jack71

3 minutes ago, bbko said:

I would think this is the perfect time to start off as a good neighbor, introduce yourself an let them know your plans and go from there. 

Its sound advice. We plan to go and chat with the 1 neighbour before starting negotiations. If we found that the guy is a crack smoking freak then it might be good to look elsewhere. 

We might be buying land and propose to build a new house on it. 

Back in Western countries if one submits plans to the relevant authorities for approval they send out letters to the neighbours to see if there are any objections. 

Does this happen in Thailand? Can a neighbour have their say in the process when we are trying to get a building permit. Or do they not get informed?

thanks

On 12/2/2021 at 1:21 PM, Sydebolle said:

I never went for a Thai citizenship as the PR gives you all the privileges except buying land and voting ..........

the 2 most important things!!!

On 12/2/2021 at 11:59 AM, chilli42 said:

You have to obtain a PR first.

You dont know the rules. This is incorrect. If you are married to a thai lady and earn in exces of 40k PCM then after 3 yrs you can apply for citizenship and not PR

On 11/30/2021 at 11:03 PM, DrJoy said:

Answer to your Ques-

 

Need to be married for 3yrs if no kids, 1 yr if have a kid.

Are you sure about that? 1 yr if have a thai child. Ive never heard of that rule. 

Does anyone else know if thats correct?

17 hours ago, ourdon said:

 

Agree with both of you but don't think you're going far enough.  I do (did pre covid) about five to six months in Thai and visit other countries from there. Then about two months wandering through Southern Frances vinyards (out by the start of the summer holidays).   Finally to Canada for an enjoyment of the approximately 4 snow free months they have. (struth!)

Rinse - Repeat. 

 

It has been a great retirement so far but the pandemic and the new restrictions have had me hunkered down in a cave for the last year.  This hopefully is the time to resume my slow drift around the planet.  Hope to be in LOS next week.

thats a great life.  good on you. i hope when Im older and retired I can do the same as you describe

1 hour ago, thaibook said:

I did not pay a deposit and we only drew up a paper contract because one is needed at the bank to certify the funds have been remitted to buy a property.

thats correct. Last time we did this several yrs ago the bank needed to see a contract that a deposit had been paid. My question is.... didn't you have to give this to the bank to prove you were proceeding and that a deposit had been paid? If not how did you get around this. you said you didnt pay seller a deposit. 

I prefer not to pre pay a deposit as they can play games and pull out and keep the deposit

thanks

48 minutes ago, Hanuman2547 said:

It's a buyer's market right now in Thailand and has been for some time.  I would never put a deposit down in this country in this current climate.  

I agree with you for sure. But bc we need finance I believe the bank needs a signed contract with deposit having been paid. 

I cant see a way around this unless we have 2 contracts with the woman. 1 the fake bank contract and the other one say that 100% of funds paid at land office. No way she will go for this. She has already said. 'theres a chinese family who are interested. whoever pays the deposit will get the house first'. She said this 2 months ago and thus I dont believe her. she would not come down on the price then. Only now is she offering price reduction. 

1 hour ago, LukKrueng said:

so you wouldn't have lost your deposit if you were to walk away from the desk back then, but you would have probably had to take the seller to court

so in other words you do lose your deposit!!!  because it will all go to court fees and attorneys

Before I ask our tin pot small time attorney I wanted to ask what taxes there are on the purchase of land/house. 4 years ago we bought a property (20% down and 80% loan) and we asked our attorney what the tax liability would be at the land office a few days prior to the settlement date. He gave an excuse as if it was too hard to accurately tell us. I was very surprised. Imagine being back in my home country and the attorney cant answer the question like that. Absolutely incompetence. 

Back then, in the contract with the seller it was stipulated that we pay all taxes together 50 / 50. But of course the guy refused to abide and we were right at the end and had to give in and pay it all at the land office. Or we pull out of the deal and he keeps our deposit. 

This time I want to know what the exact taxes are and who (normally) should be paying them in a purchase/sale agreement. 

Actually the old bat that is selling the land/old house we want is asking a very high price and not negotiating down on the price. I fear that she could also refuse to pay any taxes on the day of the transfer at the land office. 

Any suggestions how to deal with this issue is appreciated. 
 

The wife and I are interested in buying a small plot of land that has an old thai style concrete house on it with the old (ugly) ceramic tiles. 

We think it would be better to demolish it and build a new house in the same area. 

I have limited building knowledge and thus seek opinions from any retired builders out there
1.    After they completely remove all building materials that are above ground, what about the footings underneath. Should we be asking for them to remove the old footings as well?
2.    I think the house is on city water but unsure about the septic situation. I assume we want them to completely remove any sewage system that exists underground? Or do we just get it pumped out and keep the old system. 

I think we might have to get access again and get a builder in to ask about the above but thought I would ask here to get some knowledge prior hand. 

Thanks for any opinions
 

On 11/21/2021 at 2:16 AM, lkn said:

Correct me if I am wrong, but Bitkub charges you 0.25% in commission to buy the bitcoins, and the BTC price when you are paying with THB tend to be at least a few percentage points higher (because more people wants to sell THB than buy THB), commission on Coinbase (converting crypto to fiat) is 0.5-2%, and there is additional cost to withdraw.

