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Crossy - Thanks your reply, albeit rather discouraging! Whilst the houses remained empty the developer picked up a very small bill for the whole of the estate, not more than a couple of thousand baht per month. In the last 6 weeks or so I've had quite a lot of maintenance work done on my house to bring it up to scratch for renting, had some work done on the pool, aircon installed etc. There is now a tenant living there so suddenly electricity is being consumed at a fair rate and this has obviously shown up on the developer's bill. So he's suddenly woken up and realised that he needs to start taking monthly meter readings - at least of my house - and start billing for usage.

I received an email from him about a week ago which stated that he would charge 6b/unit but in the latest email he now wants to charge 8b/unit. So frankly he's pulling figures out of the air. There is no lighting on the estate so no 'common usage' as far as I am aware. It seems to me that there's going to be a problem with both billing and payment in the longer run as the developer lives an hour's plane journey away from Samui so he is going to have to find an agent to read the meter and collect the money. This, of course, is the developer's problem but it raises another question - can he charge an additional amount for agent's services? As regards your question about the unit costs the developer is paying (construction costs or domestic costs), the answer is I don't know. What happens when some houses are complete so the householders are expecting to pay the domestic rate whilst some houses are still being built so the developer is still paying the construction rate?

I had a house built for me on Ko Samui which was finished about 3 years ago. Since then it's been empty and never lived in. The estate developer (ex pat Brit) built a couple of other houses on the estate but these seemed to be empty and there are still many empty plots. He rigged up a temporary electricity supply to the houses and has only recently got round to installing individual electricity meters. My house has recently been rented out and I only just discovered that instead of the electricity company reading the meter and charging me directly, in fact the estate has one meter that covers all the houses and receives only one bill from the main supplier (similar to what happens if you live in a condo). The developer who owns the transformer just received a significant bill last month and has just informed me that he intends to charge my house 8 baht/unit. To add insult to injury the transformer he originally installed to serve the estate packed up last year because of inadequate maintenance and I paid him a percentage of the cost for a new transformer, which he nevertheless claims he owns. When the house was built there was nothing in the contract about the electricity supply and I never remotely anticipated the current situation arising. I do have a possible buyer for the house but I doubt he'll go ahead if he discovers he'll be charged 8 baht/unit, so this latest situation makes the house virtually unsaleable.

Questions:

1. Can anybody with any legal knowledge tell me what my legal rights are in the absence of a contract of electricity supply with the developer? Would the building of a house imply that the developer is responsible for providing an electricity supply at normal electricity board rates unless a specific alternative arrangement had been entered into?

2. If a unit price cannot be agreed and I pay the developer the normal electricity board unit price does he have a legal right to cut off my supply?

3. As a longer term solution what would be the approximate cost of getting the electricity company to run a line directly from the transformer to the house so that they can bill me directly? Could the developer who owns the transformer stop me from doing this if I wished or otherwise get involved and make it difficult?

Constructive comments (only please) would be much appreciated..

To answer the OP, the 'Duty Free' tag refers to the country you are bringing it in to, not the origin. For example you are allowed to bring in a shedload of 'Duty Free' into UK so long as duty has been paid in another EC country, provided it is for personal consumption,

Your second sentence rather contradicts the first. How much alcohol you can bring into the UK depends entirely on the origin (i.e. EEC or non-EEC). But EC countries are a special case and Thailand has no similar

arrangement with their neighbours as far as bringing in alcohol for private citizens are concerned. Booze is booze and if you bring it into Thailand you are supposed to pay duty if you bring in more than 1 litre. Simple. But I usually travel with my family and we always have mountains of luggage plus several duty free bags and customs at Bangkok have never stopped me for a check. But what you can 'probably' get away with and what the laws says is two different things.

Yes it's much cheaper to fly Ldn-Bkk than vice versa but I'm not sure where you get your prices from because they are way too high in both directions. From London check out travel agents Southall Travel or Westeast Travel and then Lastminute.com on the web.

