JusMe

MiNombreEsFicticious:  get your meds adjusted

NCC:  I too would have preferred the lawyer collect it all and then send it in one payment, but apparently they prefer to do several.  Won't cost too much, and at least that way I know the cheques aren't bouncing.

Final Update, and a bit of a surprise

I managed to contact a couple of the lawyers suggested by PMs from posters to the forum, and eventually one of them accepted, in effect, to take it on contingency.  Either she thought about it and knew that there was some money probable, or she made a few phone calls and made contact and then realized that it was "in for a penny, in for a pound" and pursuing the matter was the only way she was going to get some cash out of the problem.  Works out to 35k plus 5% of money recovered.

She made phone contact (difficult, as both cell phone numbers had been changed in February) and eventually had a brief meeting and got an agreement to pay the full sum plus some interest (might cover her cost off the top?) in five payments.

The Swede has avoided anything related to it for a while, and if I didn't know that he'd had only a few short vacations to Sweden over at least the past 25 years, and has said he never really wanted to return, I'd have speculated he'd done a runner.  But his work permit and visa and residency depend on his working there, so unlikely he'd actually move off anywhere, just avoid.

The lawyer met with them and received five cheques covering the total amount owed, four of them post dated.  I've received the first payment - getting sent by the lawyer from her business account, not from the agency - and do hope for the next four, as long as none of those cheques bounce.  I'd prefer the lawyer collect it all in her account and then send it as one transfer with obviously lower bank fees, but if it can't be done, at least I'll get some cash out of the whole problem.

But, this is at least a movement in the right direction, and I'll finish this as a final posting on the subject.  If anyone wants the contact information for that lawyer in Pattaya, send me a PM and I'll be glad to forward it to you.  Her English was adequate and we did manage to communicate by email, and as it was successful, this is a positive recommendation for her services.

See Will & DaRoadrunner seem not to have read the entire thread.  Clearly, I am not currently in Thailand, have not been for a couple of years, and have no intention of returning.

The agent does have a work permit, and owns the business in partnership with his Thai partner, business and personal.  They've regularly paid the necessary tea money for his work permit to be processed rather than expire at the bottom of a pile of paper.

As for making a mistake in not getting a lawyer to handle the sale, it was done by the registered real estate agent.  Very similar to when I first bought it, although from a different company.  (Only two in Ban Phe, unless there's been changes since I was last there.)

The latest legal note I received is a request for 25,000 baht in order to proceed.  Guess there's no such thing as contingency with Thai lawyers.  If that one can't take it on without up front payment, perhaps someone else confident about their own abilities will.

I have written to a second legal representative, but any other contacts sent to me by PM would be appreciated.

I received a "Summary" from the agent this morning.  First, he is indicating an additional 38,450 baht paid to the property management company, from which I already have the invoice, which includes everything but not this additional amount.  Unacceptable.

He has also said that he cannot send the one million baht in one transfer, but wants to divide it into instalments over ten months.  That too is unacceptable.

I'm hoping the firm I have contacted will be able to extract the money from him and send it to me in one sum.

I will keep the forum updated.

That post removal was mine and at my request.  I had included information that should have been left out.  However, here's the main point of it all:

12 hours ago, UKJASE said:

anything that he writes to you acknowledging that he owes you money, make sure you keep, as you may need as evidence in the future if he doesnt pay in full

 

also, ask him now how long these installemnts will take and make sure he knows you are not happy that he has taken this long already

I've got the email I quoted earlier, so that's an indication of acceptance of responsibility.  I hope for something early this week indicating how many instalments, how long.  Still don't know why it can't be in one transfer, but anything I come up with is purely speculation, which I'll keep private rather than make public suggestions.

39 minutes ago, Tomahawk21 said:

i agree with you , why cant they send all the money ? dont hold your breath. i hope you do get all your money owed to you.

