Condo Management Companies

[ripley]

Can anyone share their experiences with condo management companies in Thailand? We've been burned 3 times and the most recent one is proving hard to get rid of. One reason is that the condo administration signed a 3 yr. contract. They''ve taken over virtually all administrative functions and badly. Has anyone had a good  experience with a company? I'd like to know what the Community at large has to say on the subject. Also, any experiences with alternative arrangements for running a bldg.

Thanks.

 

[Peterw42]

My Condo block in jomtien is run by a private management company and it appears to be good. lots of maintenance and quick repairs etc, they chase up people who dont pay, enforce condo laws etc. They do "all " the administrative functions, thats what they get paid to do.

What has been the problem with the past companies ? stealing money ? Surely a management company could be sacked if breaking the law or not following instructions.

Even a private company takes direction from, and works for the owners via the commitee. 

[tolsti]

There are good companies with proper ethics, staffing, supervision and standards, 

 

The problem is that they are not cheap.

[Delight]

Hello Ripley

 

As a matter of interest have QPM ever been employed at your condo ?

[inThailand]

3 hours ago, Delight said:

Hello Ripley

 

As a matter of interest have QPM ever been employed at your condo ?

Do you have experience with them?

[ripley]

 

Sorry -been away for a while and having problems working new format.

Yes, QPM is managing our bldg.

 

 

 

Condo management companies

By Eneukman, April 23, 2015 in Pattaya Forum

 

Found this after starting my topic. Pretty good feedback on the subject. Kitten Kong has some sensible things to say. Should have checked before starting this one. But feel free to comment on this site as well!

[ripley]

The committee works with QPM and wants to keep them. One problem out of many, many is that owners aren't consulted or considered even at AGMs which are tightly controlled. Money is missing, business office a shambles and records not kept. They have the bldg under their control, including contractors, etc. It's an old story, but these people together with a dicey administration have created a dismal outlook. Many owners trying to sell out.

[inThailand]

Similiar experiences with all management companies.

All decisions are self serving, done without transparency and always well over priced. Communication with owners almost nonexistent and when done its a kindergarten photo show with no real details, costs or meaningful info. Its a guessing game as to what they are doing or even planning to do. And the owners committee is either blind, in cahoots, complacent or just powerless to this mismanagement.  

[ripley]

Wow! You know the score! Exactly what our place is going thru.

[ripley]

Hi Delight! Nice to talk w/ you again.

[Henryford]

The key is not just a good management company but a good Committee who will issue clear instructions and follow up action, check accounts monthly etc. But that means 2 or 3 farangs on the Committee need to spend a fair amount of time checking everything the management company does.

[inThailand]

I would be interested in buying a bargain condo in Udon. PM me if you can assist.  

[inThailand]

Just now, Henryford said:

The key is not just a good management company but a good Committee who will issue clear instructions and follow up action, check accounts monthly etc. But that means 2 or 3 farangs on the Committee need to spend a fair amount of time checking everything the management company does.

Yup! Experience says it not an armchair position to be effective on a condo board. It takes alot patience and oversight to manage the child called the property manager.

[Delight]

11 hours ago, ripley said:

Hi Delight! Nice to talk w/ you again.

We have had QPM for 7 years

The Good

They certainly keep an iron fist on the money

 

The Bad

They will only respond to Committee resolutions if it suits the JPM

The Ugly

They have all the power. They are confident that all other management companies are no better than they are.

There is   almost zero chance of them being sacked.

In the end the committee complies with them.

[ripley]

We have not had an auditor-approved financial statement for years. Auditors refuse to sign off. In the last audit over 13 million was found missing. So much for QPM's "tight fist"! We think committee is hand in glove with them.

[inThailand]

Condo owners let the management company be the property manager, JP Manager, accountant and they select the auditor all under the oversight of unengaed board and wonder why there is a problem. The owners who allow this are worse the management companies. You can't fix stupid! 

[Delight]

6 hours ago, ripley said:

We have not had an auditor-approved financial statement for years. Auditors refuse to sign off. In the last audit over 13 million was found missing. So much for QPM's "tight fist"! We think committee is hand in glove with them.

 I speak as I find. So do you

Is your JPM a Khun Narakorn?

[funandsuninbangkok]

7 hours ago, ripley said:

We have not had an auditor-approved financial statement for years. Auditors refuse to sign off. In the last audit over 13 million was found missing. So much for QPM's "tight fist"! We think committee is hand in glove with them.

13 million!  Oy vay!  

 

Rent in Thailand. Let others deal with management!

[inThailand]

1 hour ago, Delight said:

 I speak as I find. So do you

Is your JPM a Khun Narakorn?

I have been told he is worthless, can not speak english and knows shit. They have him because he's a policeman.

[scubascuba3]

Worrying that money getting syphoned off isn't prosecuted

[ripley]

Sorry but because of recent alarming happenings here I can't name names. I know that over the years I've had complaints about our administration (well founded), but really this is pretty awful and I see no way out. 

We want to sell out, but are told by agents that the market is extremely low now. 

[ripley]

On 9/17/2017 at 8:21 PM, scubascuba3 said:

Worrying that money getting syphoned off isn't prosecuted

Quite right to be worried. Case brought to court and no joy.

[KittenKong]

On 17/09/2017 at 9:52 AM, ripley said:

We have not had an auditor-approved financial statement for years. Auditors refuse to sign off. In the last audit over 13 million was found missing. So much for xxx's "tight fist"! We think committee is hand in glove with them.