From Bangkok check out "flykingfisher.com" or "Lastminute.com" for prices with Kingfisher. See my recent post on the travel forum (Cheap flights to UK this Summer) and replies from others.

I've just booked flights with Kingfisher on Lastminute.com for £635 rtn

i have also booked, but paid 435 Pound return ...

Excellent. What date were these? Mine at £635 were for 30th June o/w, returning 31st July so I supect high season. I've actually got a free flight on my FF miles with Etihad (not incl taxes of course) but their prices are so outrageous that it's still cheaper to pay for a family of 4 on Kingfisher.

If anybody wishing to fly to the UK this Summer has given up in despair at finding return flights on respected airlines (i.e. ignoring Uzbekistan or Aeroflot etc), for less than 40,000 baht, which is more than 800 sterling in our useless currency, may I suggest trying either "flykingfisher.com" who seem to be the on-line booking agent for Kingfisher Airlines or "Lastminute.com" which, despite being an on-line UK website, seems to have no trouble booking flights starting from points other than the UK. I've just booked flights with Kingfisher on Lastminute.com for £635 rtn. The Kingfisher route via Mumbai has only become available from last month and although I'd never even heard of Kingfisher until recently they are one of only 6 airlines worlwide who have been awarded coveted 5 star status from Skytrax who are an independent airline rating agency and award star ratings purely on the basis of customer feed back. So here's hoping...!

Thanks guys (and/or girls!)

Can anyone advise where I can go (or phone) and ask for a repair man to come out and fix my washing machine (Pattaya area). It needs a new door and shakes like crazy so probably needs new drum bearings too. Model is a Siemens XLM700 about 4 years old. Any info wecome. Thanks

Try "bangkoktickets.com" They are an on-line ticket agent based in Bangkok and fairly hard to beat, though I'm willing to be corrected. I used them last Summer with no problems. They provide a huge selection of options but the cheapest fares offered are not always available, in which case you get a message only after you've clicked on it which is bit annoying.

Strangely enough, early booking does not usually give you the best fares. Many 'deals' only come out about 2 months before you want to travel when the airlines get a bettier idea of their eventual load factors.

Hi JxP. May seem a little too simple but find some really good articles on the subject on the internet , print them off and get them translated by a reputable local translation service. As for treatment, my own Thai wife had severe depression with an element of psychosis, and she also showed classic symptoms of bi-polar disorder as well. We had a huge problem sorting her out. Won't name names but the first Thai hospital we went to (big international in north Pattaya) gave her no less than 5 assorted anti-psychotic/anti-depressants which, taken together as instructed, dam_n near killed her. She was so confused and disorientated than she took an overdose and ended up in intensive care. The hospital learned absolutely nothing and released her 4 days later with a different assortment of 5 AP/AD's. Result was so horrendous that I refused to give her any more or go back to the same hospital. Now she's on one anti-psychotic and one anti-depressant and she's not doing too bad.

Whatever your local hospital gives you make sure it's not too much/too strong and find out what it is on the internet. The doctors here are used to treating Thai's who treat them like magicians and don't ask questions. Obviously we're not doctors but just be very careful what your wife is given and use a common sense approach when analysing what effects the medication is having on her. Only relaying my own experience for what it's worth.

Sorry, I mean NO guarantees!

The limit for entering the UK from a non-EEC country was always 200 cigs and 1 ltr of spirits per person and never been changed as far as I know. Long haul/short haul makes no difference if you are entering from a non EEC country. But customs have generally got bigger fish to fry than making a big fuss over an extra 200 cigs but if you go through the green channel with an extra box of 200 and you get stopped then you'll either get a warning or asked to pay the duty and VAT on the extra. Depending on how they feel about you they have a right to levy a fine too. If you want to chance it, make sure you keep your receipt so they can charge you the right amount. If you decide to go through green channel with four of five extra boxes of cigs and you get stopped then you're definitely in for a big bill, a search of ALL your luggage, a verbal dusting up and an hour's delay or more in customs while they sort it all out. Probably not worth the hassle. My experience is that you are a particular target for a spot check if you are a lone male traveller, not so much if you are with a family. But obviously there are guarantees!

