Koh Samui: German says he paid 800,000 baht to operate his unlicensed villa

[RobbyXNorway]

How long until he is on his way back to Germany with no money, no houses?

 

People need to smarten up and be careful.

[Lupatria]

3 hours ago, colinneil said:

OK saying he paid 800.000 baht, but who did he pay the money to?

He upset the local hoteliers, and they put the boot in, he needs to learn a lot more about corrupt practices here before spending serious money on any project.

 

And this poster child of German education can't tell me he was not aware that his way of handling the case was illegal. Let him pay twice as much now to prevent time in jail, while the Thai beneficiaries of the deal make an offer to buy his property...

[RobMuir]

38 minutes ago, Hank Gunn said:

“Respect to the law and how culture in Thailand operates.”? 

 

Give me me a break. There is no rule of law in Thailand.

Well that is handy to know.

 

38 minutes ago, Hank Gunn said:

 

my Thai wife is in the process of being cheated out of land that’s been in her family for decades,

 

That is terrible. What province? Where did you meet your wife?

 

38 minutes ago, Hank Gunn said:

 

and has had to pay thousands of baht to corrupt government officials for a building permit for an extension to our house. 

I think you will find that in most countries building permits are not handed out free.

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

2 hours ago, ezzra said:

So this german guy thought he could build a huge villa, no permit, no licence, no construction supervision, just a willi nilli devil may care attitude, in an area full of 'law abiding Thais' rent it out to gusts as a hotel and get away with that? and then he complain of a shakedown, could he have done that in Germany i wonder...and i thought german people are much smarter than that...

 

Not one villa, but two villas there, both listed on AirBNB..... which he boasts about above....

[Xonax]

Something smells totally wrong here. How could he rent out the villas at this ridiculously low price, without expecting to have massive losses??

I guess that he could not expect, to sell his machines to every guest.

[Kasane]

3 hours ago, colinneil said:

OK saying he paid 800.000 baht, but who did he pay the money to?

He upset the local hoteliers, and they put the boot in, he needs to learn a lot more about corrupt practices here before spending serious money on any project.

 

The German practiced corrupt practices.

 

[Baerboxer]

3 hours ago, huberthammer said:

"The German owner was unable to produce a licence, building permit or guest registration books."

 

"He has been charged with not having a license to operate a hotel, illegal work practices and not reporting foreign guests within 24 hours."

 

I feel sorry for the guy. Seems rather naive and did not seem to waste a minute on getting his homework done before building a house and operating a business. Thai law and regulations are complicated, confusing and not always logical but it is safe to say that he did not even cover the basics. Must have listened to the property sales guy and his mates "don't worry, everybody does it and if they ever show up just pay them". 

 

I would think that we will get a lot more of this in the future as laws are getting enforced and things become more transparent. Missing building permits and licenses are not something that will just go away.

 

I disagree. He would need serious money to acquire land and build a luxury property like that. He wouldn't get that sort of money by being naive and gullible.

 

More like just another German businessman who thought paying bribes would be enough. His ignorance is not understanding the big picture and what he really needed to do; or thinking he could get away cheap.

 

The rules about farangs working here, about building luxury "villas" to use as hotels, about work permits, reserved occupations, tax etc etc are well covered in numerous media outlets. Any lawyer he used would be well aware of them. Seems like he chose to ignore them thinking Thailand was still the kleptocracy it used to be.

 

The warnings specifically about illegal hotels, AirBnB, not reporting foreigners etc have been very well covered recently. 

 

He just thought paying someone off would make it all disappear for him. And now he finds it won't.

 

If he was British he could be prosecuted in his home country for paying a bribe, even if it was outside the UK under tough new anti Bribery legislation. Not sure Germany has anything similar in place.

[Baerboxer]

23 minutes ago, Kasane said:

The German practiced corrupt practices.

 

 

Perhaps he used to work for VW, Audi or Siemens ????

[PoorSucker]

1 hour ago, TallGuyJohninBKK said:

I'd like to know who actually owns the land on which this guy's mansion was built?  Because surely is isn't him. And presumably, land in that area would be pretty valuable....

 

Actually cheap as it's on step slope and only has Nor Sor 3 titles. 

That's why he didn't have building permit. 

Still this hill side has new houses coming up every month. 

Friends of mine has tried to upgrade to chanote for 20 years. 

[WinnieTheKhwai]

Wow, those villas look exceptional.  And by the looks of it, not impossible to rent out legally on a daily basis, without the need for a hotel license.  (Just registered as a guesthouse, etc.)   Maybe he's not married to (or partnered with) a Thai national who could run the business; that would complicate things of course.   And if there's no chanote then that's further complication. 

[GeorgeCross]

in fairness to the guy there are MANY villas on koh samui being offered on airbnb and all over thailand for that matter with a very similar (if not the same) business model.

 

seems he was renting the whole villa out (villa rental) on at least one of them so the moral of this story is airbnb (for villas now not just condos) makes you a target and is now illegal?

 

doesn't seem like he had a check in desk and multiple rooms for rent (like a hotel) but the whole villas for rent unless i am reading this wrong??

 

myself and my wife have stayed in multiple villas on the island with the big villa business model of a homestay (owner lives there but rents a room out which is what airbnb was originally made to do) going back as far as i've been here which is nearly 20 years

 

i wouldn't call him stupid but maybe unlucky - definately will be some 'squeaky bums' with some of my old friends there though!

 

[Odysseus123]

This is a fairy story.

 

A work of fiction-no German (even if he looks like Thor on a bad hair day)-could have done this.Look for the shadow (Thai) partners behind...

