Raindrops are falling on my head - in bed! Belgian complains about shoddy new Pattaya house

[Jonathan Fairfield]

Raindrops are falling on my head - in bed! Belgian complains about shoddy new Pattaya house

 

Image: 77kaoded

 

A Belgian retiree in Pattaya has complained to the media after he bought a new house and in little over a year rain was coming in through the roof. 

 

Willy Bolen, 77, told 77kaoded reporters that there were problems both upstairs and downstairs at his property with wall and ceiling damage everywhere. 

 

He was disappointed and said it was terrible. 

 

Willy was one of about ten other people - all Thais - who have faced problems at the estate in Moo 13, Nong Prue, Bang Lamung on Pattanakarn Road. 

 

Image: 77kaoded

 

Others spoke of the constant need for repairs to walls, roofs and ceilings. Bancha Pongphaiboon, 41, was worried about his father being electrocuted from water coming into his house. 

 

The media said the properties are two story town houses that were purchase just over a year ago at a cost of 2,149,000 baht each. 

 

A representative of the affected residents has filed a police complaint and is appealing to the government watchdog Damrongtham in the Pattaya area. 

 

77kaoded did not say if they had contacted the firm that built the houses or anyone else at the estate. 

Source: 77kaoded 

 

 

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[RotBenz8888]

8 minutes ago, Jonathan Fairfield said:

77kaoded did not say if they had contacted the firm that built the houses or anyone else at the estate. 

Their phone number is cancelled.

Edited May 31, 2019 by RotBenz8888

[david555]

I had same while visiting a Ishan village , well not while I was I bed ,but  just in the main room , as they used second hand roof plates and no sealing , so there seemed to be some nail holes from before in it , and when raining ….

 

But that was not a 2,149,000 baht house either (approx. 10 times less amount they told me ..)

Edited May 31, 2019 by david555

[petermik]

Catch the water in a bucket and it will save on your water bill......

[thaibeachlovers]

Sorry, but I have zero sympathy for any farang that buys property in LOS. The problems are well known and have been for many, many years. One only has to have a read of TVF to see what has happened in the past.

I can only surmise that the people that bought those houses did no inspections during building and didn't even have a look in the roof space before shelling out millions.

Caveat emptor, and even more so in LOS, the land of shoddy workmanship.

[asiaexpat]

Never buy a building unless you  supervise the construction. Subcontractors take liberties with materials and workmanship than disappear. Watch every step if you intend to buy. 

[LoS itaint]

There are RICS regulated surveying companies in Thailand that any farrang with an iota of intelligence should consider employing if he intends to shell out millions of baht on a Thai built property. So same as Beachlovers i also have zero sympathy for Willy the Belgian retiree & being disappointed & saying its terrible is down to him being so naive....

[monkeycu]

Put in a ladder and you have an attic 

[petermik]

8 hours ago, thaibeachlovers said:

Sorry, but I have zero sympathy for any farang that buys property in LOS. The problems are well known and have been for many, many years. One only has to have a read of TVF to see what has happened in the past.

I can only surmise that the people that bought those houses did no inspections during building and didn't even have a look in the roof space before shelling out millions.

Caveat emptor, and even more so in LOS, the land of shoddy workmanship.

I had this built 4 years ago down near Krabi (2 bed 2 baht 120sq. metres)....local builder to my specs....excellent workmanship at a total cost of 1.3 million baht (400,000 baht labour 900,000 materials excluding aircon) absolutely no problems....not ALL builders here are cowboys

[Vacuum]

2 hours ago, asiaexpat said:

Never buy a building unless you  supervise the construction. Subcontractors take liberties with materials and workmanship than disappear. Watch every step if you intend to buy. 

I can agree with this. But I think most buyers don't have any experience with construction or house building, what can they supervise?

[Xonax]

These problems are very common in Thailand.  I also had a leaking roof and cracking walls inside and outside.

[Bob12345]

2 hours ago, thaibeachlovers said:

Sorry, but I have zero sympathy for any farang that buys property in LOS. The problems are well known and have been for many, many years. One only has to have a read of TVF to see what has happened in the past.

I can only surmise that the people that bought those houses did no inspections during building and didn't even have a look in the roof space before shelling out millions.

Caveat emptor, and even more so in LOS, the land of shoddy workmanship.

Zero sympathy, envious much?

Maybe some day you can effort to buy a property also...

 

To be able to inspect during building you need extensive knowledge and experience with building yourself. Most people do not have that.

 

That said, it is smart to hire someone to do a complete check before buying. We did the same, the guy took 4 hours and inspected everything. We got a complete list with descriptions and pictures and the contractor fixed every single point. It also helps to buy from a reputable construction company instead of some unknown limited partnership that is dissolved as soon as the last house is done.

[david555]

1 hour ago, petermik said:

I had this built 4 years ago down near Krabi (2 bed 2 baht 120sq. metres)....local builder to my specs....excellent workmanship at a total cost of 1.3 million baht (400,000 baht labour 900,000 materials excluding aircon) absolutely no problems....not ALL builders here are cowboys

Waw nice house your misses has ...????

[connda]

SOP for Thai construction.  

