Deposit Refund - Ao Por, Phuket Plot

[tpkhk]

On June 3rd, working with a real estate agent (global firm with local offices), I was introduced to a development in Ao Por, Phuket. The development was founded by a North American, and located right next door to the Supalai/Best Western on the East Coast of Phuket.

The development is set up so that one leases/purchases the land, and then works with an independent project manager, architect, contractor etc. to put up the structure.

As a condition of progressing the fact find - eg. meeting with the bangkok based project manager, the architect etc - I was told that I would need to put down a "refundable" deposit of 200K Baht. Given the assurance from the real estate agent, and the fact that the developer seemed to project a professional image, I went ahead with the deposit.

On June 3rd, I transferred the funds across. By June 11th, having met the Project Manager, contractor, it was clear that the total spend would exceed our budget by a fair bit - and we decided not to proceed. The developer agreed, via email, to refund the deposit. However, it is now going on a month and no transfers yet. I would guess that it is a cash flow issue from their end.

The real estate agent has been trying to chase it as well.

Appreciate any advice. Any legal actions I could take? ie. beyond hiring a law firm to write a demand letter. Obviously, don't want to spend more than I'll collect.

Thanks in advance

PS - If the forum rules allow me to post the development / website happy to do so, will probably help someone else from making the same mistake.

[tpkhk]

Got my deposit refunded today - less 10K baht - considering the developer's difficulty in sending the money, a pretty good outcome.

Had to write to all levels of management at the realtor organization in Thailand and to the US. The "how well we know the developer" claims all seemed to vanish when it came to retrieving the funds. Odd considering, the realtor manages at least one of the properties and continues to market three of them.

Emailed a few law firms - basically a demand letter costs around 5K Baht, court filings would have taken it to a further 30K baht. It is impossible to collect anything from the developer since they have no obligation to help you collect the deposit back. Perhaps a good idea to insist on a sideletter - a good test of their confidence in having potential buyers placing deposits.

Hope this of some help to someone out there.

[donx]

Got my deposit refunded today - less 10K baht - considering the developer's difficulty in sending the money, a pretty good outcome.

Had to write to all levels of management at the realtor organization in Thailand and to the US. The "how well we know the developer" claims all seemed to vanish when it came to retrieving the funds. Odd considering, the realtor manages at least one of the properties and continues to market three of them.

Emailed a few law firms - basically a demand letter costs around 5K Baht, court filings would have taken it to a further 30K baht. It is impossible to collect anything from the developer since they have no obligation to help you collect the deposit back. Perhaps a good idea to insist on a sideletter - a good test of their confidence in having potential buyers placing deposits.

Hope this of some help to someone out there.

Glad to hear you got almost all of your money back.

[tpkhk]

Sorry, correction, meant to write:

Near impossible to sue the "real estate" agency, to recover all or part of the deposit .... since their role is limited to just making an introduction.

I suppose the only way to get around this is to get them to sign a separate letter - which in all probability no agency will want to do.

Thx