Squatters In Bangrak

[bbcsamui]

Since the land doesn't belong to the squatters, why not take the rubbish from the beach and dump it in the middle of where they are? I see no reason you should pay to haul it away.

"Oh, I'm sorry. I thought this garbage belonged to you...."

We did clean the beach this morning and give them some of their "possessions" back, but took a full truckload away to the rubbish tip. Too hot and tired now, but will put some pictures on the web page plus some comment on the interesting interaction we had with them later in the day.

[bbcsamui]

Since the land doesn't belong to the squatters, why not take the rubbish from the beach and dump it in the middle of where they are? I see no reason you should pay to haul it away.

"Oh, I'm sorry. I thought this garbage belonged to you...."

We did clean the beach this morning and give them some of their "possessions" back, but took a full truckload away to the rubbish tip. Too hot and tired now, but will put some pictures on the web page plus some comment on the interesting interaction we had with them later in the day.

The info and photos are here ...

Beach Cleaning

We did manage to take away a full truckload in 3 hours or so...

I just wonder how many truckloads to take away all of their rubbish ... but my wife told me again today, that I should not think like that, I have to remember they are from Samui and might never go... I cannot bear to think about that...

Anyway it did feel good to be out in the sun doing some labour and making the beach look a little bit better.

[ClaudeFeller]

I dont believe this "puujay baan loose face" talking anymore.

Nobody cares about you and the squatters anymore. It is your private fight with them, you sould feel free to do what has to be done. Really, time for a bulldozer!

[Khun Jean]

The softy softy approach is what makes them so sure of themselves.

Thais like to know there place in society. Time to make that clear in which part of society they belong by taking control.

Control means, removing anything that is on your own land or to close to your land as stipulated in the law.

Once that is done, respect will be gained and chance of getting this solved will be a lot bigger.

The small bar is probably not the problem, it might even bring in more customers, but a house with bedrooms is too much.

And dumping sewage and garbage on the beach is just criminal.

[highdiver]

I dont believe this "puujay baan loose face" talking anymore.

Nobody cares about you and the squatters anymore. It is your private fight with them, you sould feel free to do what has to be done. Really, time for a bulldozer!

I beg to differ ..

if it was BBC land then i would agree with you... however this is not the case they are not on his land and he has no rights over the public land.

As it is not his land it is not his duty to be the law and remove squatters from public land. this is the goverments duty. and BBC has the right as a good residence concerend with law and order to complain and advise the goverment that...they are squating on public land, ileagaly consructing on it and dumping litter and suage on the public beach.

he does not have the right or any excuse to use force to remove squatters from public land.

once a govement agency such as the ta saban, na ampur or poa lodge a formal complaint with the police then the police will arrest the sqautters and site them for illeagal construction on public land. they will be let out on bail and the case will go to court and the judge will penalise them and order them to remove the construction. and this can take a realy long time...as it does by the way in many western countries where squatters are a problem not only on public but in many cases on private property.

I totaly understand the frustration of BBC having those squatters demolish his beautifull beach front and blocking his views. but as long as they are not on his property there is nothing he can realy do apart from complaining to the goverment. and if he has his lawyer do that then he stands a beter chance.

Edited December 9, 2007 by highdiver

[ClaudeFeller]

Highdiver,

I know these shows from high ranking cop or tessaban or puujay-somewhere: They listen, they promise to help and they do nothing.

Did you ever count how many illegal buildings we have on Samui?? Nobody cares...

[bbcsamui]

8 December update...

Later in the evening...

Since Dim had refused to pay to fix Anna's room, we thought it appropriate to go and ask for her to contribute to the cleaning up of her mess, by paying for the truck at THB500 an hour. So Aree went over in the evening to ask her for THB1,500 - and she paid up. This is the first concession of any sort, that we have had in 6 years of discussion. I wanted to get the money and frame it, but Aree had already given it to the truck company.

And, also I found out about a couple of things that happened during the day.

Aree, told me that while we were piling the rubbish on their balcony the grandmother had come and told Aree to get out or she would call the police. He reminded her that this was the crown land and that we were just giving them back their own rubbish ... and the he was not scared - go and call the police. Well, this flustered her and she quickly exited to her house across the road. We never saw any police.