[Beggar]

He didn't even have a building permit. How naive must this guy be. A jackpot for all people who want to rip him off. 

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

13 minutes ago, PoorSucker said:

Actually cheap as it's on step slope and only has Nor Sor 3 titles. 

That's why he didn't have building permit. 

 

 

Sorry, what does the Nor Sor 3 mean in the context of this story?

 

[Kasane]

44 minutes ago, Baerboxer said:

 

Perhaps he used to work for VW, Audi or Siemens ????

Right on.

[Lucius verus]

There has to be better property investment options in the third world than Thailand.

Why do Europeans come here and invest money in a country most know little about.?

Can this German speak, read and write Thai? Can he read documents.

Thailand's insane property and business laws/regs kill off hundreds of unwary and lovesick farangs every year.

If this guy upsets some army brass in the South... look out.

[sammieuk1]

Don't know why but I found this story very very funny ????????

[huberthammer]

50 minutes ago, Baerboxer said:

 

I disagree. He would need serious money to acquire land and build a luxury property like that. He wouldn't get that sort of money by being naive and gullible.

 

I know quite a few guys who are exceptional in their field and amassed a fortune with this despite being naive and not very detail oriented on the business side. Sadly I also have seen some of them moving out of their comfort zone once they left their home country where they had diligent finance and legal people at hand to help with this shortcoming. 

 

It sometimes is incredible how naive these very bright guys can be and how they trust vultures who have put a mark on them. No doubt he had advice on his doings here and yes, it was terrible and costly. Hope he will get a chance to rectify his situation and and that he has learned his lesson. 

 

I agree with you on him not understanding the big picture and the number of violations listed underlines how clueless he seems to be running a business here

[johng50]

stupid stupid stupid, cant believe he thought he could get away with it.

plus never never ever trust a Thai, deserves all he gets and then deported, then the

lucky authorities get a free business, nicely done. wonder how many others have been

set up like this brainless guy. once again never ever trust a thai.

[OKF]

most ppl posting here do not seem to have a clue what is going in Samui at the moment but everybody has a super clever comment to make where most are bs.

 

e.g. you cannot get a hotel license for a rental villa....

 

Wether the guy is stupid, naive or unlucky does not really matter in this case. Just see it as a case and try to understand what it is all about. 

 

It is getting more and more serious here as businesses struggle so now some pp try to find ways and means to make money bcs usual income went. Is just that the farang do not have the money that they are asking...and much much more to all that

[champers]

That's no German. It's David St Hubbin!!!

[PoorSucker]

32 minutes ago, TallGuyJohninBKK said:

 

Sorry, what does the Nor Sor 3 mean in the context of this story?

 

You can not build a house for purpose of living in it. 

[gunderhill]

4 hours ago, huberthammer said:

Missing building permits and licenses are not something that will just go away.

When I  built  my properties a  check with the head of  village produced the response "no permit or licence needed as 3km from a main road", also confirmed with the local land office.

[Odysseus123]

4 minutes ago, Hank Gunn said:

Sorry, try again. That was adjudicated in Japan against a Japanese national, not Thailand, under anti corruption laws similar to those in the US and other “developed” countries.

 

Also, even the “non-corrupt” price for a building permit is more than 20 baht, so please don’t comment on things you don’t know about.

 

With regards to my wife’s concerns, if you knew the crap she and her family have gone through with the Thai courts you’d understand. Also, I’d trust her knowledge of Thailand and its culture (warts and all) over a self-righteous, farang, Thai apologist.

Yup.

[utalkin2me]

Man, if i had that kind of money that is so far from the type of thing i would be doing with it. I do not know how some if you guys do it. It seems like a single Thai gets a wild hair up his arse and your business could go belly up over night, even in the best case scenarios. 

[ThomasThBKK]

Ok i might understand that hotel license thing as it might make sense to him it's not a real hotel but HOW ON EARTH can u build a building without a building permit?????

 

Especially as a german where you are used to all this paperwork anyway that's just plain stupid 

[gunderhill]

2 hours ago, TallGuyJohninBKK said:

Still, the locals were probably pissed that he was undercutting their prices for comparable offerings.

Yeah  they really  don't  like competition the whole country is a  "closed  shop"

[xtrnuno41]

No building permit !.... Break it down Ulrich.

[gunderhill]

2 hours ago, TallGuyJohninBKK said:

So it seems he's got two different places, a larger and a smaller one.... The larger one offered for $187 per night seems to be the name mentioned in the OP article here.... Best World Vision below on the right...

 

Still, the locals were probably pissed that he was undercutting their prices for comparable offerings.

 

https://www.airbnb.com/users/show/105303953

 

 

 

 

Hmmm......  have to wonder....

 

 

Snake  oil plain and simple.

[Kieran00001]

12 minutes ago, Hank Gunn said:

Sorry, try again. That was adjudicated in Japan against a Japanese national, not Thailand, under anti corruption laws similar to those in the US and other “developed” countries.

 

Also, even the “non-corrupt” price for a building permit is more than 20 baht, so please don’t comment on things you don’t know about.

 

With regards to my wife’s concerns, if you knew the crap she and her family have gone through with the Thai courts you’d understand. Also, I’d trust her knowledge of Thailand and its culture (warts and all) over a self-righteous, farang, Thai apologist.

 

Pointing out to you that you are posting your criminal activity on the internet is not being self-righteous, however your attempts to call your bribe something else is.

 

As for your wife, her fears are probably warranted, in my experience, those who go down the paying bribes road just keep paying them till their money is gone, once the official knows they are dealing with a mug, why would they stop?