Farang should either:

a) Go home now or

Arm yourselves with GT200.

Saw an article in the Bangkok Post saying that the police were now using chop-sticks to check for bombs.

Still freely available to buy as far as I know.

Court extradites British businessman to face fraud charges in Dubai

BANGKOK: -- The Criminal Court Thursday ordered an extradition of a British businessman to face charges of cheating a Dubai-based firm out of US$150 million.

The court approved the public prosecutor's request to extradite Brayan or Smith Michael Bryan Smith, 43, to the United Arab Emirates.

Smith is wanted on an arrest warrant issued by the UAE Office of the Attorney General on August 25 2008 for having allegedly cheated the Limitless Co out of US$150 million while working as the human resource manager for the firm.

-- The Nation 2010-02-18

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If the "Limitless Co" can lose 150 million dollars without noticing it, then they are certainly aptly named!

I don't know what the penalty for being caught making such a false declaration would be, but I bet it'd be a lot worse than the OP's wife's current situation.

You'll probably say that they'd get away with it. Maybe, maybe not. I wouldn't want to take the chance.

It's like those who suggest lying on a visa application; it's true that some do get away with it; most don't.

I don't see it as a false declaration. She was driving on an IDP, issued by virtue of her Thai driving licence which was, in turn, issued by virtue of her Thai residency. For the first year, during the validity of her IDP, her UK address would be considered temporary, as indeed it might well have been. I'm not sure that giving a temporary address is legal either. So what address was she supposed to give?

I admit that I am extremely anti-speed camera. An effective camera is one that doesn't issue any tickets. Find me one of those and I'll buy a you a beer (or three) when I'm next in the UK. Oh, and if I get a speeding ticket while I'm there I'm defininitely giving my Thai address!

It is, as you say, unlikely that a foreign resident would be pursued, but in this case the driver is a UK resident.

She didn't have a UK passport and she wasn't a UK citizen so her stay in the UK might well not have been permament. Therefore nothing illegal in giving her Thai address. It's only an address for correspondence purposes. If the SCP didn't wish to pursue the matter further (and they wouldn't have) then that's their choice. Better than receiving a large fine, a bad character reference and denial of UK citizenship for 5 years.

So, when the NIP arrives the registered keeper of the vehicle declares that the driver was not a UK resident and has now returned to Thailand.

Then when the citizenship application is submitted the applicant does not declare the speeding offence. The UKBA check the records and find that such an offence was committed by the applicant, but they claimed that they were not resident in the UK at the time and returned to Thailand after the offence and before the issue of the NIP. However, the lack of Thai entry stamps in their passport show that they were not in Thailand as claimed.

See where I'm going with this?

There is no speeding offence, only evidence of an alleged offence. The local Safety Camera Partnership have to find out who the driver was. If a person admits to driving at the time but chooses not to pay the fixed penalty then the SCP have the choice of letting the matter drop or starting a prosecution. If the driver lives abroad then a prosecution is quite pointless. There are 38 SCP's in England and Wales and they each issue thousands of NIP every year. It's a money spinner because most people simply pay up but for those who don't many cases and dropped because they would simply clog up the courts. Anyone living abroad is automatically put into the 'too difficult' catagory and dropped. No offence was committed because nothing was ever proved.

Quote

Where she got flashed it was a temp speed limit from 50 to 30 due to roadworks on a 3 lane carriageway(no school or houses etc) just about a mile after the M3 and normally people are still doing motorway speeds and the junction you have to do a least 40MPH up a ramp from under a blind bridge to join and no markings until you were on the carriageway(i checked it out)and then the cameras are right in front of you.Nice money earner,over a Millionpound!!! Unquote

When she got the NIP (notice of intended prosecution) pity she didn't give an address in Thailand that could send it back to her in England. The "safety camera partnership" would probably have written to her address in Thailand and she could have replied that she was indeed driving at the time but wasn't aware of any offence caused. After that the matter would have been dropped. After all, what more could the SCP do?

