Where to inform of short-term renters

[allencraig]

Does anyone know what government agency I can contact to inform them of a steam of short-term renters in a particular unit in my condo building? I've been keeping track and have dates.

 

I'm getting tired of dealing with always up late and noisy foreigners acting like they're in a cheap hotel on the strip (despite being on the Sukhumvit Strip.) This is (supposed to be) a halfway-decent condo building.

 

My building's juristic manager refuses to acknowledge it (as she does with most things) despite prominent threatening signs posted in the building.

 

Thanks for any info.

[Halfaboy]

You could start contacting the Office of the Consumer Protection Board. They could give you (at least) some hints and tips.

 

See:

https://www.ocpb.go.th/ewtadmin/ewt/ocpb_en/main.php?filename=index___EN

[allencraig]

1 hour ago, Halfaboy said:

start contacting the Office of the Consumer Protection Board

Cool! Thanks Halfaboy.

[OneZero]

10 hours ago, allencraig said:

Does anyone know what government agency I can contact to inform them of a steam of short-term renters in a particular unit in my condo building? I've been keeping track and have dates.

 

I'm getting tired of dealing with always up late and noisy foreigners acting like they're in a cheap hotel on the strip (despite being on the Sukhumvit Strip.) This is (supposed to be) a halfway-decent condo building.

 

My building's juristic manager refuses to acknowledge it (as she does with most things) despite prominent threatening signs posted in the building.

 

Thanks for any info.

Don't give up if you meet résistance or laziness / foot dragging.  If it isn't stopped it will spread by bad example.

[dsj]

You can always try contacting the Land Office, or the police.

[thailand49]

Immigration is another I would think the management of your condo is also responsible to enforce plus report if they are allowing rentals. Also try obtaining the other owners names should also be reported.

[PattayaKevin]

Good luck had the same issue 2 years ago here in Pattaya was a bunch of Russians renting for 2 weeks then new people kept rotating every 2 weeks. Everyone of them were always making lots of noise. Reported them to the condo, they verified that they were short term did nothing, reported to immigration did nothing,  reported to the police did nothing. I then made it a ritual to file a complaint at least 5 times a day with the condo after recording the noises. They had the owners soundproof the rooms which lowered the noise a little was 3 doors down from me and 6 doors down the other way. Still was an unacceptable amount of noise. I finally just moved into a house problem solved been here now for going on 2 years.

[allencraig]

5 hours ago, dsj said:

the Land Office,

I actually just sent an inquiry to the FB page of the land office. Let's see if they offer assistance.

[allencraig]

2 hours ago, PattayaKevin said:

Good luck had the same issue 2 years ago here in Pattaya was a bunch of Russians renting for 2 weeks then new people kept rotating every 2 weeks. Everyone of them were always making lots of noise. Reported them to the condo, they verified that they were short term did nothing, reported to immigration did nothing,  reported to the police did nothing. I then made it a ritual to file a complaint at least 5 times a day with the condo after recording the noises. They had the owners soundproof the rooms which lowered the noise a little was 3 doors down from me and 6 doors down the other way. Still was an unacceptable amount of noise. I finally just moved into a house problem solved been here now for going on 2 years.

Amazing the owners made an effort to soundproof the room. That's impressive. 

 

I know people live different lives and all, but it's incredible to me how many people make so much noise just being in their living areas—and are often so aggressively insistent that the world needs to accept it or they can go <deleted> themselves. 

[donnacha]

There comes a certain point at which one recognizes that the disadvantages of living in the city center outweigh the advantages.

When we are younger we feel the need to be at the heart of things but, as you wise up, you notice that you don't even do all the wild partying you thought you were there for, but are annoyed by your neighbors who do.

You are spending your nights angrily scribbling down the comings and goings of people who are having the time of their lives. Your relationship with the building manager consists of you complaining, her ignoring you, and then, as soon as you are gone, laughing with her staff about the crazy farang.

It is time. Find a nice big house in a pleasant gated community somewhere in the suburbs, with settled families, non-poor neighbors, and no tourists. Stop trying to fit into a situation that no longer matches who you are. Re-introduce peace, relaxation, and a full nights sleep back into your life. Focus all this energy on something that will move your life forward.

