dave111223

Does the rainwater runoff from their roof now run down your side of the wall? Or have they installed proper guttering along the roof?

Issue is being discussed here:

I've had the same problem. None of my US cards would work. The kick in the ass is that if you want to order the tickets over the phone or pay cash in person they won't give you the online rates, and make you pay a ticket prices which is about 15% higher...!

If her salary is less than 20,000 Baht then she will have no tax liability.

Given that though, she should be charging 7% VAT and you should be withholding 3% withholding tax and submitting monthly.

Only charge VAT if she was earning more than 1.8Mil per year.

Just make a confirmation letter that you have hired her for X amount of time as a private contractor to clean your house for Y amount per month.

No need to refer to her an an "employee" with "wages".

If she is not an "employee" you are not liable for employment taxes (social security etc..). By your own description i would not consider this person an employee anyways.

It won't matter to the bank whether she is an employee or contract labor; they just want to confirm that she is receiving a certain amount of money.

Social security as a concept quoted by many TV members still living in their own country, physically or mentally, is not necessarily Thai.

I have a business which employs 4 Thai employees and pay social security for each, so i don't see how my concept of social security would be derived from my home country (where i never employed anyone).

We also hire a motorcycle taxi driver to pick up and make deliveries but i would not consider him an employee and we don't pay social security for him. We just call him when required.

In the same way that i would not consider someone who sometimes came in to clean my house as an employee.

It doesn't mean that i couldn't provide the motorcycle driver with a letter saying that i normally pay him between X and Y per month if he asked.

Just make a confirmation letter that you have hired her for X amount of time as a private contractor to clean your house for Y amount per month.

No need to refer to her an an "employee" with "wages".

If she is not an "employee" you are not liable for employment taxes (social security etc..). By your own description i would not consider this person an employee anyways.

It won't matter to the bank whether she is an employee or contract labor; they just want to confirm that she is receiving a certain amount of money.

If there is a bloke outside who's about 150 years old, wearing a towel and pouring a bowl of water over his head; you've probably arrived at a homestay.

I use port 26 instead of 25 which works for my SMTP accounts.

I don't like smoke either.

But its their right to smoke within their own private space whether rented or owned. Its not my right to dictate what people do in their private space. Listen carefully, they might be having sex, too.

This sounds like a really immature whinge to me.

Suppose they start mixing and burning toxic chemicals (such as Ammonia, Benzine, Mercury, Acetone, Tar etc..) in their "own private space" next door to you; and the toxic chemicals are drifting into your "own private space"? Still not a problem?

I don't see a problem with making the payment check out in his name, when doing the deal at the land department. It doesn't really matter who's name is on the check; just make sure you get the wife (owner) to sign a photocopy of the check and write something like "Payment for house received".

Do not send him any money directly before the deal; only hand money over at the land department.

As for loans they must be cleared before the land department will allow you to make the transfer.

I really don't see how a lawyer is going to help you? How would a lawyer find out if some local loan shark has an unofficial loan with the owners; surely this would require some kind of private detective, but this seems extreme? And even then it may be only the loan shark himself and the owner that know about it.

A lawyer is not going to provide you with anything if things go pear shape down the road (i don't think there is any such thing as "title insurance" in Thailand is there?)

If i bought a house and some loan shark showed up and said "You owe me money" i'd say "F off"; is there anyone that would actually pay off a loan shark for someone else loan?

I don't think the point is just that the price has increased or what the reason was, it's not making the customer aware of what the real price is until they have set their minds on buying it. If they wanted to bump up their prices to cover whatever costs then they should amend the advertised prices for their products they are selling.

You make it seem as though he no longer had a choice to buy it or not because it was "set in his mind to buy it"; in reality he was 100% able to put the book down and walk away.

Also if you make the argument that once you are at the checkout the sale must go through then you also have to say that the reverse should be true.

