I rented a house recently from a Thai person and dropped by the local immigration department to register that I'm now living at that new address.  The immigration officers politely refused to accept my registration because they require the landlord to visit them with a copy of his Thai ID card and tabian bahn.  I have a copy of my rental contract, visa, passport etc, but they refuse to accept these.

 

My landlord is 'off with the fairies' somewhere in Bangkok and unreachable.....  Every day I visit immigration to inform the IO of this and to try to register.  Every day the IO gets more impatient and now says that I will have to pay a fine of 5,000 baht for not registering within 24 hours....

 

My next 90 day report comes up on the 29th April - will they accept that I wonder?

 

Bloody jobsworth ????

8 minutes ago, simon43 said:

says that I will have to pay a fine of 5,000 baht for not registering within 24 hours

 

Do they simply forget that it was them that stopped you registering !! Unbelievable...

I thought it was the landlords responsibility to register you as staying there ?

Having never bothered with a TM.30, I really don't understand the ins and out of it all ????

Fill out a TM28 instead. This form is for aliens to self register. Take the paperwork you have.

This is the form I use. Apart from the usual passport details, I take along copies of:-

Lease agreement.

Owner's ID.

Tabien Bahn.

Hand-drawn map.

Photo of me in front of house with address number visible.

 

Never had a problem.

Just now, Joe Mcseismic said:

Fill out a TM28 instead. This form is for aliens to self register. Take the paperwork you have.

This is the form I use. Apart from the usual passport details, I take along copies of:-

Lease agreement.

Owner's ID.

Tabien Bahn.

Hand-drawn map.

Photo of me in front of house with address number visible.

 

Never had a problem.

Cannot - The landlord promised to give me a copy of his ID card and tabian bahn, but didn't do this before he went back to Bangkok.  Despite daily calls to request these, he's failed to provide them to me.

Just now, simon43 said:

Cannot - The landlord promised to give me a copy of his ID card and tabian bahn, but didn't do this before he went back to Bangkok.  Despite daily calls to request these, he's failed to provide them to me.

In that case............you're stuffed.

Move out and find a place where the land-lord is present, or, threaten the present land-lord that you will have to move out if you don't get his ID and Tabien Bahn.

It is becoming very apparent that if you rent a place to live you should get the support of the owner/ agent wrt submitting TM30s. I find the above very aggravating, that a large 5000 fine may be enforced. I would deduct it from the rent!

Will your office accept online 90 day reporting?

The 5000 baht fine is not for not doing a TM30 report The 5000 baht fine is the max fine for not reporting a change of address using a TM28 form. The max fine for not  doing a TM30 report is 2000 baht for an individual.

They are just being difficult insisting that you landlord must do the report. But you are lacking 2 things that are needed to do it yourself and that is their ID card and house book.

1 hour ago, jacko45k said:

Will your office accept online 90 day reporting?

Even if it did, it would only postpone the telling day until such time as the OP needed to apply for an extension of stay.

1 minute ago, OJAS said:

Even if it did, it would only postpone the telling day until such time as the OP needed to apply for an extension of stay.

If he does need an extension of stay! 

9 minutes ago, jacko45k said:

If he does need an extension of stay! 

Not sure why he would otherwise need to have any dealings with his local immigration office then. If he was staying in Thailand on the basis of, say, a multi-entry non-O visa, making border runs exery 90 days would obviate the need for 90-day reporting. 

We have a tenant (a teacher at an international school, in Bangkok) who has been badgering me to do the TM30 for her and her family for several months, because the school has been warning of dire consequences if not done. I fall on the side of "best to ignore until action is unavoidable" and assured tenant we'd pay any fines that might be levied. Finally I suggested that she was welcome to do it herself at CW. We provided a letter of authority (in Thai) from my wife, copy of ID and copy of purchase contract for the house in question - this latter doc because the tabian ban for that house doesn't show anyone registered there, as we're all on the tabian ban for another property. Took her all morning a couple of weeks ago now and there was a fine of THB 3,200 (THB 800 per family member at the address) for not registering within 24 hours. 

6 minutes ago, OJAS said:

Not sure why he would otherwise need to have any dealings with his local immigration office then. If he was staying in Thailand on the basis of, say, a multi-entry non-O visa, making border runs exery 90 days would obviate the need for 90-day reporting. 

If he had such a Visa, border runs/ trips out of Thailand would be obligated  every 90 days of course.

He could also have an OA Visa.  

One option I believe I should not recommend, but is there when one cannot get a TM30 report done, is avoiding (or removing), the needs to use immigration.

Edited April 24, 20197 yr by jacko45k

2 hours ago, simon43 said:

Cannot - The landlord promised to give me a copy of his ID card and tabian bahn, but didn't do this before he went back to Bangkok.  Despite daily calls to request these, he's failed to provide them to me.

as u know most all immigration's requires these copies PLUS a POA, ( phuket)  if the landlord wont go to immigration,.

 

You know this, ur not some newbie in Thailand, so why post they refused?

You dont have the required docs...

"Do they simply forget that it was them that stopped you registering !! Unbelievable..."

    What's that got to do with anything...Everybody gets refused for whatever they apply for if they haven't got the correct paperwork?