 

So you’re probably looking at losing 3-6% of the total amount by going via Bitcoin.

The spreads on bitkub are not so bad in line with other exchanges. Its a hugely volatile asset. OP could buy it one week and then it goes up 20% in value. Or it goes the other way. Its all part of the risk or reward. Cheap transaction fees though when moving the money from one wallet to another. 

Ive given up on bitkub. Too hard to get verified. 

Any experiences with Satang or Zipmex? Feedback?

thanks

Jack

9 minutes ago, Marjf said:

Thanks all.   As most of the money transferred was directly from UK to developer or lawyers most of the cash has no Thai bank tracing available.  First lawyer not in existence nor are either developer in the same guise so makes life a bit trickier.   It is a big beachside house so chunky amount.   Where there's a will there's a way but it just sounds like it will have to be an incremental process rather than a straightforward one. 

If the sale proceeds are funded to your thai bank account the easiest way to do it is as follows:

- open an account at bitkub or any thai exchange and pass KYC verification. Satang is easier. Actually bitkub is too hard to get verified to be honest. 

- link your thai bank account to the crypto account

- send your funds to your account at the crypto exchange

- buy bitcoin

- Open an account at a crypto exchange in the Uk

- send the bitcoin from your thai crypto wallet to your UK crypto wallet

- sell the bitcoin

- fund to your uk bank account

It will not cost much to send the bitcoin and extremely safe as long as you copy and paste the correct address. 

Forget any other way. Bitcoin is the future of money

2 hours ago, jacko45k said:

Get Google Maps to plan your route.

how does one do this? Im so old I can barely turn on the computer. 

Hi

I want to drive from Pattaya to Ekamai- more or less on the same route as the big bus that leaves every hour. 

Yes, I know about google maps but actually I find it doesn't often make the best decisions- certainly out of any big city google maps is useless. I will not even start on the sat nav system in my car. Absolutely useless with directions

If Im driving up that road past the main Pattaya bus station (on the left). I get to the T intersection and turn right and then 50m on take the left at that main highway. Is that the route all the way to Bangkok? 

Once Im in bkk what is the sign to turn off (left side) to sukhumvit. I know once Im on. that it leads to Ekamai on the left side. 

thanks

7 hours ago, tinom said:

I travel on Bitcoin it's my "international currency saving account",

do you have a visa card that accepts and converts btc to fiat to make purchases?

If not what do you mean when you say that you travel on your bitcoin

4 hours ago, jesimps said:

Zipmex was straight forward and quick.

have you sold crypto and ever funded back to thai bank account? did it go ok?

6 hours ago, allanos said:

Get into De-Fi, with a company like BlockFi or Celsius, and borrow (take out a loan) against your Bitcoin, rather than sell it and pay capital gains tax (CGT).

 

You cannot be taxed on borrowed money.

 

As Bitcoin's trajectory goes ever higher, you can use this strategy into perpetuity,  settling your old debt and taking out a new loan with your increased BTC profits.

And if the bitcoin blockchain gets hacked and everyone sells what happens to your position if it tanks to usd$5k? What are the risks with defi apart from price falling?

6 hours ago, Lemsta69 said:

have you considered signing up with Celsius and taking 1% loans at 25% LTVR using your BTC as collateral?

 

I've been using this method for some time now so that i can keep my preciousss digital gold until it pumps to $200k next year at which point I'll liquidate a bunch of it to take profits and pay back the loans. 

 

as always, "not a financial advice"

And if the price tanks to $5000USD what happens to your position then? 

6 hours ago, Neeranam said:

I just today paid university fees using my crypto.com card. I sent BTC from Bitkubbto my card.

What card is that? What bank and country?

thanks

Years ago I worked at a thai government school and after finishing I reverted to the SS health scheme where I pay money every month and nominated my preferred hospital. I received a blue card with my SS number and have used the public hospital system a few times. 

Now I successfully applied for a WP via my wifes business. I went to try and register myself on the SS system as a staff member (similar to our staff). They said because Im married to my wife I dont have to make SS contributions. They said just keep paying the monthly money (direct debit) to the SS system. 

I went back to the labor dept to ask if this is ok that I dont pay SS i.e. if I want to renew the WP next year. The officer said it should not be a problem. 

I wanted to ask if anyone can confirm is this is correct?

My objective is to apply for thai citizenship in 3 yrs. If I havent paid the SS on my salary can I still apply for citizenship. I will be annoyed if Im rejected due to this.

thanks

On 7/1/2021 at 12:18 AM, Saraburi121 said:

We haven't been to Bangkok in over a year and dearly miss the trips

Stop being a baby. We've had heaps of weekends there. We wear 2 masks each. One standard medical grade mask that most people wear and an N95 on top. Never caught covid.

38 minutes ago, darksidedog said:

I would definitely suggest that before you undertake any additional work, that you trot down to your local immigration office and get their official thumbs up of approval first. Better to be safe than sorry.

immigration office or go to labor dept? Which one?