Building Permit Required for Village House?

[tlock]

We are about to build a house in my wife's village, and we have official plans.  Today my wife asked about getting whatever paperwork is required before building, and was told that we don't require the Tessaban (sp?) signature because we are outside of the city limits.  My wife had thought she needed a signature from the Or ba tor (I know I got the spelling wrong there), but PEA told her that we need the OK of the pu yai ban rather than a government office.  Does anyone have any experience with this to confirm or contradict?

 

 

thanks

[cheeryble]

We are INSIDE the tesabahn of a village.

Wife told me yesterday permission only required for over 100sqm.

Structural drawings needed regardless of size.

Im just the messenger, and wouldn't mind confirmation.

[DrDave]

We built a house in a rural area about 10 years ago with no building permit or any other type of pre-construction paperwork.

We were required to have an inspector from the electric company come out and have a look before the meter could be connected, and we had to get a statement of some sort from the local hospital/clinic before the house could be connected to the government water supply. As far as I know, those are the only things that were required.

[Antonymous]

Out in the sticks the laws of the land are somewhat flexible and will be interpreted differently by different officials.

 

What you may 'get away with' today, may not be possible tomorrow when the relevant officials have changed.

 

Given this situation, to be on the safe side I would recommend doing everything according to the 'laws of the land'. Why? One reason is that you could build your house today without the required papers and signatures and be fine. Then years later try to sell it and the buyer does due diligence and finds that permits were not issued and officers have changed. Then you may have a problem.

 

So, what do you need to do to be on the safe side? Get a building permit from the OrBorTor.

 

If you are building a fancy house and had an architect and structural engineer sign off the plans, this is very easy. Take the plans and the ID and qualification certs of the architect and engineer to the OrBorTor. Their official will check the plans and countersign. You have your permit and are good to go.

 

Cost for the permit is a few hundred baht only. It may take several weeks to obtain.

 

If your house does not have a plan signed by a qualified architect and structural engineer, you can take your plan to the OrBorTor and ask their engineer to check and if necessary change the plan. This is work prior to applying for  a permit and there will be a fee. Typically the fee will be less that you would pay to a 'private' architect/engineer. In the sticks you can expect an architect/engineer fee of around 10,000 baht for a 160-240 m2 house for example. If you go to a city private architect your fee could be 60,000 plus for the same thing.

 

It will then be very easy to get your permit.

 

That's the way it should be done. You'll hear from other folk who will say they didn't have to go through this process and end of the day, it is up to you. My advice, do it right and you can sleep easy. Costs very little.

 

Hope this helps

 

 

[cheeryble]

Anyone can confirm or deny the 100 sqm below which wife told me a permit not required?

I actually think it;'s kind of odd.

[tlock]

Thanks for all the replies.

 

So the clerk at the PEA is the one who started this rumor, she seemed to think that the PEA inspection was all that was required as well as an OK from the pu yai ban.  The pu yai ban told us to go to the OrBorTor for the permit.  The OrBorTor told us the plans we bought were plans only and didn't include the engineers license, so we are sending an extra 2k to the guy to send us a copy of his license (a little miffed about that, the other set of plans we bought did include a copy of the license, we just didn't know what to look for).  

 

So yes we will end up getting the permits, thanks again for the input.

 

 

[Antonymous]

1 hour ago, cheeryble said:

Anyone can confirm or deny the 100 sqm below which wife told me a permit not required?

I actually think it;'s kind of odd.

I have not come across any official rule regarding 'under 100 sqm'. This appears to be a case of local interpretation, so beware.

 

You need a building permit even for a small guesthouse.

 

There are sometimes ways around the costs of getting a certified engineer to sign off your plan, especially for a smaller building. For example if your builder is chums with the engineer who works for the OrBorTor he might smooth the way for you to get him to redraw your rough plans using a CAD package and to add his signature and his license so you can apply for the permit. This could cost you anything from 1,000 baht up, depending on how big a chum he is and how complicated your 'small' building is.

 

 

[oobar]

I drew up detailed plans for our 300 square meter house (using Photoshop, at which I became reasonably proficient doing product packaging design for sixteen years).  We then hired some workers and started building.  No permits needed, nothing, but this was in rural Sisaket, a kilometer outside a small village.  Got electricity and a tabien bahn in the name of a Thai person who lives with us without a problem.  Been in the house going on four years now.  Land is leased for 30/60 years and house is owned under right of superficies, agreement filed with the local land office.

[Tofer]

11 hours ago, Antonymous said:

Out in the sticks the laws of the land are somewhat flexible and will be interpreted differently by different officials.

 

What you may 'get away with' today, may not be possible tomorrow when the relevant officials have changed.

 

Given this situation, to be on the safe side I would recommend doing everything according to the 'laws of the land'. Why? One reason is that you could build your house today without the required papers and signatures and be fine. Then years later try to sell it and the buyer does due diligence and finds that permits were not issued and officers have changed. Then you may have a problem.

 

So, what do you need to do to be on the safe side? Get a building permit from the OrBorTor.

 

If you are building a fancy house and had an architect and structural engineer sign off the plans, this is very easy. Take the plans and the ID and qualification certs of the architect and engineer to the OrBorTor. Their official will check the plans and countersign. You have your permit and are good to go.

 

Cost for the permit is a few hundred baht only. It may take several weeks to obtain.

