Unsafe Condos In Bangkok?

[ujayujay]

17 hours ago, Celsius said:

 

Thats every person on this forum . Did you apply?

 

What a joke lol

And you are the self-proclaimed autodidactic engineer in every industry obviously......must be difficult for you to find friends with so much know-it-all🤣

[PomPolo]

39 minutes ago, CallumWK said:

 

They will be told, we don't need your help. You are not my father

Or let me see your work visa

[Digitalbanana]

3 hours ago, steven100 said:

Do you think this building has twisted or do you think it's the design as it should be   ??

Looks like a short column slab design that is unsuited to unstable ground, but cheaper to build. That said their Facebook page for the construction company refers to the design as "Their Pride" and implies it is a design feature.

[BusyB]

On 3/29/2025 at 5:50 PM, Elkski said:

From a picture I saw of a  hiso condo building in Thonglor with a bulging corner spanning many floors there are going to be many condemned.  All these guys bragging about how many rental condos the wife and them own might  be be hurting.    I don't see how you can fix fractured support beams and columns cheaply or timely.   Will it be cheaper to raze the building?  Do the owners have any say in that.    Who pays for a demo?  More construction dust and noise in bkk incoming.   Labor and material shortage.   

 

Yeah I'm (at least was) planning to stay in a high rise hotel in Bangkok in a couple of weeks - 20 floors - not so sure now. 

 

It would be interesting to know if some level of earthquake resistance was baked into any of Bangkok's (undoubtedly non-enforced) building regulations. Even if it was, the regs here  won't be anything like as strict as places like Taipei or Tokyo.

 

Could affect tourism if there's any serious repercussions and aftershocks.

 

 

[jojothai]

18 hours ago, Celsius said:

 

no.

 

Do you need a license to be a volunteer engineer?

There should be the need for qualification or a license for any inspections
If any volunteers are a farang, what about the work permit?

[Drumbuie]

5 hours ago, Andyfez said:

Cracked walls and ceilings doesn't necessarily mean unsafe.

one-up on settlement cracks.

A building is designed to flex, and plaster will always crack.

Suspect this list going round is not very reliable.

Somewhere I saw a note that after 2007, Bangkok buildings were designed to be earthquake- resilient. However, having seen that video of Park Origin's Sky Bridges shearing away,  I'm not 100% convinced, tbh. 

[Rolo89]

6 minutes ago, Drumbuie said:

However, having seen that video of Park Origin's Sky Bridges shearing away,  I'm not 100% convinced, tbh. 

That'll be part of earthquake design to have the bridges snap away at one side to let the buildings sway.

 

All the other new buildings with support columns cracked and supporting walls cracked are a big concern though. 

[Rampant Rabbit]

On 3/29/2025 at 11:50 PM, Elkski said:

From a picture I saw of a  hiso condo building in Thonglor with a bulging corner spanning many floors there are going to be many condemned.  All these guys bragging about how many rental condos the wife and them own might  be be hurting.    I don't see how you can fix fractured support beams and columns cheaply or timely.   Will it be cheaper to raze the building?  Do the owners have any say in that.    Who pays for a demo?  More construction dust and noise in bkk incoming.   Labor and material shortage.   

brag brag 9 been to them all ......no damage.....brag brag brag again

[Rampant Rabbit]

8 minutes ago, Rolo89 said:

That'll be part of earthquake design to have the bridges snap away at one side to let the buildings sway.

 

All the other new buildings with support columns cracked and supporting walls cracked are a big concern though. 

its also cantilevered off the building.

[Etaoin Shrdlu]

Some potential issues may arise as this unfolds:

 

Has the juristic entity updated the sums insured for the insurance covering the condo building and other community property to account for inflation? If not, then what's called an "average penalty" or "coinsurance penalty" may be applied to partial losses. For example, if a building was insured for its original construction cost 10 years ago for 8 million baht, but the actual cost to replace it today would be 10 million baht, any partial loss would only be paid at 80% of the cost incurred to repair. In other words, for a cost to repair quake damage that a contractor charges 1 million baht to fix, the insured would only collect 800,000 in claims proceeds. For a total loss, the insurer would pay policy limits, but these would would still be only 80% of the cost to replace. Some policies may grant some leeway on this, perhaps up to 20%, but many don't.