Not too sure why they can't send the money all in one go.  Not as if it's that much to kick in bank regulations and suspicions of laundering.  I do have, and sent him, copies of the initial bank transfers to buy the house.  And it has been almost six months since the sale, so ....

At least the latest email is a positive sign, so maybe ...

If I was there, clearly I'd call him or drop in, but my phone system needs tweaking to do any international calls, plus the super time difference, so phoning isn't really an option.

Local people have offered to call or drop by his office to ask what's happenin'.  Special thanks to them.

I will most definitely keep the forum updated on any developments.

As for the OCPB, there is clearly no way that I could visit their office as I'm not in the country and have no intention of getting back there.  I don't know if they'll do anything if I try to make any kind of "complaint" by email.

I was given a URL to follow which eventually led me to The Office of the Consumer Protection Board.  Meandering around there and looking at registering and getting a password, I found their conditions, one of which is:

The Office of Consumer Protection does not consider the protection of consumers or to cease to be considered in the following cases.

1. Complaints that consumers have the right to self litigation.

which means that if I can get a lawyer and do it myself, they're not interested.  Somehow that doesn't really surprise me.

Thanks, Likewise.  I think I can always send a PoA either in registered mail or even by pdf.  That's what I used for selling the house.  Of course, see how that worked out, eh?

I do have contacts provided me by other ThaiVisa members for local lawyers, who could be an option.  Most assuredly, I am not sending any money up front, as I've learned about sending good money after bad.  But if perhaps one of them would take it on a contingency basis, that's a possibility.

The expense, hassle, stress, and all of actually getting there and confronting him, just isn't worth it.  And there'd still be no guarantee that I'd get more out of it all than just more expense, hassle and stress.

I did leave Thailand a few years ago, for a good number of reasons, and for some of them, I know I have no reason to ever want to return, even for the possibility of recovering some cash.  So, the face-to-face just ain't gonna happen.

Wouldn't say I'm not interested in sorting out the missing funds, but I do have the wherewithal to manage without them.  Be quite a different matter if I was in any way desperate.

It could be that they just don't want to bother with the transfer, particularly as they do have the cash presumable in their own bank account (if it hasn't been used to cover other debts or costs) and would be earning some interest in BKBK.

I did contact Siam Legal, as their name came up first on an internet search, but who knows if they'd manage to actually retrieve anything, and they want cash up front, which kicks in my instinct to refuse sending good money after bad.  Spent enough in Thailand now and don't want to send anymore.

I left the country quite a long time before the money was there, and the house was up for sale for more than a year, so I wasn't in a position to hang about just waiting and hoping.  Left it all in the hands of my friend of twenty years.  See where that got me, eh?  ????

I don't know anyone here who speaks Thai, fluently or otherwise.  And not much necessity to phone speaking Thai, as the agent speaks English and Swedish, and his partner (business & personal) speaks Thai and some English. 

So speaking to someone in their office in any language is unlikely to make any difference to emails which go unanswered.

Having left Thailand a number of years back now, I don't have any friends there other than the occasional farang passing through as a tourist, which is why I'm hoping someone on or connected to ThaiVisa can help out.

Yes, I did sign a PoA and had it witnessed here.  Sent both the hardcopy and pdf of it to the agent who sold the house, and who now hasn't forwarded the money from that sale to me.  As I recall without digging through my digital files, it was in Thai so I couldn't read the details.

I don't have any original copies of anything, but loads and loads of pdf files of the documents.  I have no idea what happened to originals.  Maybe the original FET of my transfer to purchase was left with the company my friend was working with at that time, before he had a year's non-competition agreement in which he set up a company servicing places before being able to get involved as an estate agent.

No, doesn't sound good, I'll admit.  Right now the silence is disconcerting.  At least I'm not desperate for the money, and have suffered greater losses (and profits) on other investments over the years.  Still, be good to get a chunk of the money that I did put into that house.

12 minutes ago, GinBoy2 said:

What I would suggest is that for anyone who is thinking of buying or selling is to use an international real estate agent.