We found out that while I had been discussing with the elder son Ng, removal of the septic tanks on the beach, they had called Poo Yai Wit complaining "the farang is threatening to break our septic tanks". Poo Yai Wit said to them that the farang can go ahead as they should not be on the beach anyway. How do we know this? Because Poo Yai Wit came and had a meeting with us on Sunday (see below).

9 December 2007

I didn't get to see the Mayweather / Hatton fight but even though it was billed as the fight of the century, I was having my own little battle and Poo Yai Wit had called to say he would come and see us around 10.30 am ... eventually arriving about 10.50am.

It was a good meeting with lots of light discussion. I will try and put it in bullet points below:

Poo Yai Wit told us that he has actually had many complaints from locals over the last 2 years about the squatters - about the fact they were stealing the beach, about the fact they put their waste onto the beach, about the fact that they had a girlie bar which they rented out right next to the temple gates etc ... But he had not followed up because he was busy and thought it was too small - he said he truly did not realise the extent of their greed until he came on request of the police and Tessaban and looked at the house from around the back. He said that he had actually had a complaint from the Mayor 2 years ago about someone building on the beach next to Big Buddha and thought it was us. He did come and have a look at our place but saw nothing to be concerned about.

Poo Yai Wit explained that he had told the squatters about the agreed compromise, but he had since seen that they were in fact continuing to build and not looking to reduce the size of their development. He stated that they had no respect for his decision so is going to chase up the Tessaban this week to get them to issue the eviction documents.

He's not sure of the timings but expects them to be issued this week, giving the squatters a couple of weeks (maybe a month) to vacate.

Poo Yai Wit, said that I should not go anywhere near them and talk with them as I do not need to. It is in the hands of the Tessaban and himself. He stated, that if the squatters do not follow the rulings of the Tessaban then they will end up in Jail. He stated they already have the trespass charge against them, so need to be careful what they do.

I explained that I had tried to keep away, that it was Papa who came and asked Aree why I was quiet and that they had intended to put a restaurant on the site. Aree also told Poo Yai Wit that they mentioned that they wanted to lease the site to put the restaurant there. Poo Yai Wit actually laughed at that. He said if it was possible to rent the Kings beach then he would have done it himself in Choeng Mon and made a fortune. There is no way they can rent the beach. (I always felt this was the case, but it was reassuring to hear it).

Poo Yai wit told us about the phone call yesterday where they complained to him that the farang was wanting to demolish the septic tanks on the beach. He told us he said that the farang can go ahead as they should not be there anyway. (It was agreed with Ng that they would stay one more week while they worked out new plumbing arrangements)

Poo Yai Wit stated that he knew about their land across the road, he knew about their house in Plai Leam, he knew the children had good jobs etc. He stated that in not agreeing to the compromise that was previously proposed, they were just being too selfish ... and then he started to go on about other selfish and greedy people in his area that he has to deal with, but I will not speak about them here.

It seems like it is moving in a positive direction but I will not hold my breath (other than when I am walking past the smelly septic tanks). Too many times I have seen positive steps get reversed or replaced with something more horrific. We will just have to wait and see.

[highdiver]

BBC

its nice to hear that the Pooyai has come to follow up on this case.

As i posted before the fact that they made the Pooyai loose face by no respect for his decision is a huge motivation for the Pooyai to step in and reslove this isuue.

knowing Poo yai wit i am sure he will be very swift in lodging a formal complaint to tae saban.

this is the Thai way it may take longer then you expect but it will be taken care of.

[kash]

any news?

[bbcsamui]

any news?

Nothing to report. No construction, no demolition, no sight of any officials... at least no construction of a restaurant that we can see.

We are just assuming it will take time for the officials to get through the paperwork and they will be busy with election stuff and other more important issues.

We feel confident that Poo Yai Wit will push it through. We feel he honestly felt that the squatters lied to him and showed disrespect etc. I am heeding his advice and keeping my mouth shut and trying not to go near them. We have cancelled the beach cleanup and septic tank demolition this Saturday on the basis we need to give the officials a chance. We realise it has taken a long time to get where it is, but truly feel that the officials have taken it on board, so we must let them do their job in their own way.