Let's assume that the police had a modicum of success. Who would be the losers? A few hundred farangs perhaps, who run their bars behind the scenes. But thousands of Thai's who work in Pattaya in bars, restaurants, hotels and all the other support services would be deprived of an income or have it drastically reduced. The knock-on effect would mean that a huge number of up-country familes would also be deprived of any means of support (how many bar girls DON'T send money home to Mama?) So before the police start their crack-down perhaps they might think about the effect of unintended consequences on their own people. And yes I quite agree about the ease in which farangs may be found compared with Thai's. Thai's often don't live at the address at which they are registered on their family's tabien baan and if the family don't know where they are then it's very difficult to trace them.

The curious thing about Pattaya is that whilst the large supermarkets adhere to the law and, as has been mentioned already, can't process the sales anyway because of restrictions put on the tills, the slightly smaller supermarkets such as Best in North Pattaya Road just by the Dolphin roundabout, don't have any problem selling alcohol 24 hrs a day. Do they just ignore the law or what?

No one seems to have mentioned the collapse of the British pound and what us poor old whingeing pome have had to suffer. Three years ago one pound bought 71 baht, now it buys about 52!! Still, serves us all right for voting Labour for the last 12 years (though not me I hasten to add). But to answer the original question, yes the Thai baht is extremely strong at the moment despite all the political shenanegans in Thailand. Probably because, not only can the country feed itself but it's the single largest exported of rice in the world, which is no mean achievement. Furthermore, the banks are solid and extremely prudent in their lending policies so no queues of panicking Thai customers wanting to pull out all their savings in case they lose them all, like in the UK for example. No, the Thai economy isn't immune to the world-wide recession, but all thing considered Thailand has done pretty well for itself and that is reflected in the strength of it's currency.

China recently sent a powerful message to drug smugglers by executing a British man convicted of smuggling drugs into China. Wouldn't harm Thailand reputation on zero tolerance if the authorities here decided to do the same.

This is Europeans attacking Europeans so frankly it could have happened at any beach side bar virtually anywhere in the world. The Daily Mail seems to have got it 'in' for Thailand and I wouldn't mind so much if they also reported every rape that happened in London each night. A quick search of the internate reveals that rapes in London schools alone have risen by 100 pct in the last year. Needless to say that little gem was reported by the European Union Times, not the Daily Mail.

Always seemed to me to have been a bit harsh to disqualify him from the PM-ship for taking part in a TV cooking show. It didn't seem the greatest crime in the world - especially compared to some things that other Thai politicians have done! Condolences to the family.

If you are living abroad and have a UK private pension you should definitely be getting it into a QROPS as soon as possible, unless it's very small, say under £30,000. If you don't you will simply be taxed on your UK pension income under standard UK income tax rates. If you are already drawing an OAP then this amount will be added to your privale pension income for UK tax purposes. Getting your pension into a QROPS need not be complicated and can be moved across 'in specie' meaning that your pension investments don't need to be sold and re-purchased. I would highly recommend that you engage an IFA to help you because the choices are huge and yes he will charge you for this but it's worth it when considering the amount of tax you will save over the rest of your life (not to mention the pleasure of denying Mr. Brown the tax that he'll otherwise take from your life-time savings). By the way I am NOT an IFA myself. Your pension income will then be paid gross and you are supposed to report your income to the revenue authorities in the country in which you reside. But this is entirely your responsibility and HMRC will not require any paper work to prove that you have done it. After 5 years of non-residency your off-shore provider will no longer need to report your pension details to HMRC so if you have already lived abroad for, say, 3 years and move into a QROPS your provider will only need to report to HMRC for a further 2 years. After the 5 years has elapsed you will almost certainly be able to get your pension funds out of a 'pension wrapper' altogether so then the money/investments are yours to do what you like with. As a start check out "QROPS Bureau" web-site. They give genuine impartial advice but do not themselves sell QROPS.