 

If your house does not have a plan signed by a qualified architect and structural engineer, you can take your plan to the OrBorTor and ask their engineer to check and if necessary change the plan. This is work prior to applying for  a permit and there will be a fee. Typically the fee will be less that you would pay to a 'private' architect/engineer. In the sticks you can expect an architect/engineer fee of around 10,000 baht for a 160-240 m2 house for example. If you go to a city private architect your fee could be 60,000 plus for the same thing.

 

It will then be very easy to get your permit.

 

That's the way it should be done. You'll hear from other folk who will say they didn't have to go through this process and end of the day, it is up to you. My advice, do it right and you can sleep easy. Costs very little.

 

Hope this helps

 

 

Wish I lived in your area, our OrBorTor's insist plans are produced by their Engineers / Architects at a cost of 4% of the estimated building costs at an average 15,000 THB / m2. 

 

And that's not just for farang, some Thai friends produced a set of professional plans only to be told they would have to be redone by the OBT who then asked for the original plans on disc to be provided which they copied with a different title block.

[Tofer]

9 hours ago, tlock said:

Thanks for all the replies.

 

So the clerk at the PEA is the one who started this rumor, she seemed to think that the PEA inspection was all that was required as well as an OK from the pu yai ban.  The pu yai ban told us to go to the OrBorTor for the permit.  The OrBorTor told us the plans we bought were plans only and didn't include the engineers license, so we are sending an extra 2k to the guy to send us a copy of his license (a little miffed about that, the other set of plans we bought did include a copy of the license, we just didn't know what to look for).  

 

So yes we will end up getting the permits, thanks again for the input.

 

 

Miffed at 2k, count your blessings, our house plans and permit cost 122k.... Pool villas X 2 another 178k, total 300k... Miffed does not come near to how I felt!

[Antonymous]

1 hour ago, Tofer said:

Miffed at 2k, count your blessings, our house plans and permit cost 122k.... Pool villas X 2 another 178k, total 300k... Miffed does not come near to how I felt!

Where are you located?

 

I feel very sorry for you. They clearly are on a roll and ripping you off. That is outrageous. My guess is you live in a farang-rich area (even though you think it is applied to Thais too). Phuket?

[lj cm]

23 hours ago, DrDave said:

We built a house in a rural area about 10 years ago with no building permit or any other type of pre-construction paperwork.

We were required to have an inspector from the electric company come out and have a look before the meter could be connected, and we had to get a statement of some sort from the local hospital/clinic before the house could be connected to the government water supply. As far as I know, those are the only things that were required.

 

The funny thing is; you need to bring pictures of your bathroom to the local Hospital to get that statement. And it's needed to get the House Book.

[Kron]

Only thing that was out of my control when building our place was the placing of the first post. Not a monk but a village elder told us where the post was to go and the direction the house would face. Not really understood if this was a village requirement or just to keep the mother-in-law happy, so put it down to some sort of feng shui.

 

Only form we filled in was to get the official address for the place, plus blue book. More paperwork was required when we had the house warming party, had to go to the local government office, PEA and Police.

 

[tlock]

51 minutes ago, Kron said:

Only thing that was out of my control when building our place was the placing of the first post. Not a monk but a village elder told us where the post was to go and the direction the house would face. Not really understood if this was a village requirement or just to keep the mother-in-law happy, so put it down to some sort of feng shui.

 

Only form we filled in was to get the official address for the place, plus blue book. More paperwork was required when we had the house warming party, had to go to the local government office, PEA and Police.

 

That's kind of a big deal.  You mean you didn't get a choice where the house was situated on the land?  

[oobar]

49 minutes ago, tlock said:

That's kind of a big deal.  You mean you didn't get a choice where the house was situated on the land?  

We actually ran into this same thing.   We were told the house was to face in a direction we would have never considered.   Made one polite statement that this was a farang house and we must build it in the manner of our farang culture.   There was no problem, not in the least, and we remain on the best of terms with everyone, including the individual who is the village's respected elder and head of the Buddhist "blessing" that determined proper house directions, but he is also the head of our "adopted" Thai family of more than three decades.   It's a pleasure to live among people so good and tolerant of cultural freaks living in their midst.

[lj cm]

For our house, the workers just did this:

 

[Tofer]

19 hours ago, Antonymous said:

Where are you located?

 

I feel very sorry for you. They clearly are on a roll and ripping you off. That is outrageous. My guess is you live in a farang-rich area (even though you think it is applied to Thais too). Phuket?

Koh Lanta. Yes definitely a rip off and cheeky with it in the case of my Thai acquaintance.

 

It's unfortunately the norm here, as I know quite a few farang and Thai that have paid big "fees"....

 

Our Thai neighbour agreed a deal with the OBT and didn't pay up the final installment, so didn't get the permit issued.

 

Aside from the extortionate original fee, we also have to pay 20k for the annual 20 baht renewal stamp for the 4 year duration of the permit, or until the building is finished, on the grounds that the senior Eng. who has to sign this has 'expenses', insurance, blah blah....

 

Each time we visit his office I leave with deep teeth marks in my tongue!

 

As an architect it really rubs me up, particularly as I produced my own plans and have more sophisticated knowledge of engineering solutions than they have. My fees for this and a structural engineers' fees to check the structural details would have cost less than here, even in the UK.

[Kron]

22 hours ago, tlock said:

That's kind of a big deal.  You mean you didn't get a choice where the house was situated on the land?  

Where the house was situated was our choice, just its orientation done by the village Elder. At the time I would have liked the house to face towards the mountains but since our neighbor has planted rubber trees blocking the view. The first post is the one where the blessing is done.