If nothing has happened after New Year, then we shall need to step in again. Another few weeks is not going to make much difference in the scheme of things.

We have made the decision that we are not going to build another house on the land. This decision is based on the fact it will be a better utilisation of the site to build a much better restaurant and secondly we are unsure if we can live here anymore anyway. So the idea is that we will get some plans done that have the restaurant going where the house is, using the beach and have a design that can be built whether the squatters are there or not.

Even though it seems to be moving positively, we are still not convinced it will actually be resolved quickly as we have seen with the fishing squatters on the other side that even though there were court orders for them to leave, they took more than 2 years to vacate ... and still have not all gone.

We are sick of being disappointed by the process, so are taking a conservative view to it all and hopefully that way we might get a positive surprise.

[ClaudeFeller]

Can somebody explain me why this needs so much time?? I mean there is no tax money to share between many greasy hands, it has to be done quicker.. I see no reason.

[kash]

very little is done by reason in this country, but I think OP is taking a wise decision by taking time to help in regards of the current status.

[Lite Beer]

very little is done by reason in this country, but I think OP is taking a wise decision by taking time to help in regards of the current status.

He`s got more patience than I have, but he is probabaly right.

[bbcsamui]

He`s got more patience than I have, but he is probabaly right.

Patience is wearing thin. They were out on the beach this morning getting some sand to undertake some construction inside the house. I couldn't see what was going on but could hear them at work and saw the builder go in and out of the house a few times

I really really really wanted to go and say or do something or take a photo but was held back by Aree and my wife who reminded me that it has been a busy few days with a visit to Samui by the Suratthani Govenor and elections etc and that Poo Yai Wit gave his assurances he would do something about it.

Also, I happened to drive past their house in Plai Leam last night and saw lights on, furniture inside and thought I saw a UBC antenae on it (I didn't stop to look) ... plus saw the daughter-in-law sitting inside. So looks like they might be moving to the new house, but then this doesn't seem to stop them doing construction at the illegal dwelling on the beach - perhaps they were actually doing some demolition ... then why would they need the sand for cement???? ... its driving me nuts.

I will stick to the plan of waiting until after 23rd (which will probably mean after the 25th) before doing anything else.

[sbk]

Wait until the election results actually come out and are verified. Personally, if I were you, I would wait until after New Year --- you've put up with it this long what is a few extra weeks?

Give the Thai way of doing things a chance first. Yes, its glacially slow but I suspect there is more going on behind the scenes than you will ever know.

[ClaudeFeller]

Wait until the election results actually come out and are verified. Personally, if I were you, I would wait until after New Year --- you've put up with it this long what is a few extra weeks?

Give the Thai way of doing things a chance first. Yes, its glacially slow but I suspect there is more going on behind the scenes than you will ever know.

What the h... do they have to talk behind the scenes? There is nothing to talk, there is no money to share between the big elephants... so what?

[sbk]

I said going on, not talking. Perhaps nothing is happening, perhaps paperwork is wending its way through the very large bureaucracy that is the Thai govt. OP should talk to his lawyer if concerned that nothing is happening.

[bbcsamui]

later today...

While Aree was out watering the plants he talked with the neighbours and asked them when they were going to go and secondly when they are going to remove the septic tanks off the beach which was agreed 10 days ago. They said they are not going to go but are going to put up a wall around the tanks so the farang does not have to look at them. They talked about bricks or bamboo as options.

Obviously this report back got me fumed up and I went looking for the sledge hammer.

Aree had only a small sledgehammer (the large one I used last week was borrowed) so I went off to buy one. 3 stores later I actually found a 10 pound sledgehammer and handle that fitted. The other stores either had a handle or a head, but nothing that could be connected strongly enough. I also bought a nice long crow bar and shovel... but unfortunately couldn't find a strong enough rake with a decent handle.

Meanwhile Aree had gone off to see Poo Yai Wit and check with him.

