Building close to a creek

[steve2112]

I'm looking to buy some land (Standard disclaimer, I know farangs can't buy land, cheaper to rent, etc. etc. etc. don't waste your time replying on that) and the land borders a creek. the place i want to put the house is about 7 meters at the closest point to the water. are there any known issues with that? i think sea front land requires a 12m setback but not sure about small, seasonal creeks

[Crossy]

I don't think there are any legal setback requirments. 

 

BUT.

• Check the land documents, your actual boundary may not be right at the creek (many water courses are owned by the crown).
• Check with the locals when the last time it flooded was and how high the water came. Make your home 1m higher than that level.

 

[CharlieH]

If the house is on "legs" etc you shouldnt have a problem. A perimeter wall is also advisable.

 

Just bare in mind that creek could (have you checked?) Turn into a roaring torrent and certain times of year.

 

I have the same, but more like 30 metres away, that has on a few occasions over flowed and became a fast river right passed us (due to our perimeter wall deflecting it) 

 

As crossy suggested above, we also raised the ground level 1.5m before building.

[simoh1490]

Is it a creek or a klong, if it's the latter bee careful with house footings because it probably means you're near rice paddy which means sand. There is a klong less than two metres from my house and since it's a public water course people are free to walk up and down it and fish in it at will, but not set foot on our land, in practice it's never been a problem for us.

[worgeordie]

Our house is about 8 meters from a small river,the retaining

wall is at the river,as over the years ,28  since we built the

house the river has eaten away at the bank,wish at the time

i had sunk better foundations right into the river,but its still

ok,and I think will see me out.

Once the local authority came around,and on the other bank

they erected posts, about 5 meters from the water,so in future

anyone building they would not be able to encroach any further,

while our side the whole river bank was built on,they did say to

some properties they would have to demolish their walls on

the bank,of course they didn't,and that was over 10 years ago,

 

You should get the Land dept out to show you where your boundaries

are before building any walls.

 

regards worgeordie

 

[Crossy]

2 minutes ago, worgeordie said:

You should get the Land dept out to show you where your boundaries

are before building any walls.

Yes, yes and thrice yes!

 

We have khlongs on 3.5 sides of our land. Before we built our retaining wall (filled nearly 2m at a cost of $$$) Madam had the boundaries re-surveyed, one of the markers was actually in the khlong (evidently erosion had been at work). So that bit of the wall was built out into the water and back filled.

 

As indicated above the actual khlong banks are public property, we often have locals fishing from outside the wall, drives the dogs bananas.

 

 

[baansgr]

mozzies may be an issue 

[steve2112]

thanks for the helpful replies. the creek is a natural drainage creek from a small mountain and the land is on a gentle downslope towards the sea, so water always flows pretty quick, it doesn't sit around.

 

the land we are looking to buy is actually just 300m up the soi where we have lived for last 5 years so we know the area well and walk past the creek most morning or our morning walk, so i know what it looks like in wet and dry seasons.

 

the land is rubber trees right now, we don't have rice paddy in Phuket

 

there is a gentle slope, about 3m down, to the creeks from the access road and the land is about 20m wide, so about 1:7 slope . we would likely build a small retaining wall, maybe 1.5m high,  about a meter or so back from the creek and raise the land a bit to reduce the slope to about 1:15

 

as to the mozzi issue, yes for sure, we will need to screen everything