list co-owners not paying common fees

[fvw53]

We had in our condo a General Meeting of the Co-Owners but we could not reach decisions because there were not enough people present. So we will now have a follow up meeting where quorum is no longer required. We noticed that about 1/3 of the co-owners have serious delays in paying the common fees and we asked to Manager of the Juristic Person to provide us a list with names and outstanding amounts of those co-owners. This was refused under the pretext that releasing such list is against the Thai Law.  Can somebody confirm if this indeed what the Thai Law says?

[scorecard]

In my old condo in Bkk there was an always up to date list on the easily seen notice board listing overdue fees, amounts and length of time overde.  The same list was on the wall in all 3 lifts.

 

Whether it was legal to do this I don't know.

[Peterw42]

Unless you are the juristic person or committee, then co-owners financial affairs would probably not be public knowledge. If I was behind in my fees, that would be between me and the juristic, I would be pretty annoyed if that information was given to other than the juristic manager/person or the committee. you would need to be careful if there are plans for a name and shame exercise etc, due to Thai defamation laws. 

The amount of money outstanding/overdue would be part of the annual financial report.

[scubascuba3]

Unless you are the juristic person or committee, then co-owners financial affairs would probably not be public knowledge. If I was behind in my fees, that would be between me and the juristic, I would be pretty annoyed if that information was given to other than the juristic manager/person or the committee. you would need to be careful if there are plans for a name and shame exercise etc, due to Thai defamation laws. 

The amount of money outstanding/overdue would be part of the annual financial report.

I'd say name and shame and if it is against the law then put it in the condo owners court to take further. Any costs incurred he would have to pay his share anyway. If he can't or won't pay the maintenance fee he is unlikely to go to court.

 

He has a choice spend money on court action or pay the outstanding maintenance, its a no brainer

 

[scorecard]

2 hours ago, Peterw42 said:

Unless you are the juristic person or committee, then co-owners financial affairs would probably not be public knowledge. If I was behind in my fees, that would be between me and the juristic, I would be pretty annoyed if that information was given to other than the juristic manager/person or the committee. you would need to be careful if there are plans for a name and shame exercise etc, due to Thai defamation laws. 

The amount of money outstanding/overdue would be part of the annual financial report.

 

The juristic person is in simple terms the person who at law represents all the owners.

 

Living in a condo is a form of communal living and comes with rights and responsibilities. The right to know what's happening terms of managing the communal situation and IMH that also means being aware of who is not paying the communal fees. And the responsibility to contribute equally to maintaining the communal situation.

 

Those that don't want to contribute should sell.

 

In my old country owners as a group have to maintain an owners committee. That committee has the responsibility to request then demand fees from errant owner(s). In a short period of time the committee can and must take legal to sell the errant property and settle the outstanding fees and pay what's left over to the original owner. In the building where I owned this actually happened twice in a period of about 4 years. 

 

 

[Pattaya46]

13 hours ago, scorecard said:

// Living in a condo is a form of communal living and comes with rights and responsibilities. The right to know what's happening terms of managing the communal situation and IMH that also means being aware of who is not paying the communal fees. //

 

Agree 100% 

When "the farangs owners" took back control of the committee in my condo about 5 years ago, they proceeded the same with list (name + amount) of owners late to pay their fees displayed in the lobby and all lifts. Proved to be a good way to quickly get back more than 80% of late fees 

[wordchild]

I used to be on an owners committee, not any more thank God! We did have a couple of late paying owners, and, as far as I remember, the advice we had was that we could publish the unit numbers of the late payers but not the actual owner names. After 6 months or so of warnings we did put the unit numbers, of the late payers , in an update letter to the co-owners. Funnily enough the outstanding balances were settled pretty quickly!

[scorecard]

11 hours ago, Pattaya46 said:

 

Agree 100% 

When "the farangs owners" took back control of the committee in my condo about 5 years ago, they proceeded the same with list (name + amount) of owners late to pay their fees displayed in the lobby and all lifts. Proved to be a good way to quickly get back more than 80% of late fees 

 

A twist of your nice comment, in my old Bkk condo for many years there was a total negative attitude to farang being on the owners committee (guaranteed they will steal all the funds, etc.)

 

The lack of maintenance and the situation of the paid management company got way out of hand with the management company staff, even juniors being un-cooperative and rude to owners and more.

 

Then with an annual GM coming up, a Thai lady who has lived all over the world convinced many owners it would be good to get at least 2 farang on the committee because they aren't afraid to demand answers etc.

 

At the GM the paid management company tried to stall all discussion but a previously quiet senior police guy, an owner, stepped up and told the management company they were out of line and were incorrect in their claims of various condo regulations.

 

Voting quickly put 2 farang on the committee. Within about 30 minutes of discussion 1 of the farang asked for a vote to dismiss the paid management company on the spot.  Almost total y 'yay', then some refusal to hand over records and the senior police ordered several of his cops to come quickly and secure the office and escort the paid management company off the premises. Turned out they were operating a 'company which had never been registered and all of them were collecting salaries from various government agencies but never attending their paid jobs.

 

Further discussion generated a list of urgent repairs and improvements and a budget schedule, all approved. From there lots of positives.