Slight diversion here... I found out later that Aree is very scared about me getting hurt and keeps telling my wife Por to stop me doing anything silly ... I found this out from Por who told me to wait until school starts again as she does not want me getting hurt in front of the kids and in fact does not want me getting hurt at all as it will be left up to her to look after me or to look after the business etc if I am killed. This gets me riled up even more as I cannot believe that we have to feel threatened by these illegal squatters ... anyway, this conversation between Por and myself degenerated into another stressful encounter which are unfortunately becoming more frequent because of “them”...

Poo Yai Wit told Aree that he already asked the Tessaban to issue the eviction papers and will bring the harbourmaster down to the beach tomorrow at 10am to get him to look at it in detail. He said that if I want to demolish the septic tanks then I should wait for him and the harbourmaster to be there... or just wait for the Tessaban to do their job which will mean the squatters have to do the demolition (once the papers have been issued).

Waiting is the sensible thing, but I just get so riled up with their attitude and I want to break something. So if anyone out there has a concrete wall that needs smashing, PM me and I will bring around my nice new 10 pound sledgehammer and get rid of some excess steam ... maybe that will help me get through this waiting time.

I am so glad I gave up alcohol as I would never have held back so long if I had a few Heinekens under the belt ….

[ClaudeFeller]

later today...

While Aree was out watering the plants he talked with the neighbours and asked them when they were going to go and secondly when they are going to remove the septic tanks off the beach which was agreed 10 days ago. They said they are not going to go but are going to put up a wall around the tanks so the farang does not have to look at them. They talked about bricks or bamboo as options.

Obviously this report back got me fumed up and I went looking for the sledge hammer.

Aree had only a small sledgehammer (the large one I used last week was borrowed) so I went off to buy one. 3 stores later I actually found a 10 pound sledgehammer and handle that fitted. The other stores either had a handle or a head, but nothing that could be connected strongly enough. I also bought a nice long crow bar and shovel... but unfortunately couldn't find a strong enough rake with a decent handle.

Meanwhile Aree had gone off to see Poo Yai Wit and check with him.

Slight diversion here... I found out later that Aree is very scared about me getting hurt and keeps telling my wife Por to stop me doing anything silly ... I found this out from Por who told me to wait until school starts again as she does not want me getting hurt in front of the kids and in fact does not want me getting hurt at all as it will be left up to her to look after me or to look after the business etc if I am killed. This gets me riled up even more as I cannot believe that we have to feel threatened by these illegal squatters ... anyway, this conversation between Por and myself degenerated into another stressful encounter which are unfortunately becoming more frequent because of “them”...

Poo Yai Wit told Aree that he already asked the Tessaban to issue the eviction papers and will bring the harbourmaster down to the beach tomorrow at 10am to get him to look at it in detail. He said that if I want to demolish the septic tanks then I should wait for him and the harbourmaster to be there... or just wait for the Tessaban to do their job which will mean the squatters have to do the demolition (once the papers have been issued).

Waiting is the sensible thing, but I just get so riled up with their attitude and I want to break something. So if anyone out there has a concrete wall that needs smashing, PM me and I will bring around my nice new 10 pound sledgehammer and get rid of some excess steam ... maybe that will help me get through this waiting time.

I am so glad I gave up alcohol as I would never have held back so long if I had a few Heinekens under the belt ….

You should not be afraid of nothing. Thais are always afraid of the neighbors, just do what you want to do. Nobody will hurt you or whatever. Be strong and dont let them intimitate you.

[highdiver]

poo yai wit has told you not to speak with them... so dont.

at this moment all the cards are in your favour.. so play them right.

The squatters will now attempt everything including getting on your nerves to make you do something foolish and shift the atttention from the case.

dont take the law into your own hands let the goverment evacuate them even if it takes a few more days.

and keep away from them..

they are not your friends and not your neigbours. dont speak or comunicate with them any more. if they ask you or any one from your house about it just say you dont know and that better they speak to the poo yai about it.

[bbcsamui]

poo yai wit has told you not to speak with them... so dont.

at this moment all the cards are in your favour.. so play them right.

The squatters will now attempt everything including getting on your nerves to make you do something foolish and shift the atttention from the case.

dont take the law into your own hands let the goverment evacuate them even if it takes a few more days.

and keep away from them..

they are not your friends and not your neigbours. dont speak or comunicate with them any more. if they ask you or any one from your house about it just say you dont know and that better they speak to the poo yai about it.

