Buying Condo in CM Advice

[jonwilly]

Ah Poo I though you where asking for my address so you could give me B1.5 mill.

 

john

[simoh1490]

26 minutes ago, jonwilly said:

Ah Poo I though you where asking for my address so you could give me B1.5 mill.

 

john

If I agreed, would I need a lawyer?

[jonwilly]

No Sir No No Never.

 

john

But I would.

[banagan]

On 3/4/2018 at 7:44 AM, simoh1490 said:

Not many people use a lawyer for a condo purchase but if you do, expect to pay around 15,000 baht.

 

Don't sign any documents written in Thai that you don't fully understand and the contents verified.

 

A maximum deposit of about 50,000 baht is sufficient to show good faith, 10% is way too much.

 

The deal can be closed whenever you agree with the owner, 24 hours later or a month later.

 

Agree and understand who is responsible for paying the tax on the sale, this will have to be paid in cash at the Land Office when the sale is completed - a 50/50 split of taxes is not uncommon.

 

Pay for the condo is cash or with a bankers draft at the Land Office when the property is transferred into your name, not before.

 

Property surveys are not common, you'll need to inspect it carefully.

 

Make sure the condo. is in the foreign ownership quota of 49%.

 

Make sure service charges are paid up to the date of transfer.

 

You'll need a letter from your bank or a Foreign Exchange Certificate stating that the funds you intend to use for this purchase came from outside Thailand, the Land Office will not let the sale proceed without this letter.

 

DO NOT pay any money to agents for any reason.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Awesome, thanks

[Justfine]

Why would you buy now?

[NancyL]

Wouldn't a lawyer be expected to investigate if the condo has a proper management structure, with owners paying in and a proper "sinking fund" for anticipated future maintenance needs?  And that there is an owners committee that meets regularly, with minutes, etc?  

[simoh1490]

1 minute ago, NancyL said:

Wouldn't a lawyer be expected to investigate if the condo has a proper management structure, with owners paying in and a proper "sinking fund" for anticipated future maintenance needs?  And that there is an owners committee that meets regularly, with minutes, etc?  

[NancyL]

12 minutes ago, simoh1490 said:

So, I guess that means, no?  If so, then I guess it's up to the buyer to investigate these issues, which I imagine would be important, right?

[simoh1490]

7 minutes ago, NancyL said:

So, I guess that means, no?  If so, then I guess it's up to the buyer to investigate these issues, which I imagine would be important, right?

I'm sorry Nancy I couldn't resist. You are of course correct, those things do need to be checked but it's my experience that the lawyer will not do so, not unless you specifically request them, in which case I suspect the fee will be increased.

[evenstevens]

2 hours ago, NancyL said:

Wouldn't a lawyer be expected to investigate if the condo has a proper management structure, with owners paying in and a proper "sinking fund" for anticipated future maintenance needs?  And that there is an owners committee that meets regularly, with minutes, etc?  

why engage a lawyer ?.where your own diligeince test can provide the same answers   clearly your knowledge and experience on such matters is zilch as per usual

[NancyL]

1 hour ago, evenstevens said:

why engage a lawyer ?.where your own diligeince test can provide the same answers   clearly your knowledge and experience on such matters is zilch as per usual

E/S this is one where I will grant that my experience in buying a condo is zilch, but not "per usual" about other matters.

 

Hubby and I are thinking about maybe buying a fixer-uper condo , although the one time in our lives that we hired a contractor and built a house it didn't work out well.  It's always been better for us to get a place where we could see the "bones" and then just do cosmetic makeovers.  

[lkn]

On 3/7/2018 at 11:45 AM, NancyL said:

Wouldn't a lawyer be expected to investigate if the condo has a proper management structure, with owners paying in and a proper "sinking fund" for anticipated future maintenance needs?  And that there is an owners committee that meets regularly, with minutes, etc?  

The lawyer would only be able to obtain AGM invitation and meeting minutes from the Land Office.

 

To get the financial report, they need to ask the seller, and if the seller does not have it, the seller should request it from the JPM.

 

For committee meetings, the seller would have to ask the chairman, unless the committee makes meeting minutes available to co-owners.

 

So this is not normally done by a lawyer, and even given the financial report, it might not be straightforward reading.

 

It would probably be best to simply get the JPM to issue a document with answers to relevant questions, like what is the current management fee and is there any plans to increase it, is there any big renovation work planned in the future, how much is in the sinking fund in total and per co-owner, etc.

 

But what should the potential buyer do given answers to the above? It would be ridiculous to cancel a purchase of a nice condo just because the sinking fund has been drained; but it might be reasonable to ask for a discount based on the financial state of the building.

[chingmai331]

Glad to hear that news, Nancy.  Welcome you and dear other to continue residence in CM.  Forgot about Borneo, too damn hot too often.