Let's say you go to the checkout to buy an item (which is correctly priced) does the seller then have it "set in their mind" that they will sell something? In which case the law should prohibit you from changing your mind? Or if you find out you don't have enough money to for the item the seller should demand you go and get the money as you are now required to complete the purchase?

I could understand people being upset if they were luring you in with fake low prices and then changing their prices, but this doesn't seem to be the case here.

Isn't that exactly what happened? He took the book to the counter expecting to pay the price marked on the book and when ready to pay he was told that it's actually 50% more than advrtised, no explaination why the price was hiked he was only given the choice to like it or lump it.

He was already in their store shopping when he saw the price; so they did not lure him into the store with a falsely advertised price.

It also may be worth noting this topic:

http://www.thaivisa....d-from-smoking/

Where a man in Thailand was banned from smoking in his own home by the police after complaints by a neighbor were filed.

The police have no right to ban someone from smoking in his own home, they only have juristiction in criminal matters. This is civil law.

A court can ban. Who banned?

According to the other topic here's what happened:

She complained to him and asked him to stop smoking. He refused. She then complained to the police. Said police came to his home and asked him to stop smoking. He refused.

FiL was then taken to the police station and made to sign some papers preventing him from smoking on his own premises.

At a later date another complaint was made by the neighbour. FiL was arrested and taken before a judge. The judge ruled the smoke from FiL's house was affecting the health of the babies in the house next door and ordered the FiL to stop or be jailed.

It also may be worth noting this topic:

Where a man in Thailand was banned from smoking in his own home by the police after complaints by a neighbor were filed.

The committee refused to have us discuss it last Saturday

What happened? Did you go to the committee meeting and said "i'd like to talking about smoke pollution next door" and they flatly said "No" to your face?

How are your committee meeting setup? Ours are pretty informal, it's just in the condo office with the committee members sitting around on couches. If someone wanted to come in and air a grievance they'd be heard out (i can't even imagine any of the Thai's on the committee actually standing up and saying "I refuse to listen to you") Is your building quite different from this?

How would it have been a business loss? If the book was marked at a lower price, then that was the price when the stock was purchased. Is it ethical to increase the price on old inventory because new inventory costs more?

Suppose their cost of rent went up, suppose their staff cost went up, suppose the electric cost went up...these all factor into the "cost" of something, not just what they paid for the original inventory item.

My point is that the business no longer sells the item at that price (for whatever reason); you, the customer, still have a choice...buy it or don't buy it.

I'd prefer to live in a country where both seller and buyer have the choice to complete a transaction (or not)...as opposed to a country which forces someone to sell something at a price they are unwilling to sell it for.

I took it upon myself to tell her to stop

Poor woman's been stuck on the balcony for who knows how long, trying to get some attention and praying someone will save her and you're only concern is that she stop making a racket and suffer in silence?

If he had "stopped" as you told her to, would you still have got the security guard to help her?

I shouted over and she stopped, looking mortified about the fact that no she wasn't in a bubble and she had woken much of the neighbourhood. I then shouted downstairs to her building's security guard who answered quickly.

So he shouted at her to stop and she stopped;

It seems to me the reason for shouting to the security guard was motivated by ensuring she remained quiet as opposed being concerned with her well-being.

I took it upon myself to tell her to stop

Poor woman's been stuck on the balcony for who knows how long, trying to get some attention and praying someone will save her and you're only concern is that she stop making a racket and suffer in silence?

If he had "stopped" as you told her to, would you still have got the security guard to help her?

I had an appointment at an upmarket home builder in Bangkok. Their office/showroom is about 50 meters into a small soi. There are no other businesses in the soi, and there is no sidewalk, so pretty much no foot traffic.

The showroom is set back from the road with a parking area in front. To my surprise there is a one-legged guy sat outside the showroom when i arrive (pretty much next to the door). He has a few wicker baskets with him that he's selling, and he calls out to us to buy one. I'm an a**hole so just walk on by without much thought, but my wife who's a kinder soul asks how much...450 Baht each! (these were the kind of baskets you might expect to pay 50-100baht i'd think at the market).