I know. I am trying to stay away from them.

I am also not scared of them, I just want the authorities to do their job.

I personally feel I have kept to the book so far and to do a rash destruction act at this late stage is only going to work against me … its just so hard when it is just outside my front door (which is why I have time on the computer as my office is as far away as I can get, yet still be on my land, so I tend to come here to get away from them).

We have been going round in circles on this - we have decided to shift house to get away, and then decided to stay as a sign of strength and to stop them sneaking out and doing more – and now I am feeling it might be time to go again … I just hope things go well tomorrow, but realistically am not expecting much to happen.

[naomisri]

I would listen to the advice of Highdiver and SBK. This is not the time to go around upsetting people as far as those that want to retain their elected positions for the next year are concerned. I have faith in certain people at the Tessabaan and know of another case being looked at from in the case of building on beach land. Trust me, these people know who is right and wrong in the situation, it's just a matter of right time, right method. If it was your land we were talking about perhaps you could get away with taking a sledgehammer to it, but it's not your land, and if you want to get technical it's not your public land either (although it may be your wife and kids') Like SBK says, now is not the time when people are busy with election business. They are puffing up their chests by building further, trying to look big and scary, but if they force you to act out then you will end up being the one with egg on your face. Don't let things escalate, look at the progress you have made already getting them disconnected from your property and within the legal limit from your property line and focus on how far it has already gone bureaucratically.

Just another thought, but you might try getting in touch with the guy who runs the souvenir shop opposite Lamai Temple, covering the whole temple wall there is a display of information about the beach encroachment by a resort development in Chaweng Noi. He's running for office this year too and who knows, he could be interested in displaying another flagrant show of building on crown property for all to see?

[Dingojoe]

poo yai wit has told you not to speak with them... so dont.

at this moment all the cards are in your favour.. so play them right.

The squatters will now attempt everything including getting on your nerves to make you do something foolish and shift the atttention from the case.

dont take the law into your own hands let the goverment evacuate them even if it takes a few more days.

and keep away from them..

they are not your friends and not your neigbours. dont speak or comunicate with them any more. if they ask you or any one from your house about it just say you dont know and that better they speak to the poo yai about it.

Very good advice.

SBK says, now is not the time when people are busy with election business. They are puffing up their chests by building further, trying to look big and scary, but if they force you to act out then you will end up being the one with egg on your face. Don't let things escalate, look at the progress you have made already.

Yes maybe they want you to react, Dont Do It.

Just wait, try your best to imagine that they are not even there for the moment.

[bbcsamui]

poo yai wit has told you not to speak with them... so dont.

at this moment all the cards are in your favour.. so play them right.

The squatters will now attempt everything including getting on your nerves to make you do something foolish and shift the atttention from the case.

dont take the law into your own hands let the goverment evacuate them even if it takes a few more days.

and keep away from them..

they are not your friends and not your neigbours. dont speak or comunicate with them any more. if they ask you or any one from your house about it just say you dont know and that better they speak to the poo yai about it.

Very good advice.

SBK says, now is not the time when people are busy with election business. They are puffing up their chests by building further, trying to look big and scary, but if they force you to act out then you will end up being the one with egg on your face. Don't let things escalate, look at the progress you have made already.

Yes maybe they want you to react, Dont Do It.

Just wait, try your best to imagine that they are not even there for the moment.

I agree, I agree, ... I just find it hard as patience is not really one of my strongpoints.

I have locked the sledgehammer away and Aree has the key.

waiting ....

[bbcsamui]

An amazing emotional roller coaster in the last 24 hours

Last night, Por and I let the stress get to us and it caused a bit of nastiness from both sides. I am certainly keen to maintain a long term relationship but the language differences, the cultural differences, the male versus female differences, the general life experience differences coming into play and both being very strong willed people mean we sometimes have some very emotional discussions.

Yesterdays comments by the squatters and my verbal statements about wanting to take a sledgehammer to the place was a catalyst to one of those bad nights. We are just holding in there, but if this goes on much longer I fear it will cause some very large emotional scars.