 

[CH1961]

1 hour ago, donnacha said:

Find a nice big house in a pleasant gated community somewhere in the suburbs

In the absence of foreigners, you will have thai neighbors, sooner or lster, with a dog breeding, motorcycle workshop or other noisy business.

Thai people make noise late into the night and don't care about the neighbors at all.

[donnacha]

11 minutes ago, CH1961 said:

In the absence of foreigners, you will have thai neighbors, sooner or lster, with a dog breeding, motorcycle workshop or other noisy business.

Thai people make noise late into the night and don't care about the neighbors at all.

My experience has been that upscale gated communities are worth the extra expense. Middle class Thais are surprisingly considerate neighbors. I have never had to deal with loud music, or shouting, or people running any sort of noisy business.

I do agree, however, that less controlled developments can be a nightmare.

As with many things in life, if you prioritize a good environment you can spend more to get that. Relative to what you would pay in the West, however, a really good community here is terrific value.

 

[CH1961]

1 minute ago, donnacha said:

My experience has been that upscale gated communities are worth the extra expense. Middle class Thais are surprisingly considerate neighbors. I have never had to deal with loud music, or shouting, or people running any sort of noisy business.

I do agree, however, that less controlled developments can be a nightmare.

As with many things in life, if you prioritize a good environment you can spend more to get that.

 

How many years are you living in Thailand? 

The more money the Thai earns, the less he cares about Farangs.

The higher the social rank, the more he despises Farangs. 

[donnacha]

Just now, CH1961 said:

How many years are you living in Thailand? 

Over two decades, but spending long vacations here since the late 80s.
 

1 minute ago, CH1961 said:

The more money the Thai earns, the less he cares about Farangs.

Depends on which farang. A rich man of any nationality becomes more discerning about who he will mix with, he knows that his time and attention are limited.

While it is true that many Thais may be appalled by the typical "kee nok" farang, we have to admit, they actually can be pretty appalling. There are very few farangs here but the ones I know are low-key, decent older guys.
 

4 minutes ago, CH1961 said:

The higher the social rank, the more he despises Farangs.

Well, I'm not suggesting palaces, or mixing with Hi-So families.

Hard-working middle class or upper middle class professionals tend to naturally establish ground rules. They have busy lives and don't have time to deal with the disruption of someone playing loud music etc. They have paid a little more for their houses mainly as a mechanism to avoid that class of person.

Perhaps they do despise me, I don't know. They seem friendly enough to me but we rarely interact. The privilege of living among good neighbors is that you barely notice them. The only respect I care about is the same respect they pay each other, the respect of not acting like animals or idiots. I benefit from that because I work hard at home all day and like to sleep uninterrupted.



 

[allencraig]

2 hours ago, donnacha said:

having the time of their lives

For the record, I'm not referring to people partying like adolescents with prostitutes as if they've never seen a willing sex partner before (although I know that describes many of the tourists nearby for sure), and I'm not a crazy farang scribbling notes as footsteps pass bye. My condo isn't some run-down hotel. Like many here, I'm just an adult with a day job and I think it's fairly reasonable to expect not be woken up regularly at 3 or 4am by slamming doors, shouting cell phone video calls, arguing couples, loud TVs or furniture scrapping across the floor. Once in a while, sure, but not every or every other night.

And protecting this expection is part of the job of the juristic office.

 

I appreciate your input, and don't disagree with you. But for now I'm hoping to live in the city AND find that peace & quiet at night I like, too.

[Card]

21 hours ago, Halfaboy said:

You could start contacting the Office of the Consumer Protection Board. They could give you (at least) some hints and tips.

 

See:

https://www.ocpb.go.th/ewtadmin/ewt/ocpb_en/main.php?filename=index___EN

I wouldn't do that online - they will just ignore it as with my complaint. I had more success when I just turned up at their office and then used their supposed support as leverage with my landlord. The CPB actually did nothing.

[OneZero]

Another idea that worked in Chiang Mai & Chiang Rai: Contact the Revenue Office claiming you've heard the owners of Rms a, b, & c of condo xyz have not been paying tax (business or whatever) on the short term rentals they are conducting.  A couple separate complaints finally got revenue investigators checking the condo office & owners and then the short term aspects also surfaced officially with the tessabon.  

 

But if the short term tenants are quiet nobody other owners seldom take action, even if the short termers are monopolizing some facilities.

