Village Maintenace Charges

[jacko45k]

18 hours ago, Banana7 said:

Pipes and pumps from the cistern to the upper floors are common property. We are not required to use common property resources such as pumps, water supply lines, electricity for the pumps to benefit people/rooms that don't pay for the service, namely common maintenance fee.

That suggests individual delivery systems for each property in these upper rooms. That seems unlikely, or are there simply isolation valves and they are being closed.  

[piston broke]

 

 on our moban of just over 100 houses.... the leccy comes from the electric company to a main meter on the edge of the estate ...each house then has it's own meter owned by the juristic company, who reads the meters each month and bills each householder individually - this isn't as cheap as having a meter each from the leccy company...as with just the one meter - the higher the usage - the higher the unit price goes (only in thailand !) ... so we are all paying "over the odds" .....plus the juristic company adds some on for billing / collecting the money and paying it over to the leccy company....

 

The comittee asked the leccy company to quote to put in their meters to the individual houses, but because they didn't install the wiring inside the estate, they would only do this if they changed all the wiring (which ment digging trenches everywhere) - So the high costs were rejected by the committee and we kept the status quo...

 

That's the bad news......

 

The good news is that if a resident doesn't pay their leccy bill, water bill or monthly maint charge...... the owner's electric meter is removed by orders of the comittee .....

 

Similarly water comes from the water company to a central meter and then the water either comes from onsite wells or the mains......The individual water meters are owned by the juristic company...

 

It has been known for a non payer to have both the water and leccy meters removed.......

 

last year a couple of the houses were being let on air b and b for nightly rentals and nearby houses were getting cheesed off by the late night partying...... Comitee chairman e mailed the owners and said that if it persisted......the police would be called as they were breaking the law (no hotel licence for short term rentals)...renters would be stopped by security (has electric slding gates) - and if that failed the leccy and water meters would be removed.....

 

result - No more short term rentals.......

 

A few months ago someone bought one of the larger houses and shortly after completion, opened it as a day nursery.......Comitte chairman reminded the owner that the juristic rules (which are registered with the land office) says houses can be used only  as private dwellings and any parents attempting to drop their kids off would be denied entrance to the estate......

 

Result - Nursery closed......house up for sale ....

 

When a visitor comes the the estate - They are quizzed by security - if they are not 100% happy - you don't get in ( "we want to look round as we thinking of buying / renting"  won't cut the mustard !)......if they are allowed in - their car / motor bike's reg number and driver are photographed and driving licence taken and photo'd - then one of the guards (always 2 on duty) accompanies them to the house they are visiting and stays until they get the ok nod from the owner.....There is recording CCTV through out the estate and signs in various languages at the entrance explaining this.

 

Result - no break-ins, no unhappy owners and everyone pays their dues......

 

its hardly rocket cience.....

 

 

.

Edited November 9, 2019 by piston broke

[jacko45k]

6 hours ago, piston broke said:

Result - no break-ins, no unhappy owners and everyone pays their dues......

Did anyone manage to break out? ????

[mahjongguy]

Thank you Piston Broke for the interesting post. But...

 

"... the higher the usage - the higher the unit price goes (only in thailand !) "

 

This is not unique to Thailand. Not even close.

 

Progressive price brackets serve two purposes: they encourage conservation of usage, and they make electricity more affordable to those who only need basic lighting and a water pump.

[JaiLai]

9 hours ago, piston broke said:

 

 on our moban of just over 100 houses.... the leccy comes from the electric company to a main meter on the edge of the estate ...each house then has it's own meter owned by the juristic company, who reads the meters each month and bills each householder individually - this isn't as cheap as having a meter each from the leccy company...as with just the one meter - the higher the usage - the higher the unit price goes (only in thailand !) ... so we are all paying "over the odds" .....plus the juristic company adds some on for billing / collecting the money and paying it over to the leccy company....

 

The comittee asked the leccy company to quote to put in their meters to the individual houses, but because they didn't install the wiring inside the estate, they would only do this if they changed all the wiring (which ment digging trenches everywhere) - So the high costs were rejected by the committee and we kept the status quo...

 

That's the bad news......

 

The good news is that if a resident doesn't pay their leccy bill, water bill or monthly maint charge...... the owner's electric meter is removed by orders of the comittee .....

 

Similarly water comes from the water company to a central meter and then the water either comes from onsite wells or the mains......The individual water meters are owned by the juristic company...

 

It has been known for a non payer to have both the water and leccy meters removed.......

 

last year a couple of the houses were being let on air b and b for nightly rentals and nearby houses were getting cheesed off by the late night partying...... Comitee chairman e mailed the owners and said that if it persisted......the police would be called as they were breaking the law (no hotel licence for short term rentals)...renters would be stopped by security (has electric slding gates) - and if that failed the leccy and water meters would be removed.....

 

result - No more short term rentals.......

 

A few months ago someone bought one of the larger houses and shortly after completion, opened it as a day nursery.......Comitte chairman reminded the owner that the juristic rules (which are registered with the land office) says houses can be used only  as private dwellings and any parents attempting to drop their kids off would be denied entrance to the estate......

 

Result - Nursery closed......house up for sale ....

 

When a visitor comes the the estate - They are quizzed by security - if they are not 100% happy - you don't get in ( "we want to look round as we thinking of buying / renting"  won't cut the mustard !)......if they are allowed in - their car / motor bike's reg number and driver are photographed and driving licence taken and photo'd - then one of the guards (always 2 on duty) accompanies them to the house they are visiting and stays until they get the ok nod from the owner.....There is recording CCTV through out the estate and signs in various languages at the entrance explaining this.

 

Result - no break-ins, no unhappy owners and everyone pays their dues......

 

its hardly rocket cience.....

 

 

.

Is your estate run by the Gestapo?

[mahjongguy]

The estate/village/mooban is run by the homeowners. Any rule, every rule, can be changed at any time by a supermajority vote. The mooban described above is run more tightly than most but that seems to be the way they want it. Rather than a police state, it sounds more like democracy.

[Guderian]

10 minutes ago, mahjongguy said:

The estate/village/mooban is run by the homeowners. Any rule, every rule, can be changed at any time by a supermajority vote. The mooban described above is run more tightly than most but that seems to be the way they want it. Rather than a police state, it sounds more like democracy.

A Singapore-style democracy, anyway. It works, but wouldn't be everybody's cup of tea.

[Banana7]

On 11/5/2019 at 7:33 AM, jacko45k said:

That suggests individual delivery systems for each property in these upper rooms. That seems unlikely, or are there simply isolation valves and they are being closed.  

Every unit/room has a valve at the meter to shut off the supply. It's standard in all condos. If there is pipe leaking in one condo, the water needs to be shut-off in that condo, without affecting other units.

[jacko45k]

19 hours ago, Banana7 said:

Every unit/room has a valve at the meter to shut off the supply. It's standard in all condos. If there is pipe leaking in one condo, the water needs to be shut-off in that condo, without affecting other units.

And there is no access to these valves for the resident (who could re-open them), or they get locked somehow? My experience of building here is they are quite miserly with fittings like valves.