Anyway, that was yesterday and today is another day...

Two officials from the Harbour board and one form the Po Yai Ban were standing out on the beach at around 11am today. The Harbour board guys had their nice white official uniforms on and a dossier of official looking papers.

... at this stage we were feeling generally positive.

They wandered around looking at the sewerage tanks and the wall etc built on the beach. They then went over to the squatters place for about 10 minutes, wandering around looking at the stuff and talking with Dims brother.

The senior Harbour board guy then came over to talk with us (actually he is second in charge, Khun Prawet is the Samui Harbourmaster and did not come).

His initial stance was to question my wife as to why the squatters need to remove anything at all ... he said they are just taking a little bit and not bothering us, perhaps they could just build a wall around the tanks. He also questioned whether some of our wooden decking was not encroaching on the beach.

Por was a bit tired and stressed from the previous few hours so was very strong in talking back. She stated that we would be happy to cut our wooden deck which is not illegal if the squatters go. She also said that the squatters are stealing the Kings beach and it was therefore the Harbour boards responsibility to make the squatters return it to the rightful owner and to clean their sewerage off it. She said that we are OK with them keeping the sala bar on the roadside but that they should take the dwelling and the sewerage tanks off the beach.

The Harbour board guy could see that we were in no mood for compromising any further and went off back to the squatters place.

... at this stage we were feeling generally not too positive.

We waited for around 10 - 15 minutes and saw nothing else and they did not come back. I went to the car to get something and I saw them driving off without coming to talk with us about what was decided. So we were not sure whether they did their job and evicted the squatters off the beach, or they backed off and let them stay.

... at this stage we were feeling even less positive.

So Aree got on the telephone to Poo Yai Wit to ask him to come and see us.

He came about 30 minutes later and was still in the same positive mood that we saw last time. We told him what had happened and said that we now do not know what is happening. He got on the phone to find out.

Evidently the Harbour board issued the papers that gives the squatters around 20 days to remove the tanks and the dwellings off the beach. They did not think it was necessary to come and tell us.

Poo Yai Wit also said that the Tessaban was going to issue similar papers in the next few days regarding the construction on the road. So all but the sala bar should be gone within a month (give or take a few days).

... back to feeling positive again (but in a restrained manner).

It sounds as though things are moving in the right direction but until it actually happens, we will never be sure.

Now our worries have shifted over to the concern about repercussions if and when they actually start to break things. We know that we will get the blame for disrupting their life and causing loss of face and loss of money. Its not a nice feeling having that hanging over us and it means that we still cannot truly relax.

... not sure how we should feel at the moment, give it a day or so.

[GetBackJoJo]

A Ferang friend of mine had a bar with wooden decking that illegaly encroached over Chaweng Lake. We are talking wooden decking..... 2 meteres over the lake. The bar itself had stood on legal land for 3 years. Within 24 hours of the decking installed, tesaban turned up with official papers giving the guy 24 hours to demolish. he didnt. They turned up the next day with more official papers that stated the bar would be property of them if they did not demolish within 24 hours. So he did.

24 hours.

Ferang.

Enough said.

[highdiver]

it amazes me to see some of the posts here by people living in samui showing so much igonrence about Thai Law and practice.

the land in question has 2 duristrictions.

the first what is near the road is under the Tae saban and what is on the beach by the marine police!!

As such there are 2 set of filing complaints:

1 to the marine police about the encorachment on the beach and constrction of septic tanks and rubbish.

2 the enroachment on the land near the road by the tae saban.

what happened untill now is that BBC has pressed a complaint that was passed to the relevant aouthorities by the Poo Yai Ban only after the squatters were given a fair chance to do so by themselves. once the Poo yai ban was notified that the squtters have not obeyed the decision by themselves he took action.

In Thai terms the Poo Yai has given them a chance to reslove this by themselves with a nice compromise of allowing them to keep the small salla. As they did not obey he has pressed charges.