 

If it is uneconomical to repair a building due to the nature and extent of the damage, the insurer may simply state that the building is a constructive total loss, in which case the insurer could pay the policy limits. Now the juristic entity and the unit owners face a dilemma. It may take many years to replace a large condo complex and some owners may simply want to collect insurance proceeds and walk away. Unfortunately, the replacement value of the building, which was used as the sum insured, will likely only be a fraction of the market value of all the units. Even if all unit owners agreed to abandon reconstruction and the juristic entity could distribute the insurance proceeds, they'd likely only get a fraction of what they paid for their units. I am not aware of any property insurance policy that will pay the difference between replacement value and market value for condo units, or anything else for that matter. Homeowners' insurance certainly won't.

 

Let's hope sums insured have been updated and that all damages are superficial so that none of the buildings need to be declared a constructive total loss.

 

 

[DonniePeverley]

Does anyone know if they use asbestos in the painting, plastering, tiling?

 

 

[it is what it is]

On 3/29/2025 at 4:50 PM, Elkski said:

From a picture I saw of a  hiso condo building in Thonglor with a bulging corner spanning many floors there are going to be many condemned.  All these guys bragging about how many rental condos the wife and them own might  be be hurting.    I don't see how you can fix fractured support beams and columns cheaply or timely.   Will it be cheaper to raze the building?  Do the owners have any say in that.    Who pays for a demo?  More construction dust and noise in bkk incoming.   Labor and material shortage.   

 

All these guys bragging about how many rental condos the wife and them own might  be be hurting.

 

don;t need to brag because it's just my normal life, but thankfully the gf has recently been selling her bkk condos - others she owns are outside bkk, and buying houses. she wasn;t getting great prices for the condos, but she's very happy now.

 

[Toby1947]

Said it for 20yrs Condo in Thailand ain't worth 3 pork sausages each.

[josephbloggs]

1 minute ago, Toby1947 said:

Said it for 20yrs Condo in Thailand ain't worth 3 pork sausages each.

You must be extremely dull company.

[Toby1947]

On 3/30/2025 at 3:17 AM, KhunLA said:

There goes that market   

 

You have to wonder, how many actually had earthquake insurance in the policy, if having at all.

 

We have no home insurance.  One story, well built, and not in 'red zone'.  Block & steel construction, so not even covered for fire.

Natural disasters are not covered on any building insurance policies, worldwide. Simple 

[KhunLA]

22 minutes ago, Toby1947 said:

Natural disasters are not covered on any building insurance policies, worldwide. Simple 

Depending on the policy of course, if wanting basic, el'cheap or extras, at additional cost of course.  Another silly generalization that does not 'fit all' 🙄

[Dexxter]

On 3/30/2025 at 3:57 AM, FriscoKid said:

here was a video on Twitter of Park Origin Thonglor, a three-tower development with two sky bridges on high floors connecting the three buildings. Both bridges collapsed. The towers themselves appeared intact, but who really knows.

 

Those bridges seem to be relatively lightweight add-on construction, not reinforced concrete or part of the main structure. I suspect they would be fairly easy to repair and not an indication of the integrity of the rest of the buildings.

 

[Dexxter]

On 3/31/2025 at 1:46 PM, steven100 said:

Do you think this building has twisted or do you think it's the design as it should be   ??

 

 

 

Perhaps they lost their....

[ExpatOilWorker]

The Department of Public Works and Town and Country Planning said on Wednesday, 34 high-rise buildings in Thailand, mostly in Bangkok, have been declared uninhabitable due to Friday's quake in Myanmar. The Department has inspected the structural integrity of 3,375 buildings so far, and 3,130 can be used as normal, while 211 suffered from moderate damage but are still habitable.

