Image courtesy of The Phuket News

 

by Mitch Connor

A long-term expat residing in Rawai, Phuket, is struggling to access his home after the local municipality’s paving project left his driveway with a vertical drop of nearly 1 metre.

 

Australian-born British national, Brett Masters, has lived in the area for 18 years and in his current house for the past eight.

 

Before the paving project began in late December, the 58 year old expat’s driveway was almost perfectly level with the street. However, the installation of new roadside drains has resulted in a significant vertical drop at the edge of his property line. Upon returning from a holiday, Masters and his girlfriend found it nearly impossible to enter their home.

Following discussions with the contractor, concrete slabs were placed as a temporary ramp to access the property. However, the arrangement remains precarious and unsafe. Masters contacted Rawai Municipality to address the issue but was met with resistance and denial of responsibility.

 

Full story: https://thethaiger.com/news/phuket/expats-driveway-cut-off-as-phuket-street-paving-creates-one-metre-drop

 

-- © Copyright Thaiger 2023-05-16

 

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 He already posted about this himself some weeks ago

 

If he has been here 18 years this should not surprise him in the slightest!

14 minutes ago, LivinginKata said:

 He already posted about this himself some weeks ago

 

indeed, and the responses were pure schadenfreude. 

Typical expat misery all around.

The self same thing happened in our village a few years back and there was no assistance offered to any of the villagers. We were having renovations on the house shortly afterwards, so I got the builders make us a new ramp.

 

And just as an aside the drainage system that was installed was totally useless. The street still floods during heavy rain. All they have created is a long mosquito breeding trough and come the next rainy season we had our first outbreak of dengue fever in 6 years.

They could have installed the sewer 1 meter above grade.

5 minutes ago, Gold Star said:

They could have installed the sewer 1 meter above grade.

photo caption contest on this one. ok ill start. 

 

guy in blue shirt - nahhhhhh....... it'll be fine. 

1 hour ago, webfact said:

denial of responsibility.

deny deny deny. classic. 

I wonder whether he is the only one on his soi who is complaining?  The rest of his Thai neighbours just get on with their lives.

Thailand building. What else would you expect now. 
“Oh I want to be a builder, an electrician, a plumber, a carpenter, a concreter. I will just say I am and make it up as I fumble along” It is Thailand after all ????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????

 

2 hours ago, webfact said:

Following discussions with the contractor, concrete slabs were placed as a temporary ramp to access the property. However, the arrangement remains precarious and unsafe. Masters contacted Rawai Municipality to address the issue but was met with resistance and denial of responsibility.

Welcome home.

2 similar cases I know of..

 

1. Mrs.T's family have a large bit of roadside land split up with different houses. The gov made a new road, but it was built up by near a metre. They could not enter the land in a vehicle. The gov did nothing about it, the land now floods in the rainy season from off the higher up roadway.

2. A guy I know has a specially built entrance gate with surround and roof. Gov built a new road, raised it up, the drive before his gate was shortened to a couple of metres, now can only see the top metre of his gate from the road, I believe he was charged 150,000bht to sort something out.

3. I have about a 15 metre drive on gov land up to my gate, it seems they are going to make the road wider, I will probably lose quite a bit of the drive, will have to see what probs I will end up wiv......???? 

An off topic post and replies which hijacked the OP have been removed.  Stay on topic or else your posts will be removed without warning next time.

 

The OP is:

Expat’s driveway cut off as Phuket street paving creates one metre drop

The australian returned from visiting his waterfront property in sydney to this squaller. Nightmare

Despite his background as a general contractor in construction, Masters’ suggestions for a simple and cost-effective solution were dismissed. Instead, the civil works officer advised Masters to alter the gradient of his driveway at his own expense.

 

How typically Thai. No responsibility, no interest in repairing their damage. Your house, you sort it out.
Many years ago my in-laws lost the entire ground floor of their house after dirt roads in the village were tarmacked and it raised the road height. Of course, as anyone with a brain larger than that of a Thai, and there are many, would have known that  when the rains came the yard would be flooded, and that destroyed the house and it returned to its previous status as a place on stilts.

I offered to get them a lawyer to fight for compensation, but they weren't interested. Amazing Thailand - Land of Apathy. Similar to the neighbours of the OP?

That doesn't look like a one meter drop from his driveway to the "road".  Perhaps they are referring to the holes in the ground on either side of the sewer, which will eventually be filled up.  Looking into his driveway, it doesn't look like he has a car, only a motorcycle, for which the problem seems to have been resolved temporarily with the planks.  Not really newsworthy (in Thailand) IMHO.

Don't really understand. Has the entire road outside his house been LOWERED by one metre?

On 5/17/2023 at 5:54 PM, KannikaP said:

Don't really understand. Has the entire road outside his house been LOWERED by one metre?

No but now has a moat. The longer I live here the less I'm able to wrap my head around just how confoundingly stupid (most) locals are. The overnight/morning rain has left two parallel klongs along the soi. A mere matter of time before some driver ends up in one or either. The edges of the funnel have washed away so being able to navigate the soi is almost impossible, particularly at night.

 

Neither of these things would aggravate so much if they hadn't had the so many days off, hence the buttock crunchingly snails pace . Even the local Thais roll their eyes and say 'Thailand!' A Thai neighbour told me they were advertising on Facebook for more workers, and this was just two weeks into the project. Perhaps an actual 'newspaper' may give them a kick up the 4rse, but I doubt it. They.Just.Don't.Care