best Course of action if my Builders gone AWOL

[BEDBANDIT]

hi all
my wife and i are having a house built in udonthani .  we have a builder and we both signed contract for staged payment with a break in rainy season.
we have just gave payment 3 . 300k  1.4mil house
In short ,i think hes done a runner and i wont be seeing him again . He got himself a new wife no2/ girlfriend and has not been seen in 3 weeks , my wife cant contact him on any of his 3 phone numbers and theirs and village rumor going around that he's not done some work on another house and they want there 150k back . 

whats my wife best course of action . ?

is there anything she can do ?

and whats the likely out come ?  .

 

thanks and help , input or advice  

[craigt3365]

First, file a police report.  Perhaps together with the other individuals who've gotten stung.  Other than that, not much you can do.  Sadly, this happens all the time here.  Even to Thais.  In our village, the Thai family knew the contractor quite well.  He took off with millions of Baht.  Never to be seen again.

 

Not sure the police report will help, but it's a good start.  If you know where he lives, find out if he owns the property.  Might be able to at least put a lein on it.  We do that here in our village for unpaid fees and it works.  Just got almost half a million Baht from one guy who hadn't paid in years, after he sold his house.  Man, was he pissed! LOL

[dotpoom]

Unfortunately...this is a common scam worldwide.

[sometimewoodworker]

Probably the only thing you can do is find a new builder and NEVER pay in advance. So if the builder runs he is running away from a payment not running with your money.

[KKr]

do you have a receipt for the money ?
If not, then just regard this as an expensive lesson in common sense.

Edited October 21, 2017 by KKr

[mfd101]

1 hour ago, sometimewoodworker said:

Probably the only thing you can do is find a new builder and NEVER pay in advance. So if the builder runs he is running away from a payment not running with your money.

Very sensible, but - depending how far out in the provinces one is - usually not feasible. The builder usually has no money to start with - nothing to pay the workers, no funds to buy tools & supplies. So you either want your house built or you don't ... If you do, then you will almost always and at every stage be paying in advance. And they will almost always ask for more than promised before they reach the end of each stage.

 

And you're the one over a barrel, not them.

[sometimewoodworker]

2 hours ago, mfd101 said:

Very sensible, but - depending how far out in the provinces one is - usually not feasible. The builder usually has no money to start with - nothing to pay the workers, no funds to buy tools & supplies. So you either want your house built or you don't ... If you do, then you will almost always and at every stage be paying in advance. And they will almost always ask for more than promised before they reach the end of each stage.

 

And you're the one over a barrel, not them.

Being quite far out in the sticks I can assure you that paying the majority in arrears is the way the locals operate and I am just following the precedent set by them.

 

Payment/purchase of materials is usually in advance but you can be sure that payments for work is always in arrears.

 

If your builder has no money that is a huge red flag and you should find a more successful builder. There is always another builder if you look hard enough.

Edited October 21, 2017 by sometimewoodworker

[stropper]

DOT BOOM is so right, as an ex aus builder, this is the norm world wide. Out in the boondocks where i live , to be able to build a mud house is great, one must realise that no one is trained here , so get a ex builder, a ferang if you can to manage your project from the start, to be honest, thais if pushed in the right direction are great workers and not bad trades personsons, i have had no problems at all with any project,ps i live 150ks from udon thani if you need some help, and it is still bloody wet here

Edited October 21, 2017 by stropper
dictation

[BEDBANDIT]

all payments where made via bank transfer so easily proven .

we do have copy off his ID card too .

the house is in Phen / udonthani 
my wifes been to see the local solicitor / lawyer guy today . not sure what shes been told as i have not spoke to her today
has anyone actually tried the Lawyer route ?...

thanks 

[Alantct]

Did u pay him the 1.4 million before any work at all was done?
I am a contractor and the only payment we take in advance is the booking deposit after that we take staged payments on completion of each agreed phase. We are currently building two houses in Udon and another in Phimai and no way would we ask for money of that magnitude in advance. Was his company registered? You might be able to trace him from his registration details and follow him to see where his next job may be. What was the company name? I can ask around the area to see if anyone knows them.
Hopefully you can get something back but it's not going to be easy sorry to say. I know at least 2 other people that were in the same situation with Thai builders and never got a thing back. In the end we were called in to do the job and we just gave them the lowest price possible to try to help out but it was still a huge blow for them.


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[Pilotman]

I would try to find the gang he has been using.  Often, the gang dont get paid if the boss does a runner and they may be glad of the work.  It may save you time, as they know the job.  It will cost of course, as your money has probably gone, but you may get the job done quicker. We did much the same when our boss man went missing.  Fortunately, we hadn't paid him at that point so we just used his gang and paid them,  Then he pitched up asking for money.  We kicked him off site, supported by his old gang.  We have since used them for other smaller jobs and built up  a good working relationship

[Pilotman]

Come to think of it, that boss and the  gang are from Udon Thani. It wasn't the chap who was in on the big tourist lake project in Non Sang was it?  

