bigginhill

I'd like to ask opinions and if anyone has experience on bringing dogs to Bangkok.

I have recently adopted a large old dog here in Italy, thinking that when I come to Bkk as I normally do for 6 / 8 weeks I'd leave him in a kennel here.

However the dog has spent his whole life, 10 yrs, on a chain in an abbandoned field, and now won't let me out of his sight. He's good indoors, I don't have a garden but he gets walked 3 times a day.

I have a few months to resolve this problem, or find a suitable situation here which is not easy, as I'm frightened of the effects on him being put in a kennel

OR bring him with me to Bkk. Only thing is that I have never seen anyone walk a dog this size, (size of an large Alsatian) everyone seems to have toy dogs. I'm on lower sukhumvit, I can walk him where? Along the soi's, khlong footpath.

The problems would be the heat outside, indoors ok aircon/ walking / flaunting the condo regulations - not worried they can write me a letter - it's only max 8 weeks/ stress of the flight for him and for me getting through customs ecc. The flight for him with Thai airways is 900 dollars, kenneling him in italy would cost me alot more.

anyone got any helpful suggestions or experience?

Thanks

Hi,

Thanks! I was hoping it could have been earlier. I guess, but great I can book the flight tonight. thanks again

Hi

Can anyone help me on a similar situation? 'cept I want to renew as early as possibile.

I have the retirement visa.

Started off as a non imm O issued 21st may 2012 london- enter before 20th may 2013. Not a stamp but a piece of paper stuck in the passport.

when I went to renew I was told that I had to do no earlier than 30 days before expiry.

Can't remember how it worked( because I came twice in 2013 cos the first time I was too early) but on the 28th April 2013 I get a stamp "admitted till 26 july"

I needed to present the retirement documents asap as I was leaving and would have been out of the country untill the following year, so I went to the imm office on the 7th may and the officer wasn't happy about taking the documents as she said it was too early but she did. So I have a big blue stamp with the date I went -7th may 2013,and extension of stay till 26 july 2014. and I went to get the multiple re-entry permit. another stamp that has again the valid date till 26 july 2014.

Forgive me but do I have to go anytime with 30 days before the 26 july? Or 30 days before the 7th may, (think this was my mistake in 2013) or on or around the date of 7th may.

I apologise but I still haven't grasped the visa/imm o/imm a/extension of stay etc etc etc.

Replies in baby language please.

Thanks

I guess the young Russian failed to think things through properly before deciding to steal the boat. Step one: Steal boat for trip to Indonesia and the Philippines. Step two: Duh.

Ha ha, maybe the Russian knows the other Usbecki that kidnapped Italians and got them to phone Italy to ask for the ransom money...... Without knowing Italian

I guess the young Russian failed to think things through properly before deciding to steal the boat. Step one: Steal boat for trip to Indonesia and the Philippines. Step two: Duh.

Just read the Italian paper "Il sole 24ore". There were 2 people kidnapped, 2 engineers, just arrived in Bkk, De Vito, plus 61 yr old Antonio de Muro, they were ordered to make several transfer using from their banks using Western Union, using the hotel phone, ( 20 x 1000 euro) one of these calls De Vito calls his brother who is a Carabiniere, military police, who call the embassy. The embassy call the hotel, but the Italians refuse to talk to the person calling, at that point the thai police are called and go to the embassy. The kidnappers run, but De Vito is a black belt, catches one. The usbek? Seems his part was to act as a translator between the "police" kidnappers and the victims. SO I,d say it was the usbeks fault, he should have clued up on his Italian before pulling this one.

Joking apart.

