if you refuse to pay the additional taxes?

Transfers -

recorded borders being way off

faked POAs used by lawyer

title having been upgraded incorrectly

apparent title holder having no actual right to the land

nominees having been used

You said you had experience of titles being rescinded by the department, but could you please give specific example of how this occurred? An "example" might be something like:

"My uncle bought a house, chanote was transferred, 2 weeks later the land department staff came to the house and said the seller had used a fake POA, and the chanote had been given back to the old owner"

Yes. Several.

Of which bit are you unaware, sceptical, concerned or whatever?

With both assertions that:

1) Additional transfer fees/tax can be assessed after the transfer is completed.

2) That the land department can rescind a completed transfer at their will.

I'm not doubting you; but i'd be interested to hear the circumstances surrounding the cases that had this happen. Please elaborate on why this occurred in the several cases that you are aware of.

While OP is now walking away (briskly) I do wish to respectfully disagree with some issues raised above.

It's up to the land department whether they accept him as having a right to sell the property on the sister behalf.

If they don't accept it you will not be able to do the transfer. End of story.

If they do accept it and the deals goes through, it's done you already own the land, they can't come and take it back later.

The land office can make mistakes and sometimes more than mistakes. No liability attaches for the mistake of an official and in such circumstances the transfer can be rescinded and the OP would be left without the land and chasing the 'brother' for the money and he may be a man of straw. There is no reason not to contract directly with the seller and many valid reasons to insist on it.

Taxes are paid upfront before you do the transfer, they will not come around later asking for more.

But when you come to sell your house, if you don't find a buyer who is willing to go along with the status quo, then you may end up getting hit for more taxes than you expected then.

They can come back later. Its not enough that the current seller pays, the contract should specifically agree the seller is liable for all. This may only be a key to claim back from the seller if the tax come back for more but its better than being sloppy and assuming. Also misdeclaring though entirely common does involve an offence.

Where did you get this information? Do you have specific examples of this happening?

My social life is now almost non-existant because I don't want to go out and meet people and then have to watch their faces react when they find out my gf is Thai.

Why would you want to go out and make new friends with racists anyways? Whether you had a Thai girlfriend or not...or would you normally be hanging out with the racist crowd?

Is this common practice to use a slightly dodgy contract to try and reduce the tax liability?

Yes it is common practice to give fake prices to reduce tax. Not saying it's right or wrong, but it is fairly common.

If his contract with his sister (the true owner) is incorrect, doesn’t that make it void? Then he has no legal right to sell the property?

It's up to the land department whether they accept him as having a right to sell the property on the sister behalf.

If they don't accept it you will not be able to do the transfer. End of story.

If they do accept it and the deals goes through, it's done you already own the land, they can't come and take it back later.

The Thai law I’ve seen online states that for the tax calculation, the contract price or assessed price is used - whichever is the greater. So, if a Land Office assessor comes round after 6 months, and sees it’s a house, not a bungalow, worth more than the contract price, is ‘someone’ going to get a nasty surprise?

Taxes are paid upfront before you do the transfer, they will not come around later asking for more.

But when you come to sell your house, if you don't find a buyer who is willing to go along with the status quo, then you may end up getting hit for more taxes than you expected then.

The thing i'd be more wary of is him trying to push it through ASAP. In my experience Thai's are slow as sh*t when it comes to real estate (buyers take forever to decide, and sellers take forever to get their sh*t together). So I'd be wary of a Thai trying to make you think that it "has to happen now"... he knows full well that is not the norm here.

Also Thais often misuse "brother", "sister" etc... he wouldn't be considered a "liar" if actually he's just some distance friend but refers to her as "sister". If i was you i'd demand to speak to the owner directly. If he won't allow it, he is probably 3 or 4 tier seller and you are paying him and all the other middlemen inbetween you and the owner. If this is the case go to the land department and try to get the contact info of the person listed on the Chanote and call them direct.

At least if you report it to the Thai and/or Aus police, even if they do nothing, they will have a report of it. That way if anything were to happen to you he'd be first on their list.

Why is the subject "Firing The Messenger"...?

Knit them each a sweater with a kangaroo on it, and also their names emblazoned on them.

Be sure to include a hand crafted card with each gift, that includes lines such as "I'm sure we will be best friends" and "we are going to have a super time".

I find this is the only way people will take you seriously in Thailand.

It sounds like his problem with both the extra length piles and the deck would come under the unexpected soil conditions clause of the contract and lkely the owner is required to pay for any extras needed due to soil conditions.

Yes there was a condition in the contract about the extra cost for longer piles was paid by us, which is why i said I "paid these costs without much fuss" (as stated in the OP)....despite the fact that before the contract was signed "18 meter piles will be fine"...all of a sudden a month later "you really need 21 meter piles" (they never did any soil "testing" before or after the contract)

The deck had nothing to do with soil conditions, but instead was due to them incorrectly planning how the deck would be structured.

The contractor actually sounds like they are being very professional in notifying the OP of every change encountered along the way rather than waiting till the end and handing over a bill for everything that must be paid before the house is transferred to the owner.

TH

Can you please clarify what you mean by "house is transferred to the owner"? I already hold the Chanote for the land; does that not automatically make me the owner of anything they build?

If your condo is anything like ours the cable that goes from the TOT board to the main condo board is a big fat cable that contains hundreds of lines (for all the individual numbers).

At 7000 baht it sounds like they are asking you to pay for the replacement cable which services all the rooms (so you are basically paying the money for everyone in the building)...which is ridiculous.

We had a problem with the main cable also (it would get wet and drop ADSL too). We had the TOTs guys run us a single line cable just for our line from the TOT board to the main board. Cost was about 400 i think. So we are now running on our own line instead of the main shared cable for the building.

Hello Kman55

I am sorry you feel this way. We have been in business since 2004 serving many thousands of happy customers. We take great pride in our work and service and we wouldnt still be in business if we were running anything other than a reputable and responsible business. As bahji mentions today is an extremely busy day for all florists.

Thank you for your understanding

Written in the classic "customer is always wrong" type of format...nice one.

• "sorry you feel this way". AKA: We didn't actually do anything wrong, and we are not sorry for anything we did or didn't do, and we are sorry that you are having irrational feelings...
  
• Immediately start going on about your 1000s of happy customers without ever making any inquiry as to why the OP is complaining... 1000s of people are right, you (the OP) are wrong.
  
• We're busy...so it's ok if you don't follow through with your guarantees?
  

Seriously why come on here and post a reply like that? I just makes you look worse. How about instead of posting more like this you just PM the people complaining, try and make it right with them, and then i'm sure they will come on here themselves and post how great you are.

SCB sucks for loans, next they will tell him the only loan they can give is 3 years and 21% interest.

LOL I love it; comparing a downloaded song by Whitney Houston, to drinking water during a natural disaster :lol;