[FriscoKid]

On 4/1/2025 at 12:48 PM, Toby1947 said:

Natural disasters are not covered on any building insurance policies, worldwide. Simple 

 

That’s correct. It’s called force majeure, and you’ll find a clause for it in just about every homeowners or building insurance policy. Basically, it’s an exemption that excludes coverage for damage caused by natural disasters. In recent years, many local homeowners insurance policies have tightened their clauses regarding floods, pandemics, and even burglaries. These days, they cover very little, most insurance companies don’t want to take on those kinds of risks anymore.

 

One of the only things they do still cover is fire, but only if it’s not caused by negligence. Even burglary coverage comes with strict conditions—if the property is left unoccupied for an extended period, they often won’t cover it at all. And if they do cover for burglary, then you still have to prove evidence of a forced entry.

[FriscoKid]

16 minutes ago, ExpatOilWorker said:

The Department of Public Works and Town and Country Planning said on Wednesday, 34 high-rise buildings in Thailand, mostly in Bangkok, have been declared uninhabitable due to Friday's quake in Myanmar. The Department has inspected the structural integrity of 3,375 buildings so far, and 3,130 can be used as normal, while 211 suffered from moderate damage but are still habitable.

That's interesting information, thank you. Problem is I keep seeing various posts about different numbers of damaged buildings falling into different categories of damage so I'm not sure what's what anymore. I guess there's just too much chaos around in general that nobody really knows at this point how many buildings will actually be condemned and how many are repairable. 

[ExpatOilWorker]

1 hour ago, FriscoKid said:

That's interesting information, thank you. Problem is I keep seeing various posts about different numbers of damaged buildings falling into different categories of damage so I'm not sure what's what anymore. I guess there's just too much chaos around in general that nobody really knows at this point how many buildings will actually be condemned and how many are repairable. 

UPDATE: Three high-risk government buildings in Bangkok no longer suitable for people to enter have been identified on Wednesday afternoon. The three are:Thotsamintarathirat Building at Ratchawithi Hospital in Phya Thai district of Bangkok, Department of Revenue building, Immigration Bureau office building. 
---
The Department of Public Works and Town and Country Planning said on Wednesday, high-rise 34 buildings in Thailand, mostly in Bangkok, have been declared uninhabitable due to Friday's quake in Myanmar. The Department has inspected the structural integrity of 3,375 buildings so far, and 3,130 can be used as normal, while 211 suffered from moderate damage but are still habitable.

 

[Lorry]

6 hours ago, ExpatOilWorker said:

no longer suitable for people to enter have been identified on Wednesday afternoon. The three are:Thotsamintarathirat Building at Ratchawithi Hospital in Phya Thai district of Bangkok, Department of Revenue building, Immigration Bureau office building

Does this mean Immi at CW is closed?

[FriscoKid]

15 hours ago, ExpatOilWorker said:

UPDATE: Three high-risk government buildings in Bangkok no longer suitable for people to enter have been identified on Wednesday afternoon. The three are:Thotsamintarathirat Building at Ratchawithi Hospital in Phya Thai district of Bangkok, Department of Revenue building, Immigration Bureau office building. 
---
The Department of Public Works and Town and Country Planning said on Wednesday, high-rise 34 buildings in Thailand, mostly in Bangkok, have been declared uninhabitable due to Friday's quake in Myanmar. The Department has inspected the structural integrity of 3,375 buildings so far, and 3,130 can be used as normal, while 211 suffered from moderate damage but are still habitable.

 

Thanks for that info. You didn't mention the source, which is often helpful to have, but I saw the Khao Sod logo at the bottom of the graphic, so I pulled it up on their Twitter/X account. 
 

 

[FriscoKid]

I also spoke with the building management where I stay, and they said inspectors have already come out, apparently from one of the government departments, to check all the structural pillars in our building. It seems they issued us a clearance certificate as a result. Apparently, they use some sort of laser system to scan the interior integrity of columns, checking for cracks, any leaning, and other structural damage, and thankfully, we don’t have any.

 

This made me wonder if this is how they are able to inspect so many buildings across the city so quickly without spending thousands of engineering man hours manually checking for structural damage. I assume so. 

[TexasCowboy]

I think it is way way too early to tell the outcome of all this speculation.  