As the case of the girls from Ohio imprisoned for 10yrs by that beast, I ask for one that gets caught....how many have never been. Who of you thinks this was their first time at this? ( the other matter mentioned doesn,t bear thinking about...Austria, Belgium hope everyone remembers)

The juristic condominium should provide co-owners with an annual operational report, including details of receipts and expenditures and a balance sheet and those financial statements should be audited by the auditor appointed by the co-owners at the general meeting. Unpaid contributions from co-owners should appear in the balance sheet as "accounts receivable". Notes to the accounts should specify the nature of these receivables but specifying the names of individual debtors would not normally be insisted on by an auditor, except in the case of individual debtors owing a large overdue amount. Notes to the accounts should also include a schedule of aging debtors to show how long amounts are overdue. Failure to provide the required reports is punishable by a fine of 10,000 baht under the Condominium Act. I think it is correct that juristic person, like an ordinary person, doesn't need to file a tax return with the Revenue Department, if it has no profit. It is not a company. I can't see anything in the Condominium Act that obliges juristic condominiums to register the levels of co-owners' contributions with the Land Department. The latter is mainly concerned with registering ownership transfers, leases, mortgages and appraised values and I don't think it would be practical for them to go into this level of detail.

I am not sure whether your cashier cheques would make much difference from a Thai perspective. The juristic condominium is under an obligation to take legal action to recover unpaid contributions from co-owners. I think the court would only be interested in whether you have paid or not, if you were sued, and your presentation of the cheques that have not been handed over to the juristic condominium might only serve to confirm you are guilty of non-payment. You will have to be careful that your cashier cheques don't expire. I think they are limited to 6 months' validity like normal cheques. So you might have to try to get the money refunded to yourself and I am not sure how to do this since they are not cheques drawn on your own account or made out to you. Obviously you should not pay anything to the juristic person in cash, if they don't provide receipts on the spot.

Re legal action under the Consumer Protection Act. I am afraid I don't see much potential in this. The Act was intended to deal mainly with false advertising and labeling of consumer goods, although there is a somewhat vague section to do with contracts relating to services. The Consumer Protection Board usually takes years to resolve cases and is regarded as rather impotent. That's probably why you see cases of disgruntled consumers setting fire to their unsatisfactory new cars in front of shopping malls to get attention from manufacturers, rather than file a case with the Consumer Protection Board. The 2007 Constitution requires the establishment of an independent Consumer Protection Agency but no government since then, military, Dems or Pheua Thai has made any move to do this. They are all raw capitalists at heart and have absolutely no interest in curbing the ability of businesses to rip off Thai consumers at will.

In the UK I once organised a revolt of flat owners against a capricious owner of the building freehold who was charging high management fees but not providing cleaning and maintenance services as claimed. I read up on Landlord and Tenant Law and learned that tenants were entitled to withhold ground rent and management charges, if they were dissatisfied with the services received and sent a notice to the management company/ freeholder explaining their actions. Under English law the tenants were protected against legal action for non-payment of the management fees by virtue of serving this notice and the onus was then placed on the freeholder to prove that he was in fact providing services to a satisfactory standard. Soon after serving the notice I made a low ball offer of 1,000 pounds to purchase the freehold. Facing the prospect of receiving no income from the property for years and getting bogged down in litigation the freeholder capitulated and sold at our price. I think the difference here is that the land and common parts of Thai condominiums are jointly owned (or leased in the case of a 30 year lease) by the co-owners and Thailand has very detailed statutory law in the form of the Condominium Act which theoretically provides co-owners with the ability to manage their property in a democratic way. In the UK flat owners often have no ownership of the land or common parts and have to deal with a faceless landowner with no statutory law that lays down procedures for management. The Thai law doesn't see the need to provide co-owners with tough sanctions to deal with the juristic person because it provides them with the democratic structure to manage it themselves that is absent from jurisdictions like the UK. The problem is that the democracy often doesn't function properly in Thai condominiums, particularly if most co-owners are apathetic.