 

In my experience committee members here are often either corrupt or stupid or both. Skin colour appears to make no difference.

 

 

On 16/09/2017 at 10:34 AM, Henryford said:

The key is not just a good management company but a good Committee who will issue clear instructions and follow up action, check accounts monthly etc.

 

Indeed. I would not trust any Thai condo management company to do a proper job. Everything they do has to be checked by someone with a proper work ethic, some moral values and a brain. Though I'm not sure that many committee members have any of those either.

Unfortunately this all basically means that decent committee members (if you have any) have to do the management company's job for them, so that begs the questions "why pay a management company when they are all useless?" and "why should an unpaid committee member spend a lot of his time doing the management company's job for other co-owners who dont care or even realise what needs doing?".

I thought a lot about this and, given the low cost of maintenance fees here (at least in my building), I decided that in the end it was cheaper for me just to let the management company do a lousy job and lose/steal our money. At worst I will just have to cough up a few thousand Baht to make up the shortfall, and that is no big deal for me. It certainly isnt worth me spending more than a couple of hours of my time trying to save my small share of the building's money.

 

[ripley]

I've often wondered why seemingly decent people do the smash and grab act when elected to condo office.  And also wondered why anyone would take up unpaid administrative work. Conclude that they quickly find that it isn't "unpaid".

 

Baht siphoned off is a big problem, true. But there are others such as policy and other changes to the condo and condo life which an arrogant admin can introduce. Minutes of AGMs altered before submission. Money paid for inferior work. Contracts given to inept, unqualified and overpaid companies. All of these can be finagled by a committee, management co. & JPM. They affect the quality of life for the owners. People say "they can't breach Thai Law", but recent attempts to rein in our management co. & officers thru legal system have been unsuccessful, giving the admin. a green light for more trespasses. These people are protected by an insurance policy paid for by the owners. Supposed to refuse payout if party found guilty but thus far this has been no help to owners - who have to pay for lawsuits out of their own pockets. You won't find many if any owners willing to do that. Owners also fear reprisals so are even more wary about bucking the status quo.

I wouldn't have believed any of this had I not seen it myself. No end in sight.

And, yes. Much as I love my condo, am trying to sell out and rent instead of owning.

[KittenKong]

9 minutes ago, ripley said:

I wouldn't have believed any of this had I not seen it myself.

 

You are not alone in that. Few people seem to understand just how massive corruption and deceit is in buildings here. I suspect that those who say "it doesnt happen in my building" are either blind or dreaming.

 

 

12 minutes ago, ripley said:

I've often wondered why seemingly decent people do the smash and grab act when elected to condo office.  And also wondered why anyone would take up unpaid administrative work. Conclude that they quickly find that it isn't "unpaid".

 

I did it because it was the "right thing" and because I wanted to improve the finances and general condition of my building. I certainly never earned a bean out of my time on our committee, but I did save us many hundreds of thousands of Baht. There was (and still is) the potential to save millions more, and to improve the state of the building enormously at no cost to co-owners.

[ripley]

Same here. In fact, tho you might not believe it, it never once occurred to me that there was money to be made for myself! Talk about naive! I should never have been in office. I went down in flames anyway, reputation destroyed by those who couldn't benefit from transparent government. It's a jungle.

[qkd888]

Has anyone had Condominium Management experience with a firm named Asset Management Solutions in the Chalong area of Phuket.

[inThailand]

13 hours ago, Delight said:

 What you state is mostly correct . However there is no requirement for copy of the agenda to be placed in the common area

I attach a JPEG detailing  the requirements for calling a meeting

 

 

On 9/30/2017 at 9:51 AM, ripley said:

I've often wondered why seemingly decent people do the smash and grab act when elected to condo office.  And also wondered why anyone would take up unpaid administrative work. Conclude that they quickly find that it isn't "unpaid".

 

Baht siphoned off is a big problem, true. But there are others such as policy and other changes to the condo and condo life which an arrogant admin can introduce. Minutes of AGMs altered before submission. Money paid for inferior work. Contracts given to inept, unqualified and overpaid companies. All of these can be finagled by a committee, management co. & JPM. They affect the quality of life for the owners. People say "they can't breach Thai Law", but recent attempts to rein in our management co. & officers thru legal system have been unsuccessful, giving the admin. a green light for more trespasses. These people are protected by an insurance policy paid for by the owners. Supposed to refuse payout if party found guilty but thus far this has been no help to owners - who have to pay for lawsuits out of their own pockets. You won't find many if any owners willing to do that. Owners also fear reprisals so are even more wary about bucking the status quo.

I wouldn't have believed any of this had I not seen it myself. No end in sight.

And, yes. Much as I love my condo, am trying to sell out and rent instead of owning.

Yes until you actually get on the committee and really look at the what goes on you would not believe the gross mismanagement of owners money. And here lies the problem as you said, most owners just don't believe that this is the case. But it is a provable fact and they still don't believe such. I never seen such money monkey business in my life then our condo development. And I would guess ours is not even the worst out there. 

Edited June 12, 2018 by inThailand

[inThailand]

2 hours ago, qkd888 said:

Has anyone had Condominium Management experience with a firm named Asset Management Solutions in the Chalong area of Phuket.

Is this the Belguim guy? Ajan?