[giddyup]

13 minutes ago, david555 said:

Waw nice house your misses has ...????

Not necessarily, could be in company name. Besides, not every relationship in Thailand is a disaster. I bought a house in my partners name 9 years ago, we're still going strong.

[david555]

3 minutes ago, giddyup said:

Not necessarily, could be in company name. Besides, not every relationship in Thailand is a disaster. I bought a house in my partners name 9 years ago, we're still going strong.

My (joking) comment does not exclude your good relationship or the company form...

[kwak250]

Lucky they were pointing i would not have spotted that hole.

In the 2nd picture his wifes pointing at the husband ?

[Pdavies99]

In many many cases one big issue is that they do not overlap the tiles correctly.

 

To explain: Most builders always overlap the tiles by a third and if rain penetration is a worry then over lap by half always. It is very easy to see Thai roofs that only have an overlap of say 1-2 inches, hence rain penetration. 

 

Of course unless you know this, then a Thai builder will effect a small overlap as the amount of tiles is reduced by about 40%.  Finally most hardware shops sell heavy duty plastic sheeting that can be laid under the tiles when being built or quite often retrospectively to fix this issue.

Edited May 31, 2019 by Pdavies99

[Chris Renaix]

You really have to point at that Willy?  Guess we couldn't know what the problem was otherwise...

[gerritkaew]

There are good and a lot bad contractors in here.

Making fast money and building things fast and after some time the problems starting to come.

Iff you buy a house here you have to check iff its buld properly and where it can have defects later.

I got after 7 years some leak's, garage and roof.

Burts making a nest and some lose cement. Just fix it, no problem..

[Lacessit]

Many Thai houses have a life of about 15 - 20 years, then they fall apart. That's why it becomes so difficult to sell a house that is not new.

I have a friend who has been trying to sell his very well-constructed house for years. Because it's not new, Thais tar it with the same brush.

[Oxx]

3 hours ago, petermik said:

I had this built 4 years ago down near Krabi (2 bed 2 baht 120sq. metres)....local builder to my specs....excellent workmanship at a total cost of 1.3 million baht (400,000 baht labour 900,000 materials excluding aircon) absolutely no problems....not ALL builders here are cowboys

You're praising the workmanship, but you've got a massive crack down the middle of your driveway with weeds growing through it.  Not impressed.

[Tajasia]

3 hours ago, petermik said:

I had this built 4 years ago down near Krabi (2 bed 2 baht 120sq. metres)....local builder to my specs....excellent workmanship at a total cost of 1.3 million baht (400,000 baht labour 900,000 materials excluding aircon) absolutely no problems....not ALL builders here are cowboys

Good deal

[worgeordie]

5 hours ago, thaibeachlovers said:

Sorry, but I have zero sympathy for any farang that buys property in LOS. The problems are well known and have been for many, many years. One only has to have a read of TVF to see what has happened in the past.

I can only surmise that the people that bought those houses did no inspections during building and didn't even have a look in the roof space before shelling out millions.

Caveat emptor, and even more so in LOS, the land of shoddy workmanship.

We bought our house 30 years ago,no problems with anything,

but it was built by Land and House,a reputable builder,but i don't

suppose they are building them as good as in the past.with the

cost of land labour and materials.

regards worgeordie

[gunderhill]

Dont worry  like the condos  they build with a million faults theyll "fix  it" for a year from  new repeatedly if  your'e  lucky then as the years up its "get stuffed" typical Thai.

Edited May 31, 2019 by gunderhill

[gunderhill]

8 minutes ago, Tajasia said:

Good deal

Go  look at Crossys website, youll find plenty of screw ups  there.

[guest879]

will anyone learn a lesson from this guys experience and just rent? (note I am one of the idiots who bought but in my defense I did manage to actually sell again, not just give it to a thai woman)

[gunderhill]

2 hours ago, Bob12345 said:

Zero sympathy, envious much?

Maybe some day you can effort to buy a property also...

 

To be able to inspect during building you need extensive knowledge and experience with building yourself. Most people do not have that.

 

That said, it is smart to hire someone to do a complete check before buying. We did the same, the guy took 4 hours and inspected everything. We got a complete list with descriptions and pictures and the contractor fixed every single point. It also helps to buy from a reputable construction company instead of some unknown limited partnership that is dissolved as soon as the last house is done.

How did he check rebar thickness and placement under the concrete?, come to that how did he test concrete strength?

[Sydebolle]

I know the village as I live around the corner; during construction it was obvious already, that these are all sh1t houses; the costs of building them might have reached max. THB 400K. 
Pre-fabricated wall panels, disastrous labour and cheapest of material = Thai style. You normally get what you paid for, except Thailand, here you risk to get much less than that. 
As I am not affected I cannot name the village but maybe some affected/cheated buyers will go public; it is a new village between Maptato 8 and Pattanakarn Road on the Dark Side in Moo 13. 

[bert bloggs]

Our sons girlfriend sells new build properties , we have looked at many of them as they wanted to buy a house , funny they never wanted or bought a new build ????,

they purchased a second hand house ,that they had inspected , his girlfriend ,thought the new builds were ,well i wont say ,but they looked nice .