In conclusion, I agree with other posters that you will have to work within the democratic structure prescribed by the Condominium Act and try to unite other co-owners to push for change. I don't know what Siam Legal is like for property issues of this type. I know they have at least one Thai lawyer specialising in property law but probably mainly involved in simple transfers rather than disputes. I once got them to do a VAT registration and work permit for me and it was like pulling teeth. The unqualified legal clerk assigned to my case knew much less than I did and refused to listen to me, resulting in unnecessary delays. I have had better experiences on property with Sunbelt but nothing to do with condos.

Hi Arkady,

Thanks for the post.

Food for thought. The cheques don't expire, least ways the Bangkok Bank ones don't, I checked twice, as I too thought maybe a year long validity, but they confirmed they didn;t have an expiry date.

Just for information, to recash the cheques you have to take both the cheques and the receipt that is attached to it, (it comes in two parts) back to the bank and they refund.

As you say accounts audited, unpaid contributions (the first 3 yrs of balance sheets no one has had), I'm not going to get any of this I feel, I have sent registered letters asking for these things, and others because only after the letters did we get the monthly balance sheet and the end of year , the increase in maintenance still has to be approved and registered at the land office. I enclosed copies of the cheques, should this end up in court.

So the consumer protection court is not appropriate for this situtation? If I find any other solution or a good lawyer I'll post it.

The coup in England went well! Nicely done!

Thanks for your help

Don't know about "cheap" but has anyone here tried "Siam Legal"? They have a lot of useful info on the net, so might be worth a consultation. I'm thinking "Lawyer" for the purposes of interpreting Thai Condo Law and any other pertinent info for you. You need to know your protections and your pitfalls - also how to approach govt. offices and which ones. Engaging a lawyer to fight a case for you is a whole different can of worms and can be ruinously expensive if you're doing it on your own dime.

Incidentally, I don't know how it will work out legally but my hat is off to your Cashier's Check idea! That's thinking out of the box!

Hi Ripley,

I'll try Siam Legal, and I'll let you know. I had a really nice lawyer when I bought the place unfortunately he has moved to Malaysia, and can give me no collegues names that aren't expensive. I had hoped the thread would have had more attendees, that could have advised with some names and numbers.

Thanks for the comment about the cashiers cheques, I thought that if it does go to court it shows good will, as I no longer have the money , it's in the cheques, it was a way of proving it;s not a money issue but the management problem.

I'll let you know if I get any updates. Thanks for your help

I wouldn't trust my payments to any "representative" no matter how "special"! Rather try to establish a separate bank account earmarked for the purposes of holding and paying out of maintenance & other fees. But again, that would be on the advice of a good lawyer.

At the early stages a bank account ‘Name of Condo Juristic Person’ cannot be opened . Any bank account will have a person’s name on it.

The arrangements that were employed, when the condo where I live was going thru change, were:

1) Open a bank account in the name of the Elected Special Representative.

2 )At least one other person attends when the account is opened-this is to ensure that no ATM card was issued . Internet banking facility was available but no mobile was registered. Without a mobile monies cannot be transferred to 3rd party accounts. This was the situation with the bank that we chose.

3)The Bank book is then handed to the safe keeping of a neutral 3^rd party .

It was considered with these arrangements that monies could be deposited –but no money could be withdrawn. This proved to be the case.

Of course the life of this account is very short –less than a month. The total monies deposited never exceeded 100.000 Baht

The crucial benefit was that the adjudicators at the EGM judged that those who had paid using this method could now vote.

Another option could be an escrow account. At the time these were seen to be far too complicated.

If you do not like the Special Representative approach and the escrow is not available or unsuited then I suspect that in one year’s time you will still have your complaints list-just longer.

HI Delight,

I don't see the difference between the account and the cashiers cheques though.

Do you pay monthly? we pay 6 monthly. What's the norm?

thanks

I can't urge you too strongly to consult a lawyer who specializes in Condo Law regarding your plan to withhold payments & deposit them elsewhere. Such a lawyer should be able to advise you on what kinds of proofs you need of wrong-doing by your Manager, staff, etc. before you approach Consumer, Land Office, etc. I totally agree with Delight that before you collapse the present administration you need to have something waiting in the wings with which to replace it.

