Legal Proceeedings Against Developer

[Dinosaw]

Without attracting proceedings for breach of copyright, I have copied and pasted the plea from another member ofthe forum

"Can anyone tell me or give me any hints, advice or contacts in respect of the procedure to take a farang building developer to the Civil courts for breach of contract" Can anyone share their experiences with me? Are things lost in interpretation? Can the judiciary be trusted? How much would it cost, how long would it take and what are the possible outcomes? Can an action be taken by a private individual (similar to a minor claims court in the UK) or do you need to employ the services of a lawyer? PM's welcome."

I get the impression from the forum that developers and their agents in Hua Hin are all crooks .... is it possible to get a property finished ?

[johnnyk]

Yes, many are being enjoyed as you speak.

[taxexile]

there is a thai who runs a local free news sheet , the hua hin hotline ( 032 530 311 , 032 530 313) , he's called khun tuck , and he claims to be a mediator between disgruntled purchasers and developers who dont stick to their contract.

if you can believe what you read in that paper one or two developers have actually been taken to court and ordered to compensate purchasers.

maybe you should contact him.

[hhfarang]

Without attracting proceedings for breach of copyright, I have copied and pasted the plea from another member ofthe forum

"Can anyone tell me or give me any hints, advice or contacts in respect of the procedure to take a farang building developer to the Civil courts for breach of contract" Can anyone share their experiences with me? Are things lost in interpretation? Can the judiciary be trusted? How much would it cost, how long would it take and what are the possible outcomes? Can an action be taken by a private individual (similar to a minor claims court in the UK) or do you need to employ the services of a lawyer? PM's welcome."

I get the impression from the forum that developers and their agents in Hua Hin are all crooks .... is it possible to get a property finished ?

They are not all crooks but there definitely some. From what I have been able to determine over the last few years, a court battle here, especially among two foreigners, could last ten years and then still not get settled. That's why at least two of the builders here have been "alleged" to say to their clients "so sue me" when the builder blatantly did not live up to the contract. They know that a law suit will probably never come to any conclusion and that the buyer will eventually give up or run out of money to pay their lawyer.

I believe that if you get cheated, you have no real recourse here. I've seen it happen to many, many people over the last four years so you are better off to do a lot of research on the front end before you commit your hard earned cash, and then, if you do make a mistake, make the best of it and call it a learning experience like I did.

[malcolminthemiddle]

Off topic posts deleted. This is not the place for a virtual feud.

[Moonfruit]

There are shisters the world over in all businesses. Its just that those in real estate get the worst press because its the biggest investment.

For sure there are a few dodgy developers around, but here are also good developers too. There is one Thai company in particular who i consider to be way better than any developer where i am from back in the UK.

Also, the Thai legal system is way more fair than people give it credit for. As foreigners, we just dont exploit it, and im sure that our Thai hosts like it that way. A good friend of mine (he is American)recently sued a naughty "Kunying" in a fair case and was awarded a settlement in Bangkok.

[cheshiremusicman]

Without attracting proceedings for breach of copyright, I have copied and pasted the plea from another member ofthe forum

"Can anyone tell me or give me any hints, advice or contacts in respect of the procedure to take a farang building developer to the Civil courts for breach of contract" Can anyone share their experiences with me? Are things lost in interpretation? Can the judiciary be trusted? How much would it cost, how long would it take and what are the possible outcomes? Can an action be taken by a private individual (similar to a minor claims court in the UK) or do you need to employ the services of a lawyer? PM's welcome."

I get the impression from the forum that developers and their agents in Hua Hin are all crooks .... is it possible to get a property finished ?

I can't give you chapter and verse on this, but I was told by a friend of mine who is in the process of suing a 'developer' here in Hua-hin, that his lawyer has told him that he should wait until August this year to proceed, as there is a new law that will get cases to court very speedily and is 'designed to address the present problems of suing builders & developers' just saying 'Well go on a sue me!'. As stated by a previous post - they know that they can wear you down with delay after delay etc and it can take years to get them into court.

I will contact the lawyer and try to find out what exactly he was refering to and come back to the forum with any news.

Let us all hope that this has some 'TEETH' and a blxxdy big bite!

Edited June 6, 2008 by cheshiremusicman

[taxexile]

this weeks "hua hin hotline" prints a letter from its publisher saying that due to threats from the publisher of the only other english paper in hua hin , and requests from thai officials to "be mild on a matter concerning one of the largest developments in hua hin" they will now stop printing letters of complaints from disgruntled property purchasers.

[hhfarang]

this weeks "hua hin hotline" prints a letter from its publisher saying that due to threats from the publisher of the only other english paper in hua hin , and requests from thai officials to "be mild on a matter concerning one of the largest developments in hua hin" they will now stop printing letters of complaints from disgruntled property purchasers.

I was told that they also caved to pressure from builders and estate agents that threatened to pull their advertising if they continued printing the disgruntled expat letters... no proof of this but was told that by an advertiser in the paper who knows the owner.

[jayhech]

this weeks "hua hin hotline" prints a letter from its publisher saying that due to threats from the publisher of the only other english paper in hua hin , and requests from thai officials to "be mild on a matter concerning one of the largest developments in hua hin" they will now stop printing letters of complaints from disgruntled property purchasers.

