CRUNCHER

Thanks for answers

Does anyone know if Jomtien Immigration is open on Monday 2nd May or is it a substitute holiday for Labour Day?

Thanks

What a coincidence

That 700million baht brand-freaking-new state-of-art boat parking marina project gets damaged with the first storm hits the area!.

Wasn't a study done before spending 700million,whether or not it would withstand a storm?

What a coincidence

State-of-art car parking only attracts a handful amount of people!

Wasn't a study done before spending 700million whether or not it is needed?

What a coincidence

Adjacent to these both projects, a 2billion baht 50floor construction project plans get approved around the same time by the same government office and permitted to go up and up and up and up and.....was stopped after the top-off to be investigated!...

The tiger asks the camel: " why is your neck crooked and twisted?"

The camel sighs and responds in sadness: " what part of me isn't !!!"

That provides food for thought.

An up market condo and hotel in the middle of what was supposed to be an up market regeneration, but turned into an up market raging disaster could prove embarrassing to City Hall.

Perhaps that is the reason why City Hall keeps kicking the can down the road instead of doing what they will have to do in the end – issue a new construction permit.

The amazing thing about the whole saga is that, even by Thailand standards, it is taking a ridiculously long time to resolve.

If even half of the alleged faults with Waterfront were true then the project could and should have been stopped long ago. Indeed City Hall would have all the justification necessary and in many ways this would be the easy option for them. That this has not happened tells a story.

Huge discrepancies in floor area should have been detected when the original construction permit was issued, when the first EIA approval was given and when the second EIA approval was given, not to mention the many site visits that were made. This alone would justify the cancelling the project because it could not reasonably be rectified. This tells another story.

It seems that City Hall are scratching around for reasons to delay giving the go ahead. Why they are doing this I don’t know. Could it be loss of face because they have already unnecessarily delayed this project already? Could they be worried about possible legal action? Whatever, it is time this was sorted out one way or the other.

The couple of buyers that I know put the blame fully on City Hall. One of them is, however, hacked off with the developer for not issuing a promised update a month after the last letter. With the possibility of legal action the developer has to careful what he says, but something could be put out.

We owned 5000 units in Blairmore Investment Trust, which we sold in January 2010. That was worth something like £30,000. I paid income tax on the dividends.

But ...

Was there a capital gain for which tax would have been required?

There may also be a question as to how the units were originally acquired. If they were a gift or purchased at below market value, there would be taxable income.

In the TV interview he said that the profit was below the threshold for CGT. If I remember correctly (?) at that time the first 10,000 pounds of capital gain was free of tax. He would have been lucky to have made a 10,000 pounds profit on a 30,000 pound sale. And at the time he was not prime minister.

Note: I don’t like Cameron, but I don’t like witch hunts either.

We owned 5000 units in Blairmore Investment Trust, which we sold in January 2010. That was worth something like £30,000. I paid income tax on the dividends.

But ...

Was there a capital gain for which tax would have been required?

There may also be a question as to how the units were originally acquired. If they were a gift or purchased at below market value, there would be taxable income.

In the TV interview he said that the amount of profit on the sale was below the threshold for CGT. If I remember correctly (?) at that time the first 10,000 pound of capital gain was tax free. On a 30,000 pound sale he would have been lucky to have had a 10,000 pound profit.

Note: I do not like Cameron, but I do not like witch hunts either.

Another moral to this is never to discard any official documents you receive from any government agency. Ever.

Sage advice there from Jeff. Nice to see some excellent advice amidst the bile.

We have folders of documents from the past ten or so years with everything from my immigration/Min of Labour documents, to wedding stuff, births, making the kids British, her UK visa stuff, her ongoing UK citizenship stuff, moving house, changing address etc, kids school stuff, medical stuff. everything. It took up three shelves and 11 folders and bless my secretary for coming over once every few months to go through everything, date it and file it appropriately and showing Nut how to do it all.

Did we need to keep it all? Every now and again we did need the odd thing but given public official's love of wanting every single shred of documentary evidence it was reassuring to know it was all there and easy to find.

I thought OP said he lost his passport.

Yup, Magna Carta

It is not easy unless you are in MM2H or have a work permit. I tried about 18 months ago and none of the local banks would entertain me. In the end I went to HSBC because I have aPremier account in my home country and HSBC could not have been more helpful. Job done in under an hour.

Suggest, if you have an account overseas with a bank that operates in Malaysia, you try them. A referral from your home bank might help.

Good luck.

"The guilty is not on the city hall for allowing this construction permit. "

Allowing to build on 100sqm more area is more guilty than adding 100sqm more than on the plans.

Allowing to build on "sacred land"(as many of you call it) is even more guilty.

Allowing a 53 storey building which would have eventually and clearly block that view is the guiltiest.

All the City could and should have said 10 years ago was: " we are sorry but your plans WILL block the view so we can NOT allow this construction "

That's it!

Everybody would go home and no harm done and life would go on!

I can intellectually argue on this with you until the end of times.

Your posts were supposed to be "informational" but they now turned out to be biased. So that makes all your arguments biased.