Ok so get inside without a basket and talking in a conference room (no other customers appear to be in the showroom/office). We go out of the conference room to look at some sample stuff (door handles or something) and there is the one-legged guy...now inside the showroom almost all the way to conference area! Again yelling at us to buy a 450baht basket...we decline again.

After a while he goes back outside. 10 minutes later we leave and he's already disappeared (and no security or staff had asked him to leave as would have noticed it).

Is it totally out of the realm of possibly that someone inside tipped him off that someone had an appointment at XX:AM and he'd have a chance at ripping them with a 450 basket? It just seemed like such a weird place for him to be...i could imagine he'd see almost no people all day sitting there.

The whole thing struck me as very weird...although the staff didn't seem to blink.

Got my new free TV today! Pretty happy; newer/nicer than the old one, especially liking the USB input on the new one that allows me to play movies off a thumb drive.

It came new still packaged in the sealed box etc.. and they took the old one away no questions asked.

Score!

What would you have done differently if you picked up the book and it was label 145THB? Worst case you would have put it down and walked away... in which case you wasted a whole 5 minutes of you life at the checkout waiting to pay for an item that you wouldn't buy...?

Suppose the book costs them 125THB because the publisher increased the price, and some employee just missed the price change on labeling... The company is now supposed to sell you this book at a loss? Why? Is this a business or a charity? You may end up having to be so happy that you come back and buy 5 more books before they can even make up the loss on this 1 book...just to break even.

I could understand people being upset if they were luring you in with fake low prices and then changing their prices, but this doesn't seem to be the case here.

I just don't think Thailand could cope with what has happened to Japan. Japan is a first world country with the 3rd largest economy in the world. The Japanese are far more diciplined and resiliant than Thais. i have'nt heard of looting there either and as an earlier poster said, i think it would be rife here.

Japan aren't coping with what happened in Japan.

Thailand may cope better being an underdeveloped country and people not relying on getting everything from the local supermarket or having to deal with freezing weather.

You don't seem to have read my post properly. I did'nt say Japan is coping. I just implied that i think they would cope better.

Secondly what exactly do the Thais know about freezing cold weather exactly, apart from nothing that is. Don't the Japanese deal with it every year?

Thirdly, do you think Thailand could rebuild an entire city like Kobe in 18 months.

I think he means that Thai's won't have to deal with freezing weather because it's warm all year here. So if your house was destroyed you can temporarily live in your boxer shorts under a lean-to (as many people do permanently in Thailand) without having to worry about hypothermia.

And that it's easier to rebuild a destroyed shack then an elaborate house.

Lets say there was a nuclear power in Trat having the same problems. I can't seem myself leaving Bangkok and moving to another country.

But I also wouldn't be strutting around some BBC messageboard claiming to have a "special bond" with Thais and that saying "we survived, we didn't give up"

You can't be serious????

No need to offer 1000B Just offer a job or apt for rent. They'll happily email/fax you a copy of both.

Job Offer: Soap Opera Reviewer

Job Description: Watch Thai soap operas and give a rating 1 to 5 stars per show

Salary: 250,000THB per month

Location: Work from home, we'll send the soap opera DVDs to you

Please email your ID Card and Chanote of property that you own to [email protected]

I should have no problem collecting a massive list of ID cards and Chanotes right?

Its done quite often... Thai's are required to provide copies of both with just about everything legal thing that they do. Of course, they would first sign and write the reason for usage of the copies across the front first. People often fax copies or send them by proxy.

To the Thai's i know sending a copy of your ID card to an unknown individual that they just got an email from is akin to sending them your credit card or pin number.

If you know can any Thai's who think otherwise please have them email me their ID cards and Chanotes and i'll pay them 1000Baht each.