I wouldn't trust my payments to any "representative" no matter how "special"! Rather try to establish a separate bank account earmarked for the purposes of holding and paying out of maintenance & other fees. But again, that would be on the advice of a good lawyer.

Hi Ripley,

thanks, agree with you bout finding the substitutes for the current manager, we are doing our best. And yes agreed do need a good (possibily not so expensive english speaking) lawyer.

No I don't trust a special representative either that's why I'd thought of the court account as a solution.

I haven't done a savings book earmarked for the maintenance money, as it just shows an amount, that I have access to at any time. The cashiers cheques you actually hand the money over, and they are made out to the condo. It's proof (in my eyes) it's not a question of money but the unsustainable situation. They have the dates of when I made them out, the bank guarantees me they don't expire.

I'd hoped maybe someone here had a good lawyer to recommend me.

thanks again

Hi jbaldwin,

thanks, that was helpful. So there are no tax returns and no accounts submitted to any official office, only held by the management for inspection.

With regard to not comunicating the amounts unpaid, and the names of the co-owners I find strange as as you say if you haven't paid for 6 months then you cannot vote, if I don't know who has and hasn't paid then how do I know who has the right to vote?

As for the cash payments, it seems that more than one owner was promised the receipt in the post box, if the list of non payers had been given out it would have come to light at the end of year. Plus I don't understand accounts that don't include the amounts due in? I would have thought it would be essential.

I understand your point of view about the payments, but I really am at the end of my tether.

I've heard of the consumer protection court for situations like this, I was wondering if anyone else had any knowledge.

Thanks for your reply

Hi Ripley,

Yes sure I’ll keep you updated on what goes on.
I’ll explain a little more of the situation, after the first three yrs that were paid for
in the price of the condo, all ran smoothly enough the building was new.

However, not knowing the obligations of the management, and the fact that I was absent for

best part of the year, the fact that I never received notice of the agm’s/egm’s,
nor the end of year, nor saw the monthly balance sheets on the notice board,
did not worry me, things were ticking over, the office had staff, and a “handyman/technician/tuktuk
driver” the pool was clean, the gym was ok, the roof top nice, tables sunbeds. I was satisfied

I was informed by the staff that the rate had gone up from 35 baht to 45, ok, I paid. I trusted
that things were being dealt with. Then the gym equipment broke and multiply promises to repair it were never kept, the sun loungers disintegrated one after the other and were never replaced, and the last straw for me was the removal of all the plants on roof by the pool. (I was told that the weight had caused leaking into the apartment below). (how they would have resolved the problem should it have happened on the other side of the roof where the water tanks are I don't know, but I would have appreciated the same treatment for this side of the building) This was the point that I no longer talked to the
office staff but went looking for the committee members.

Other foreigners I found out all had their own different problems, one could no longer enter the building without the help of a security guard as we need a new key card system, another had paid maintenance cash to the office staff and never been given a receipt, another was aware that the 35/45 baht increase was illegal. And when we got together and read up a little on the condo act, we realized that there were also no monthly statements posted,we had had no communications of meeting minutes etc. So we called an EGM to which not one of the committee attended, only the manager. We made our requests. We now have the letters to attend, monthly sheets, and end of year.

Do they need to be deposited at any office (tax/land) (still no auditing, and the increase is still in an illegal situation).

And our list of gripes has now become (with some completely useless expensive extras added) the list presented to us at the last EGM, which will need extra financing. Serious work needs to be
done on the building, there is a huge crack on the outside. In the last Egm this list was shown to us and we discussed it, but I fear that when eventually we will get the minutes it will say we have approved all the work listed.

None of the co-owners were told that the staff member whowas no longer in the office had taken money, we just received letters saying “you owe …. So much…. If you have paid please let us know and show us receipts”.