 

One other thing to think about, did you give then the original FET so they can transfer the  funds?

I bought while actually there and knowing the people involved, so an international real estate agent wasn't a viable option.  Then I left it in the hands of the selling agent, who'd been a friend of mine for about 20 years.

I have given him the documents from my initial transfer of funds from my Canadian bank to the agent when I purchased the house about nine years ago.

Thanks for that link, KittenKong.  I followed and investigated through it, and at least got to an email address which I can write to, perhaps in futility but also with at least the hope of some possible followup.

3 hours ago, Delight said:

 From what you say the land/house are now  not legally yours.

The land was leased.

So how was the house legally yours?

Does your name feature at any land office?

The land was leased through a management company, but I bought and owned the house on it.  Yes, it was registered with some government office, presumably the "land office."  Of course, now that the house has been sold and the new owner has a new lease with the management company, I no longer legally own it.

I would name him here, but I think there's a policy about naming-and-shaming that would delete my posts, so if someone can make personal contact, PM me and I'll let you know.

It's not enough money (about 1.2 mil baht) to warrant taking the chance on flying over, staying for a while, and trying to get it myself.  And now I don't know anyone there at all, which is why I'm pretty much dependant on digital contact.  Can't even get an email address for the RTP, although that might not do much more than waste some digits.

And no, this is not a troll.  The money is stuck there, somewhere, and if I can get it, great.  Particularly if someone here can give me a bit of a hand on it.

This discussion is continuing in the Real Estate, housing, house and land ownership forum, under "Sold My House - No Money?"

Inn Between said:  "Even if your week in Thailand took a bit of effort and cost you another $1000, isn't a profit of $48,000 worth it? And on a moral note, don't you feel some duty to prevent a thief from being successful (on your nickel) and give him the idea to do it again as Farang are easy targets?"

First, it wouldn't be a profit - rather a recovery as I obviously had to spend in order to buy the house in the first place.  And by now, I've partially mentally written it off as an investment loss.  Not welcome, obviously, but a cost of doing "business" in Thailand, where I haven't been now for about five years, with no desire whatsoever of returning.

The agent himself is farang, a Swede who's lived in Thailand for more than twenty years and has a Thai partner, both personal and business, in who's name the business is registered.

And, as SaneMax has said: "I doubt that the estate agent would just hand the money over "  No, as he's not sent it by bank transfer yet, and hasn't answered emails over the past long while, somehow I doubt he'd simply reach into a drawer if I walked into his office.

I suggested police as I had no other ideas.  Likely only possible if I walked into the police station in Ban Phe, as Inn Between suggested, with the documentation, and even then, who knows when anything could be accomplished, or even if anything could happen.  I could spend months sitting there waiting and trying to get something done legit using "legal methods and institutions" and end up only having spent a lot of time, extra money, and undergone massive hassles and stress to accomplish ....

Hoping someone here might have a practical suggestion for me, or at least commiseration!

Just now, Inn Between said:

I don't know where you'd be coming from, but out of curiosity, I just looked online using Kayak, specifying a flight from Toronto Canada leaving next Tues (Apr 2) and returning one week later (Apr 9). I was shocked to see Eva offering that round trip for $C946, and there were some other ones for under $C900. I've never seen prices so low. I'd think spending $C900 to recover $C50,000 would be well worth it. Personally I like Eva, and those flights even have only 1 short stopover, Seems like a no-brainer to me, 

I'd have to do connections from Edmonton, and the price you indicate is about right, but obviously doesn't include all the extras like accommodation, travel between BKK and Ban Phe, plus all the hassle involved, and whatever might be involved in actually collecting that $C50k, if it can be collected.  Don't even know if the agent has absconded or is just ignoring my emails.  EVA is pretty good, although in the past I've gone through Seattle and then Aseana.

3 minutes ago, sanemax said:

Get in touch with Sharky in Pattaya

Who's "Sharky" and how would I get in touch with him if he/it's in Pattaya and I'm not even in Thailand?