Hi,

I just learned that my road (a soi of a soi, but still fairly large) is private property. I was told all Moo Baans around here have to 'rent' this soi on an annual basis. There is no maintenance whatsoever (of course) and during the rain it is almost impossible to pass. Was just wondering how common it is in Thailand that roads are private property. I somehow never gave it a thought and just assumed all roads are public.

Cheers

Hi,

I just learned that my road (a soi of a soi, but still fairly large) is private property. I was told all Moo Baans around here have to 'rent' this soi on an annual basis. There is no maintenance whatsoever (of course) and during the rain it is almost impossible to pass. Was just wondering how common it is in Thailand that roads are private property. I somehow never gave it a thought and just assumed all roads are public.

Cheers

Seems to be quite common in the area that I live in as well. One of the nearby Sois was recently raised and relayed as it kept flooding, but from my knowledge the owners of properties had to pay for it.

before the car has arrived there were many homes without the road access and residents were using boats on the khlongs, paths by its banks or wide paths between the sois .

Since than, those paths were widened, but still are part of the properties around - some will charge for using the path, some don't.

But often happens that if there is a conflict between the neighbours the owner of the path might start charging users or even outright forbid them from using his path.

Happened in my neighbourhood - the local authority had to build a concrete path running on stilts over the khlongs length

I stayed in a complex in Bangkhen which had a longer public road and a privately-owned shortcut with a 24/7 tolltaker on it demanding 5 baht from each passing car. Must be quite a steady money-maker. Of course both roads were covered in water in the rainy season.

I know one poor family who bought some land and were planning on building a house. The road, unbeknownst to them, was private. The owner then cut off access and wouldn't let them onto their property. The nice road owner, however, did offer to buy their land for about 10% of what they paid for it.

I know in the States, once a road has been in use for a period of time (I think it's 20 years), access can't be denied. The owner retains ownership, but can't stop people from traveling on it. I had one such "trail" on my land and ran into the problem. I was able to move it to a different place, which meant less intereference, but couldn't block access.

One of the most common scams in land deals here is for people to subdivide a 1-2 m wide section of land fronting the main public highway and selling off the other portion at a reasonable price, and keeping the small strip for themselves or only selling it for a vastly inflated sum.

This goes on despite the fact that Thai civil code actually allows for right of way from landlocked parcels.