I appreciate your sentiments, but as I understand post #14 the extra area is not 100 sqm, but about 1,200 sqm. or more than 30% more than permitted (or allegedly so).

After 18 months of this building being examined us-side-down, inside-out and back-to-front, I am amazed that this issue only comes to light now.

Perhaps, reading between the lines of the developer's letter at post # 53 there is some misunderstanding between usable, non-usable and salable area. It seems as if people are clutching at straws to delay the restarting of construction.

From Pattayawatchdog facebook

https://www.facebook.com/PattayaWatchdog/posts/1089003807811206

apologies for my and google's translation effort.

As expected

Pattaya City has not renewed construction permits for Waterfront condominium.

According to a review due on February 13, 2559.

This news follows two main reasons.

1. Parking as described in the EIA report, was for 60 places

but developers only provided 30 places subsequently told Pataya city that

parking would be resolved by using a 2 storey hydraulic system floor height of 3.2 meters, but the city checked and found it inadequate for large vehicles.

2. Pattaya City inspected the developmnt area that permited them 3.8 thousand square meters,

and found more than five thousand square meters used without permission.

City building permit can not be renewed.

I am not sure how much credence can be placed on a report like this.

I cannot comment on the car park because I have no knowledge on this, but the discrepancy on the floor area is just too great to be believable - it is over 30%. The building has a foot print of so many square meters multiplied by the number of floors (and I believe the developer built fewer floors than he was entitled to). Any civil servant with a calculator could have worked this out years ago. How come this has just surfaced after the building has been inspected, measured and investigated every which way for the last 18 months.

When you look at this in conjunction with all the lies that have been told about this project over the past 18 months - too high, too close to the sea, land was stolen to included in the project etc. etc ad nausium- all of which have been debunked, this project has been the victim of some very bad people.

Yes, the developer has said that some questions have been asked, questions that should have been asked months ago, but that does not mean that the above is accurate.

To me it looks like more lies spread by people conducting a vendetta against the developer or City Hall or the Government or maybe all three.

Even by Thailand standards this has dragged on for far too long. It is a disgrace. If this building was illegal it would have been stopped long ago. The authorities are delaying the inevitable to try and find some way to save face for stopping the project in the first place.

Thanks for info

My renewal of retirement extension is coming up (Jomtien). I have always lived in a foreign owned condo and I always take a copy of my chanote as proof of address (not that they seem very interested).

I now live in a company owned condo. I am a director and shareholder.

What proof of address do I need to take to provide proof of address.

Thanks.

Each to his own, but I always reckon that getting a re-entry permit at the airport is a bit risky. A delay in getting to the airport could leave you struggling for time and quite frankly I don't need hassle when traveling. Any problems (such as mentioned in this thread) and I don't want to lose my extension and have to start the process again.

As soon as I get my retirement extension I get a multi-re-entry. In an emergency I am good to go.

Magna Carta on South Road is probably as good as it gets in Pattaya. Not cheap though. For an initial chat it is unlikely they will charge at all. However, you cannot expect detailed legal advice at this stage.

Im sure everyone on Thai visa is routing for you mate.

Sent from my GT-I9000 using Thaivisa Connect Thailand mobile app

Sure they are. Over 3,200 views.

God bless you and good luck.

Has anyone any idea of the daily withdrawal limit overseas on a Bangkok Bank ATM cards. Also what are the charges?

Thanks

Google Mr T Taxi. Earlier this year cost me 1,100 baht inclusive of tolls to Siam Square area. Good service.

I have done 45 days early at Jomtien, I produced a copy of my airline ticket. No hassle. What the limit is I am afraid I do not know.

I have never understood the lack of seasoning when using the combo method.

To exaggerate for the sake of emphasis - if I have income of 1 baht and a deposit of 799,999 baht that is an easy way for everyone to get round the seasoning requirement.

What, of course, is very wrong is to change the interpretation of the rules without notice. They should give at least 3 months to allow everyone to adjust.

Renewed my retirement extension at Jomtien on Monday. In and out in less than 10 minutes - pick up passport next day. No such requirement. However, had copy of a chanote in my name.

Google "vacations to go.com". A very good website for cruises, but when you have found what you want, check the cruise lines website as you might get some good deals.

Lots of cruises stop at Lam Chabang, but I do not think they normally take on new passengers. Try E-mailing the cruise line direct to see what they can do. They might make a special arrangement for you. It does not hurt to ask.

I think it was Winston Churchill who said, "I never trust statistics unless I have manipulated them myself"

so Cruncher did you actually buy one from her?

Just got to decide between two options. Will do so on Monday.

Opp. Foodland, a bit further up from Wattana. Excellent choice, fair price & good after-service if anything goes wrong. MS>

Thanks for the replies and this tip.

"My Safe" (indeed opposite Foodland). Wide selection and reasonable prices. Woman there speaks excellent English and knows the products she is selling. More than can be said for Home Pro. Huge difference in price and the staff knew nothing about the safes they were selling. They couldn't even open some of the safes. .