[Alantct]

Come to think of it, that boss and the  gang are from Udon Thani. It wasn't the chap who was in on the big tourist lake project in Non Sang was it?  

I didn't realise doing a runner was so prevalent in Udon ...I guess that's why we are getting more and more building job offers from the area lately.
Can you name and shame them, I might be able to find out some details from the local builders and the wholesalers and maybe get some info on his whereabouts?
It's a long shot as he is probably in another province by now but worth a try.


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[samsensam]

17 hours ago, sometimewoodworker said:

Being quite far out in the sticks I can assure you that paying the majority in arrears is the way the locals operate and I am just following the precedent set by them.

 

Payment/purchase of materials is usually in advance but you can be sure that payments for work is always in arrears.

 

If your builder has no money that is a huge red flag and you should find a more successful builder. There is always another builder if you look hard enough.

 

sounds right, any builder that is 'broke' is going to ring alarm bells.

[Langsuan Man]

Forget it,  the money it is gone and there is nothing you can do about it for less than 200,000 THB for a lawyer to even start a case.   If he doesn't have the money to pay to finish the job now,  what makes you think he will win the lottery after a court orders him to pay you 5 years from now 

 

Your real world problem is going to be finding a contractor that will finish the job that someone else started.   Building a house is difficult here in Thailand and it is almost impossible when your new contractor will be able to blame any future problems on the previous contractor

 

Believe me, it has happened to me, and took almost an extra year to finish the job 

[sometimewoodworker]

1 hour ago, Langsuan Man said:

Forget it,  the money it is gone and there is nothing you can do about it for less than 200,000 THB for a lawyer to even start a case.   If he doesn't have the money to pay to finish the job now,  what makes you think he will win the lottery after a court orders him to pay you 5 years from now 

 

Your real world problem is going to be finding a contractor that will finish the job that someone else started.   Building a house is difficult here in Thailand and it is almost impossible when your new contractor will be able to blame any future problems on the previous contractor

 

Believe me, it has happened to me, and took almost an extra year to finish the job 

Paragraph 1; absolutely 

Paragraph 2; not true, there are many builder who will take the job. There are many builds I know of who have had several builders with no problems. It can be more expensive if you aren't careful. It can also be cheaper as once a builder runs (if you have been careful with your agreement) you have no need to pay for work that may have been started but not finished. 

[Alantct]

Forget it,  the money it is gone and there is nothing you can do about it for less than 200,000 THB for a lawyer to even start a case.   If he doesn't have the money to pay to finish the job now,  what makes you think he will win the lottery after a court orders him to pay you 5 years from now 
 
Your real world problem is going to be finding a contractor that will finish the job that someone else started.   Building a house is difficult here in Thailand and it is almost impossible when your new contractor will be able to blame any future problems on the previous contractor
 
Believe me, it has happened to me, and took almost an extra year to finish the job 

It would depend on how much work has been done and how much of what has been done is actually done correctly. If the guy did a runner their is a fair chance that he didn't give a crap in the first place about quality control.
The last build and run house my company were called in to finish didn't have much done but in checking it out it turned out that the footings and pads were not reinforced properly so we had to dig it all out and start again.
I guess good news bad news for the client because if the original builder had finished the house I can pretty much guarantee it was cracking and sinking within a year so by him doing a runner and then the client having us come in it actually saved the client millions as he would have had to demolish it and rebuild it anyway.
We have no problem taking on other Builders partial builds and if they are structurally sound then we will finish them but we don't take chances so if any doubt at all after we investigate then we would recommend a complete rebuild.


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[BEDBANDIT]

no Ive not paid him all up front 
if hes gone i reckon i'm about 4-500.000b down the drain .
shame really as he was a very good builder . ( i know a bit ,25years in building game )

the house he was working on when we hired him looks fantastic 

 

[Alantct]

no Ive not paid him all up front 
if hes gone i reckon i'm about 4-500.000b down the drain .
shame really as he was a very good builder . ( i know a bit ,25years in building game )
the house he was working on when we hired him looks fantastic 


 

Ouch, that's a kick in the nuts [emoji20]
How come he had so much in advance?



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[InMyShadow]

THIS WILL sound brutal but how long and well do you know your wife?

What's the age difference?

Feel free to flame but it happens all the time.

[Coconut007]

On 10/21/2017 at 2:12 PM, mfd101 said:

Very sensible, but - depending how far out in the provinces one is - usually not feasible. The builder usually has no money to start with - nothing to pay the workers, no funds to buy tools & supplies.

lol... so a successful, reputable businessman has no money to start a new project?

 

That's the one I would (never)hired

[mfd101]

10 hours ago, Coconut007 said:

a successful, reputable businessman

A successful reputable businessman builder in south Surin is indeed hard to find. But there may be one somewhere. My b/f just hasn't found him yet.

 

Meantime we have the family , friends & friends of same - some are willing triers, some are quite good, some are useless, some are lazy, and some are thieves ... Rather like tradesmen in Australia, come to think of it.