[newnative]

7 hours ago, allencraig said:

For the record, I'm not referring to people partying like adolescents with prostitutes as if they've never seen a willing sex partner before (although I know that describes many of the tourists nearby for sure), and I'm not a crazy farang scribbling notes as footsteps pass bye. My condo isn't some run-down hotel. Like many here, I'm just an adult with a day job and I think it's fairly reasonable to expect not be woken up regularly at 3 or 4am by slamming doors, shouting cell phone video calls, arguing couples, loud TVs or furniture scrapping across the floor. Once in a while, sure, but not every or every other night.

And protecting this expection is part of the job of the juristic office.

 

I appreciate your input, and don't disagree with you. But for now I'm hoping to live in the city AND find that peace & quiet at night I like, too.

       I have condos in the center of the city in both Pattaya and Bangkok and, yes, you can find peace and quiet at night.  Have not had a problem at either one of them.  I did, however, have some of the same problems you described when I owned condos in very large, new condo projects.  These are the ones, I think, that are more likely to have lots of short-term illegal renters.  

     I finally wised up and now I live in older projects with fewer, but much larger units.  My Pattaya condo has 200 units and the Bangkok one, around 500.  My previous Pattaya condo project had 1200 units, with many small units, some as small as 23 sqm.  Only a few larger units per floor, most around 62 sqm.  23 sqm units lend themselves to be used as illegal hotel rooms rather than long-term rentals.

     Contrast that with my current Pattaya condo project.  The smallest unit in the project is 64 sqm--larger than the largest unit at the other project and less ideal to be used as an illegal hotel room.   As an older project, it's also less likely that someone can buy 10, 20 or 30 units to operate them as a small, illegal hotel within the condo project.  Much easier to buy 10 or more small units from a new project.  And, lots of these people renting illegal rooms like to own 10 or more--they don't make much with just 1 room.  With the larger unit size, the condos are also more expensive, possibly making them less desirable to buy for illegal hotel use.  Cheaper to buy 2 small 30 sqm units in a new project than 1 big, older one.

     All this is not to say that you can't have problems with smaller, older projects, too--yes, unfortunately, you can.  But, if nothing else, I only have 199 potential short-term neighbors in Pattaya in my current project rather than 1199 in the other, newer project I lived at.

      And, possibly a smaller, older project will have more resident owners and more stable, long-term renters that will also be opposed to the problems that illegal short-term renters bring--and be more willing to band together to fight the problem.  Which brings me to my suggestion--see if you can get some support from a few of your fellow residents.  Perhaps start a Line group to keep each other informed.  Your Juristic and Condo Committee might be more responsive to a group rather than just you.   I think some condo projects are starting to be more  proactive in cracking down on the problem.  Good luck to you. 

[geisha]

I had neighbours who fought , others who sang and fell blind drunk on the corridor floor. Another who brought back the worst type of street girls/ boys nearly every night and made a hell of a noise. But the icing on the cake was one morning I was awoken by a baby screaming crying, it went on for 20 mins, 6 in the morning I knocked on their door, no answer. It carried on pitifully until going on 6.30 ( office closed, guards sleeping and refuse anything anyway., then I heard them coming back,, foreigners , I said that the baby had been crying for nearly an hour and got a stream of abuse . Nothing was ever done , but the couple did move out soon after. Disgusting.

[allencraig]

On 2/26/2021 at 4:32 PM, Card said:

they will just ignore it

Yes, seems they're ignoring my emails as well. Just showing up is good advice, thanks.

[allencraig]

On 2/26/2021 at 10:35 PM, geisha said:

I had neighbours who fought , others who sang and fell blind drunk on the corridor floor. Another who brought back the worst type of street girls/ boys nearly every night and made a hell of a noise. But the icing on the cake was one morning I was awoken by a baby screaming crying, it went on for 20 mins, 6 in the morning I knocked on their door, no answer. It carried on pitifully until going on 6.30 ( office closed, guards sleeping and refuse anything anyway., then I heard them coming back,, foreigners , I said that the baby had been crying for nearly an hour and got a stream of abuse . Nothing was ever done , but the couple did move out soon after. Disgusting.

OMG, That sounds like a nightmare building you were in.

[allencraig]

Department of Lands just replied to my Facebook message and recommended I call "1111", for what that'll be worth.