I was told that they also caved to pressure from builders and estate agents that threatened to pull their advertising if they continued printing the disgruntled expat letters... no proof of this but was told that by an advertiser in the paper who knows the owner.

It makes sense, doesn't it? Besides the developers there are real estate agents that don't want any disputes to this industry. And don't forget the local agents and land owners who feed land and houses to established agents (those with buildings and names in front of their shops). They'll be really pissed they can't make any money. People there became wealthy recently mainly deal with land.

As for the Thai officials, they want to keep Hua Hin as pretty as it is viewed still by many people. After all, if there's no tourism there's only fishing left.

The reason why they want to call their papers "good news" papers is because there's no news at all. No news distortion guaranteed 100% because there's "nothing" to distort about. There's no bad developer as there's no prostitution in Soi Bintabaht. Who wants bad names for the city they govern? No matter what it takes, Hua Hin has to stay "nice".

Edited June 8, 2008 by jayhech

[jayhech]

this weeks "hua hin hotline" prints a letter from its publisher saying that due to threats from the publisher of the only other english paper in hua hin , and requests from thai officials to "be mild on a matter concerning one of the largest developments in hua hin" they will now stop printing letters of complaints from disgruntled property purchasers.

Or the other way around. There's no threat or request, it's just that he simply can't help or doesn't wanna help anymore.

There are owners of newspapers or printing outlets that I know who have motives of publishing rather than to just simply reporting news and events and make money out of advertising spaces. And I know very well that at least these two have interests that's not reporting news (which I think there's nothing wrong with it). My point to this post is there're always more than one angles to a story.

[PaulaBHH]

Yes there are always "two sides to a story"but that does not mean in some of these cases that both are right in their owen way surely? I have just taken the brungt of an ex-pat from Pattaya advertising he has 20 years experience who basically has "shafted me of 5m baht!" where is the "other side of the stoery". Constantly (with experience he said) demanding more money sent from the UK to hurry things up and the normal "slow" progess thai government officials (he said) make on purpose, he and his former thai wife (now busines partner) have falsified paperwork and workers time sheets to present to me for further funds only to pocket the residue of monies themselves. He is now in England purporting to be recuperating from illness and unavailable in a norther thai village. This is not true. His former thai wife and now newly made managing director of his company feins illness regularly along with wild acculade stories. With the help of a very honest and surprisingly guilt ridden thai worker I have now been able to establish this ex-pat has duped and swindled me of money - why on earth should they be shielded from ther press? It is my opinion that Forums serve a very important purpose in any community, in any country to alert people of the dangers, not always of the native inhabitants but of their own kind! I am at my wits end not nowing where to turn and how to sue so any assistance would be greatly appreciated.

Resident in Huan Hin.

Yes there are always "two sides to a story"but that does not mean in some of these cases that both are right in their owen way surely? I have just taken the brungt of an ex-pat from Pattaya advertising he has 20 years experience who basically has "shafted me of 5m baht!" where is the "other side of the stoery". Constantly (with experience he said) demanding more money sent from the UK to hurry things up and the normal "slow" progess thai government officials (he said) make on purpose, he and his former thai wife (now busines partner) have falsified paperwork and workers time sheets to present to me for further funds only to pocket the residue of monies themselves. He is now in England purporting to be recuperating from illness and unavailable in a norther thai village. This is not true. His former thai wife and now newly made managing director of his company feins illness regularly along with wild acculade stories. With the help of a very honest and surprisingly guilt ridden thai worker I have now been able to establish this ex-pat has duped and swindled me of money - why on earth should they be shielded from ther press? It is my opinion that Forums serve a very important purpose in any community, in any country to alert people of the dangers, not always of the native inhabitants but of their own kind! I am at my wits end not nowing where to turn and how to sue so any assistance would be greatly appreciated. Resident in Huan Hin.

this weeks "hua hin hotline" prints a letter from its publisher saying that due to threats from the publisher of the only other english paper in hua hin , and requests from thai officials to "be mild on a matter concerning one of the largest developments in hua hin" they will now stop printing letters of complaints from disgruntled property purchasers.

Or the other way around. There's no threat or request, it's just that he simply can't help or doesn't wanna help anymore.

There are owners of newspapers or printing outlets that I know who have motives of publishing rather than to just simply reporting news and events and make money out of advertising spaces. And I know very well that at least these two have interests that's not reporting news (which I think there's nothing wrong with it). My point to this post is there're always more than one angles to a story.

[klikster]

With the help of a very honest and surprisingly guilt ridden thai worker I have now been able to establish this ex-pat has duped and swindled me of money - why on earth should they be shielded from ther press? It is my opinion that Forums serve a very important purpose in any community, in any country to alert people of the dangers, not always of the native inhabitants but of their own kind!

They are shielded because they pay to be shielded.

More than one forum are really advertising vehicles for developers .. including scam artists .. and the forums know that. Why? Money talks.

If it were me, I would cite facts and name names (and companies). However, if you plan to take legal action, it would probably be best to go public after the lawsuit has been resolved.

Find a competent attorney .. perhaps from the US Embassy website .. and sue them. Otherwise, they will simply do the same thing to someone else.

Edited June 22, 2008 by klikster