Debt recovery : Thai Condo Law vs Debt Recovery Law

[fvw53]

We have in our condominium a crazy situation due to neglect by previous Juristic Person Managers to collect common fees (and penalties) : a total of 62 out of 167 units have  long delays creating shortage of money for the new Juristic Person Manager to pay for serious repairs related to safety (elevators and fire protection).

Some of the co-owners have not paid anything since 10 years and more... and they are laughing when the new Manager tries to sue them in court.

 

Indeed about 10 years ago the Annual General Meeting adopted the new Thai Condo Law 2008 which specifies that - for our condo - co-owners are liable to pay the maximum penalties (surcharges) up to 12% per year the first 6 months and up to 20% per year for longer delays.

However when their case goes to court, then another Thai Law on Debt Recovery is always applied whereby the Debt is reduced to the last 5 years and the interest is reduced to maximum 7.5% (in some cases 5%)

We have also a few cases of co-owners living abroad with delays of more than 5 years and they do not need to bother if this becomes 10 or 20 years because a court will reduce it anyway to 5 years.

All this is very unfair to the co-owners who paid regularly and those who settled all their debts - without need to go to court - when new Manager was elected and contacted them.

There is a clear contradiction between Thai Condo Law and the Thai Law on Debt Recovery.

Do some TVF members have experience with this ...or are we the worst managed condominium in the country?

 

 

[Henryford]

It is terrible that the condo has left it so long. Maybe the 5 year law does apply. We chase our defaulting owners straight after 6 months. We have got millions back via Court judgements including the 12% interest and penalties. In fact we get more income if they DON'T pay on time.

[nickcar]

On 1/31/2020 at 8:46 AM, Henryford said:

It is terrible that the condo has left it so long. Maybe the 5 year law does apply. We chase our defaulting owners straight after 6 months. We have got millions back via Court judgements including the 12% interest and penalties. In fact we get more income if they DON'T pay on time.

 I would be very interested to know which court gives you 12%. Our experience is it is always reduced to 7.5% 

 

thanks

[Delight]

10 hours ago, nickcar said:

 

 

We chase our defaulting owners straight after 6 months. We have got millions back via Court judgements including the 12% interest and penalties. In fact we get more income if they DON'T pay on time.

 

thanks

  Has your building ever been given permission by a court to sell the condo -in order to recover the debt?

[newnative]

Winning 5 years of back fees with some interest applied is better than nothing.  Your condo association needs to continue to take delinquent owners to court.  Get tough and stay tough.  

[Henryford]

11 hours ago, Delight said:

  Has your building ever been given permission by a court to sell the condo -in order to recover the debt?

Yes we have permission but never used it as the owners pay up in the end.

[fvw53]

22 hours ago, nickcar said:

 I would be very interested to know which court gives you 12%. Our experience is it is always reduced to 7.5% 

 

thanks

Our condominium was built in 1992 and since then there was negligent Juristic Person and Manager.

Last AGM only 5% of co-owners cared to attend...but after follow up AGM we have now a JPM and Committee working with determination to improve the situation.

To reply to the question : 

- some co-owners started to pay after a good lawyer was hired 

- there is one case in the court pipeline but it takes time because the court needs to find documents which are more than 10 years old.

- more than 10 co-owners live abroad and remain silent and absent.... for some of them only their email is known but others have as only address the postbox in our building : in total they have debts of more than 5 million Baht but lawyer says THERE IS NO WAY TO GET COURT PERMISSION for a public auction if one cannot get a reply from the owner.   Any comment are most welcome.

[Henryford]

On 2/3/2020 at 9:32 AM, fvw53 said:

Our condominium was built in 1992 and since then there was negligent Juristic Person and Manager.

Last AGM only 5% of co-owners cared to attend...but after follow up AGM we have now a JPM and Committee working with determination to improve the situation.

To reply to the question : 

- some co-owners started to pay after a good lawyer was hired 

- there is one case in the court pipeline but it takes time because the court needs to find documents which are more than 10 years old.

- more than 10 co-owners live abroad and remain silent and absent.... for some of them only their email is known but others have as only address the postbox in our building : in total they have debts of more than 5 million Baht but lawyer says THERE IS NO WAY TO GET COURT PERMISSION for a public auction if one cannot get a reply from the owner.   Any comment are most welcome.

I would very much doubt if this is true. Get another lawyer. What happens if an owner dies and you can not contact them. No common fees ever paid on that property !! Clearly you have to make all possible attempts to contact them.

[fvw53]

3 hours ago, Henryford said:

I would very much doubt if this is true. Get another lawyer. What happens if an owner dies and you can not contact them. No common fees ever paid on that property !! Clearly you have to make all possible attempts to contact them.

You make a good point but when the new manager of Juristic Person was handed over the more than 10 year old chaos about a year ago it was decided to go first for the "easier" cases i.e. those of the 62 (out of 167) with long debts but within reach.