After pressing charges the Aouthorities will come and serve the squatters papers. as they did tody. and gve them anotice to evacuate in 20 days or so. if they fail to do this they will be dealt with the police and may be even prosecuted in court.

so former posts seeking imidiate actions have no idea how things work here. infact they dont even know how it works in the west... in mnay countries evacuating squatters can be a process that can take years.

As for todays events.

The marine police came and spoke with the neigbour who had complained back about the wooden deck. but as it is irelevent to the complaint they served the guy the papers. they did not notify the BBC as they dont need to give the BBC any account fro govermnat actions on goverment land.

the Poo yai ban has also been very nice in coming in after 30 minutes and informing them what is happening.

BBC from the begining of this thread I told you to relax and have faith in the system. it works... sometime slowly but it does.

you realy need to chill our and devote your time to take care of your family and not those squatters. whats the point of fighting with your wife over a land that is not even yours???

dont speak with them and dont answer them and just avoid them.

they will probably try and tease you or cause a provocation to get you involved .... DONT. its not your land and its not your buisness. let the goverment do its job.

[Dingojoe]

this is a very big problem. but BBC has nothing to do with this.

I can understand the frustration of BBC owner but it is not his land and as such he has no claims on the land.

The land as presented in BBC website is a public land boardering his property.the squatters are using the public land.

as such BBc can not do anything apart from complaining that they are squatting on public land.

the fact that those people are own land in Plai lem is not relevent as even big and rich companies use the same tactics to trespass and claim public lands.

It is up to the goverment to resolve this issue using criminal law code and not a civil case code.

I totaly agree with SBK that the Poo Yai Ban has a lot to say and do in such a case. and they will respect his decision.

my advise is to take your lawyer and ask him to set up a meeting with the Poo Yai ban and let him be advised of this squatting.

the Poo yai ban can allso get complaints about this from other neigbours....

A poo yai Ban decision can have effect in later stages.

you can ask your lawyer to advise the Goverment agency that is the owner of the land and its up to them if they take measures or not.

there is a new governor in Surathani that is very keen to show he is doing his job. it may be a good idea to send him a letter about this as well.

the police will not do anything unless the owner of the land (the crown) will file a complaint. and if they do belive me they will move very swiftly.

I fully agree with highdiver and this is the only way to go Mark, heed the above.

But of course it is going to be a very interesting out come.

There is still the possibility that these squatters will be aloud to stay and thats the interesting part of all this, does that then give me the right to get a Samuian partner and build a house on another beach somewhere?

[bbcsamui]

I will keep faith in the system.

On 19 December 2007 Harbour board give about 20 days meaning the squatters should be gone from the beach (not necessarily the side of the road) on or before 7 January 2008.

So until 7 January 2008, we will concentrate on other things like Christmas and New Year and dealing with the daily grind of staff not showing up, suppliers running out of stock, intermittent showers and normal end of year activities like having to renew the liquor and cigarette licenses (- I wonder if Dim bothers with that? ... stop it, forget about them! ... ok, ok - see it is driving me nuts and I even am talking with myself on a forum)

Merry Christmas to all. Drive safely and I wish you all the best for the New Year.

[highdiver]

you are right... however is this not true in any country??

as any locals in any country the locals have a better know how of the law process then the forigner. the forigner being a new comer or a guest tries to avoid problems with the law while locals hilliy bilies or large rich companies will try and get what they feel is up for grabs.

there is no 2 class systems !!!! there is only one law. the locals know it and know where, when and how to abuse it.

is it not same in every country??

part of the big problem with squatting is in the definitions of the land code law. that if you grab a land that is public and hold on to it for long enough with out any one ressisting you can "stake a Claim"for the land.

on the contrary to private land that the owner is aware if someone has invaded his property. the public land are not monitored regulary and some of the squatters do actually get away with staying a long time and making a claim for the land.

many people even if they are local hilliy bilies are aware of this and try to get a way with that.

this by the way this happens in western countries as well.

the problem in Lamai that some local politician is now adverstsing is exactly that. a public land that has been ocupied for so long the owner now has a legal right to claim it eben though by definition its public land he has a legal right to claim it as he has been using it for so long.

due to cases like the above the thai goverment is now very stern about reacting to squatters o public land and specially in Samui and Phuket where many are attempting this.