For all the people saying their buildings are 100% safe, I would argue they probably don't know.

Even if the building engineers have given it a brief visual inspection, that might not be enough or tell the real damage.

How many of those "building engineers" are actually trained structural or civil engineers?

Did they have original vertical surveys and did they take new measurements to see if the building has shifted or is tilting?

If the doors aren't locking-closing-latching or the elevators are making noises is that a sign of damage or danger?

People often mistake veneer damage to structural damage and while it could be a sign, it's not the only sign.  Very possible to have veneer damage, and structure is PASD.

Many materials don't flex with movement and therefore crack and pop.

I would fully expect in 2-3-5 years we'll see a building fall and it will be attributed to earthquake damage.

How many people expect building insurance to fully cover any damage to the building.  I expect most of these will not be covered or get a payout.

Easy to buy insurance anywhere, not as easy to collect.  If there actually is coverage I would expect some insurance companies to go out of business as they don't have money to pay such heavy losses.

If losses aren't covered, I would not expect there be enough funds in the sinking funds to cover the costs of repairs.  So there will be the "new" and "unheard" of concept of special assessments.  Most people probably have never expected these significant charges and won't have the money to pay them.

I wonder how building that have 80% non-Thai owners will fare with collections on those.  Many of these were built and bought when money was easily transferred from China.  That's more difficult for many people now and economies have changed.

So will juristic organizations foreclose on these owners because they can't/won't pay the sinking fund special assessment?  or will they just not do the repairs because many/most owners don't pay?

If they don't do the cosmetic or even amenity or functional repairs, then the condos fall in value or become ghost towns?

Let's all hope there was minimal to no damage, insurance pays for minor repairs, there are no special assessments, and everybody lives happily everafter, but somehow somewhere I don't expect that to be the case.

Remember that Surfside condo collapse in Miami/Surfside?   How many years did they know of structural issues, that the residents put off and put off and put off  because they didn't want to pay for special assessments.  They act like the juristic person should pay, but the juristic person is YOU.  It's not some magically 3rd party with deep pockets full of money.  They're just a manager hired to run your affairs and investment (money pit).

[wavodavo]

On 3/30/2025 at 7:34 AM, short-Timer said:

 

Yeah, there are close to 1,200 units across the three towers, with the average unit selling for around 20 million Baht. That brings the total value of the project to around 240 billion Baht, or approximately US$7 billion. That's some serious money and who knows the future of those buildings. Anything above 35-40 floors is really sketchy now and two of the towers are above 50 floors. 

I saw that too and I wonder if the sky bridged tie the 3 towers together. Not a good situation if you  own one of the units and what are the chances that they had earthquake insurance.?? 

[Letseng]

On 3/29/2025 at 11:26 PM, FriscoKid said:

Somebody sent me a list of about 30 condos in Bangkok that’s circulating online right now, along with some text in Thai language stating that the list was compiled by individual residents of these buildings from posts on Twitter.

 

The comments in Thai summarize reports from residents about earthquake damage to high rise buildings, with many expressing fear about returning due to structural concerns like cracked walls, damaged ceilings, and shaking buildings. Some condos have restricted access, only allowing residents to collect belongings, while others have reported significant damage, including structural cracks and even collapsed sections.

 

The information comes from social media posts by residents and has not been officially verified by engineers or government authorities. In the text, residents of buildings are advised to check for damage themselves or contact property management for an inspection before re-entering affected buildings.

 

I’m not going to post the list of buildings here since it hasn’t been independently verified and I don’t want to spread fear, but many of the buildings on the list appear relatively new, and some of the buildings were built by a few of the same developers.

 

On the list, there was also mention of one of the high-end shopping malls in Central Bangkok being unsafe. 
 

I saw a government news report yesterday stating that it’s safe to return to buildings in Bangkok, but the information circulating suggests otherwise.

 

I’m wondering if anyone else has come across circulation of a similar list or similar reports?

I saw this list on another platform. I can tell you that this shopping mall had a few loose ceiling panels which have long been put back. I use this mall daily. So do 1000nds of others.