Condo Owners To Be Better Protected Under The Law.

[Tammi]

I have come to know the following from the Pattaya City Expats' Club.

"The Pattaya City Expats' Club met last Sunday and the featured speaker John Fishback who, after much diligent preparation on the rights and remedies for condominium owners in Thailand gleaned through experience and research, found that Thailand is to adopt a new Condominium Act, which is reportedly going into effect on July 4, 2008. So, John hurriedly worked to get the new Act translated from Thai to English. Although the translation was not completed, John was able to provide an over view of the key changes in the Act.

John noted that the new Act will impact on developers, owners, and renters.

John said the new Act requires the developer to register certain documents at the Land Office including: (a) title documents showing the actual land site and identify commonly owned areas, which must be used for that purpose; diagram showing access to the nearest public road; © sales brochure (John also recommended that it be made an addendum to the sales contract and cautioned that if the developer doesn’t want to do it, you need to seriously reconsider your purchase); and (d) a copy of the condominium regulations.

The new Act requires that each condominium title document identify the ownership ratio based on area rather than price, which some developers have been doing.

The Act also requires an Office be included for the Juristic Person, which represents the condominium as an entity when dealing with others.

The Act also sets forth the minimum number of persons that are to be on the committee representing the owners at 3 with a maximum of 9.

It also sets forth specific requirements for conducting the annual general meeting.

One significant change is that it also requires that monthly financial statements be posted on the condominium bulletin board within a specified number of days after the end of the month and that there be annual audits of the condominium’s financial operations.

John noted that in the past, much of this was governed by the Condominium’s rules and opined that if those rules now conflict with the Act, the Act prevails.

The Act also sets forth the authority of the Committee over the Juristic Manager.

CONDOMINIUM LAW - CONTINUING THE REVIEW & DISCUSSION WITH JOHN FISHBACK IS SCHEDULED FOR WEDNESDAY, APRIL 9 - A continuation of the review of the basic and new Thai law regarding ownership and operations of Condominiums will be held at the Mark-Land Hotel on Wednesday, April 9, 2008 at 1pm in the downstairs Conference Room. Parking is available in the Mark Land's 10 floor parking garage at the back of the hotel. We will have a CONDOMINIUM LAW sign-up sheet for this special meeting - we particularly need to know how many will be attending so we can get a larger room if necessary."

Perhaps under the new Condominium Act that will come into effect on 4 July, 2008, co-owners of condominiums are going to be better protected against knavish developers, committees, juristic person managers, and general managers. Is is good news that accounts must be published every month for all to see.