5 hours ago, jacko45k said:

If he had such a Visa, border runs/ trips out of Thailand would be obligated  every 90 days of course.

He could also have an OA Visa.  

One option I believe I should not recommend, but is there when one cannot get a TM30 report done, is avoiding (or removing), the needs to use immigration.

This is what I do, no address reporting apart from on my entry card.

No contact with immigration while in the country.

Seems to work.

Maybe report your old address where you were registered before for your 90 day.

 

If you can't do this, e.g. dealing with a new Immigration office, what about moving into a hotel for a few days where they will report your stay and use that address for your 90 day report.

 

Then you will have another 90 days to sort our your current rented address (or stay a few months without paying further rent to get your equivalent deposit back and move to another house or hotel).

 

Not sure if this will work but maybe worth a try?

They are not really interested in the TM 30 and your location. They are interested in collecting the fines from not doing a TM 30 report. I'm not joking, I really believe this and a report like this just proves my thoughts. 

You know this, ur not some newbie in Thailand, so why post they refused?

You dont have the required docs..

 

I'm in deepest Issan, not Phuket, and IOs tend to be more 'laid back'.  

 

You're right that I don't have all the required documents.  But it's not really my fault if the documents that have to be provided by my landlord are not handed over to me - the IO should be chasing the landlord, because I have provided all the documents on my side (passport copy, rental contract copy, visa copy etc).

 

This is not a 90-day report that I'm trying to do.  I'm simply trying to inform my local immigration office of my new address, as is required by law.  I have documents that prove my new address (my rental contract).  It's my landlord (who works in the local government office BTW) who isn't playing by the rules.

 

I'm on an Elite visa, since someone asked.

 

 

Simon, thanks for the report. It is appreciated, well, by most.

 

Ignore the Troll phuketrichie 

 

 

3 hours ago, dotpoom said:

"Do they simply forget that it was them that stopped you registering !! Unbelievable..."

    What's that got to do with anything...Everybody gets refused for whatever they apply for if they haven't got the correct paperwork?

The correct paperwork at one office may not be the correct paperwork at another. This is Thailand, where

every person with any authority can usually make up their own rules.

It does not just apply to Immigration offices either.

we asked the landlord if he was ok to sign the TM30 at the time of signing the lease. Why did you not do this?

yup just acccept the 5 k max or leave the country every 90 days a holiday close by does for me

remember if you have valid visa etc jumping in and out works,

My Pattaya condo landlord lives in Chiang Mai when not in Australia. Bit difficult for him to show up for every TM30. A lot of paperwork later his Thai wife got legal authority to represent him and she flew down to report to Jomtien Immigration. A lot of wasted time and money. I don't know why she couldn't report me up there and have it faxed to Jomtien. I've been able to report in by myself since then.

1 hour ago, davidst01 said:

we asked the landlord if he was ok to sign the TM30 at the time of signing the lease. Why did you not do this?

I did, he was, but he had to go and copy his tabian bahn and ID card, and then he never came back...

 

Happily, all is almost resolved.  A Thai friend called him and said that I have to move out of the rented house because he hasn't provided me with these copies of his documents.  His 'batman' was here in 10 minutes with the copies ????

 

Now let's see if the IO insists on me paying the fine tomorrow when I return to complete my registration...

You were the one that wanted to move to Issarn. Can't say I'm surprised, reading TV it's always something.

 

Immigration, especially outside Bangkok is just a big make-work project. They'll run you round as long as they can and hopefully extract money in the process.

Tell the landlord that you are going to stop rent payment until he provides the copies he promised, and tell him you are going to report him to the income tax folks. He's probably not declaring the income, so that might gee him up a bit.

P.S. When this is all cleared tell him that you will deduct the not reporting in 24 hour fine from his next rent payment, and send him a copy of the receipt.

Technically speaking when you sign a rental agreement, you must get a copy of the ID who is signing the rental agreement. Otherwise How do you know the person who is signing the doc has the authority to rent you the place.  Also using the same logic, you must get a copy of the ownership document of the place. Otherwise you don't know who owns the place. I don't understand how tabian ban helps. Anyway, I have a good agent who can register my TM30 anytime I want. But I have the copy of the ID (passport) of the owner but no ownership document and the agent guarantees the owner is the same person confirmed by the juristic office. 

Renewed my visa today and was fined 800B for not doing TM30. I'm staying in my own condo and argued why I need permission to stay at my own place. Wasted my whole day and things are getting worst. Why on earth do I need to report to them whenever I come into Thailand and staying at my own place! 

Move into a cheap hotel for a week or two before doing your extension if the worse comes to  the worst. 

 

17 minutes ago, shady86 said:

Renewed my visa today and was fined 800B for not doing TM30. I'm staying in my own condo and argued why I need permission to stay at my own place. Wasted my whole day and things are getting worst. Why on earth do I need to report to them whenever I come into Thailand and staying at my own place! 

 

What Immigration Office?

 

Re the answer to your question above, of course it's because you're a shady criminal in waiting who's clearly on the verge of some serious offense to national security like jaywalking or slamming your house door too loud....