The accountant and manager obviously hadn’t been doing their jobs. And whoshould have supervised them obviously hadn’t.

At the moment we are stuck for the new committee members, but I suppose that will be resolved, a new manager hopefully will be found, or management company. But I want to pay the cheques to a “body” as as I am being branded as a trouble maker that doesn’t even pay. And I can’t forsee the situation getting any better in the forseeable future , the next Egm is in 3months just to discuss the quotes for the work needing doing.

Harry,
Thanks but I don’t want to be a condo manager, so I won’tneed to work permit. I’d just like my (thai) manager to do the things he shoulddo. Which brings me back to apart from CAM increased being reported to the landoffice which he hasn’t done, having the accounts audited which he hasn’t done,
what else is there that I don’t know about? Do end of year balances have to be
deposited somewhere? Tax returns?

Delight,

Agreed the change of management is a must and that is the
only way to do it.

The special assessment… would that be the total of the cost

of the extraordinary work that has to be done, divided amongst the co-owners to
pay for the work? If so I think that this was what was agreed at the last
meeting, but the list of work to be done got proposed as a whole and is
discutable. Which in the next meeting will no doubt be bought up.

The “special representative” ? who would he be? How can I

trust him?

Has anyone any experience of the consumer protection court?

Thanks for you help, all appreciated!

Hi to all,

I need your help!
Condominium 25 units, built in 2005, first 3 yrs fees
included in the price of the condo. Few owners live in the building, the most
are rented out or empty.

Can you tell me the obligations of a condominium manager towards official offices, ie land department tax offices, etc.

Is he required to deposit yearly balance sheets somewhere? If so how do I check if they have
been deposited?

Should there be tax returns (committee chairman told me the building has no income other than our maintenance so we do not need to do returns).

I know that when the maintenance fees are increased they should be registered at the land office (in my case this was not done, I checked. The increase was when the condominium Act required 75%, now if I’m not wrong 50% is required). The increase was not registered as they did not have sufficient signatures however they have been taking in the increased amount.

Also the accounts are not in order, and they are not audited, they did not give the balance sheets (which were only received after a farang rebellion) the amounts of sums due in are not
listed, nor the names of the people who haven’t paid. I have now become one of these people! I have
written to the Juristic person, complaining of the state of the building lack of maintenance and poor accounts and given them copies of cashiers cheques that I am withholding.

I want to pay the money into an impartial account as I am not happy with the situation,

Can I take the problem to consumer protection court? And pay the cheques in to a court account?

Does anyone know what this will cost me?

And how does the money come out of the court account? ‘Do I need a lawyer each time?

Is there another option (apart from paying the money to the juristic person for them to
spend it on ridiculous things – yes I do go to the EGMs, but to no avail, few
people turn up, and don’t contradict a “forceful” chairman. The chairman and the committee all want to resign however there are no co-owners that actually reside in the condo that will take on the situation.

Even if the committee goes, and we managed to get rid of the manager, I would like to know exactly what he maybe guilty of, after finding out about the land office and lack of registration.

Appreciate all your help and advice, thanks

Hi to all,

is there anyway of asking for permanent residency coming from 3 retirement visas?

Thanks

Not unless you were allowed a work permit on those retirement stays (which normally is not allowed). So would say the chance is very small.

Hi, thanks,

Yes I have read that retirees can't work

what about 2years retirement and the 3rd year changing it to employement, would that count? or would it be a new visa and have to start again?

Hi,

can anyone tell me how long does it take in Bangkok to get the extension of the retirement visa, once you have given them all the required paperwork?

I need to judge booking a flight as soon as possibile after I have the extension.

Also does anyone know if there is anyway at all of applying for a permanent residency after 3yrs of retirement?

Thanks

Hi to all,

is there anyway of asking for permanent residency coming from 3 retirement visas?

Thanks