harris campaign, clean up on aisle Electoral College

[looby]

Have some interesting information regarding the village, only of interest to those who have bought there or are in the process of buying there.

[redman]

OK, I'll buy into your mystery post. My friend has just pulled out at the last minute from buying there, but he is back in Oz so I never found out why

[looby]

hi there

i don't mean it as a mystery post, just only relevant to someone in this position. we are in the process of buying and due to what our legal adviser calls a 'trick' we may end up having to take them to court as they are trying to wangle and extra 25% on the price agreed.

i know that one other person has been caught out by them so far, there may be others and others who are buying should be warned.

they certainly ruined our christmas day!!

[soundman]

Please post news reports, verifyable facts or personal observations.

Do not post hearsay, & rumour.

Thankyou.

[prefabs]

hi there

i don't mean it as a mystery post, just only relevant to someone in this position. we are in the process of buying and due to what our legal adviser calls a 'trick' we may end up having to take them to court as they are trying to wangle and extra 25% on the price agreed.

i know that one other person has been caught out by them so far, there may be others and others who are buying should be warned.

they certainly ruined our christmas day!!

Louise, Unless you have put a lot of money into it so far, my advice would be to walk away from it. Looks like just one more Pattaya scam. Going to court will probably involve some or all of the following aspects.

1. Costly (lawyer fees + court fees with no guarantee of success. PM me and I will give you some ideas of costs involved)

2. Take years to complete (Lawyers will always tell you that you will win in a few months, don't bank on it. Plus the "appeals" procedures which certainly follow)

3. Be aware of certain threats, imagined or real.

4. Would you really want to stay somewhere you had to fight for? This is not England.

Realities of Life, I am afraid

[looby]

Please post news reports, verifyable facts or personal observations.

Do not post hearsay, & rumour.

Thankyou.

agreeing to buy 64.34 sq wah and then being told that the land size has increased to 88.50 sq wah and we MUST purchase it at 20,000 bhat per sq wah is not hearsay or rumour, but something that is happening to us right now and has already happened to one other person that we know of (this is a development with very few houses built as yet).

[prefabs]

Please post news reports, verifyable facts or personal observations.

Do not post hearsay, & rumour.

Thankyou.

agreeing to buy 64.34 sq wah and then being told that the land size has increased to 88.50 sq wah and we MUST purchase it at 20,000 bhat per sq wah is not hearsay or rumour, but something that is happening to us right now and has already happened to one other person that we know of (this is a development with very few houses built as yet).

once again. Walk Away. Your lawyer is obviously not working for you. We once looked at a house in a new village, everything was going smoothly. Price suddenly shot up because the house came with NOT A SINGLE SQUARE METER of land. Soon as you opened the front door to go outside, the price was 20,000/sq m whichever way you looked. Developers around Pattaya are feeling the pinch and trying to do everything they can to maximise their profits. ANd where does the MUST come in? Have you already put down a big deposit?

[LennyW]

I have seen a lot of the advertising leaflets for housing projects over the years which usually list the payment terms, on there always seems to be the statement "...additional land will be chardged at...."

I was told the reason is that, until the developer has the actual Chanote in his hand (which can be some months after the start of construction) then the land area with the house is "near", although the example in this case does not seem "near" 64 v 88??

A lot of people dont know, but it is very easy to get the land office to come out to verify the chanote pin numbers and land area - for a small fee of course!!, certainly would not want to rely on a lawyer for that sort of verification.

Good luck.

[looby]

Hi thanks for this advice, we stand to lose about £6k if we walk away, but am very very dubious about throwing good money after bad.

We were told the clause was quite normal with an expectancy of 1/2 sq wah difference, but 24!!!

Cannot for one second understand the mentality of thai business people, less people charge more! Think they will find out that it doesn't work like that, when lots of people stop coming and stop spending money. Think Pattaya will be a different place before too long with lots of business closeures. (That's my personal observtion/opinion anyway)

Hopefully this may stop someone else getting bitten though.

[angelolee]

I've been reading through your story understading both your consumer right point of view and their developing business conditions. Not only in Pattaya but most of the Asian countries are like this. However, 24 sq. wah is not just a small piece of land you can ignore. Have you discussed with the developer about this unacceptable error? I think they would probably offer you some other options to soothe you. How do they response to this problem?

In my opinion, this is your great chance to negociate for a better deal, since this is their mistake. If they really intend to trick you or fail to compromise with you, I'd be utterly sorry suggesting you to... walk away. It's just not worth to fight. For now, I suggest you to be optimistic... There are great chances in great crisis. Good luck...

[MeetJohnDoe]

Funny that...I once had a developer offer me more land when he was trying to get me to buy in his moobaan. The plot was at the end of a road and he offered to cut-off some of the road's end and add it to my land (as it just went parallel to my land and dead-ended at the perimeter wall

[Woofer]

I would be very careful with this developer as she built our village near Grand Hillside. We had to pay for an extra 3 wah of land, which was not big deal.

Our main complaint with the developer is that she does not pay for the maintenance of her unsold houses, which are about 12 on village of 72. It has been almost four years since the village was built, so we consider it about time she started paying for some maintenance. This year she cut down the security staff down from 4 to two, even though we have had a lot of security problems. She claims we can not longer afford 4 security guards.

Edited November 2, 2010 by Rimmer
Heresay

[looby]

Just to update the position.

We have tried to negotiate with the developer, but she never turned up for any meetings. She did suggest that they could cut some of the land off at the front of the house, meaning that in fact we wouldn't actually be able to get to our front door!!

That was the only suggestion, which was useless and still left the plot considerably larger than that agreed.

Incidentally the house was not completed by the agreed date either and when we last looked before we came it was still not finished (April and should have been ompleted in january).

My advice, seriously here, is to steer clear. I very much doubt the estate would be completed in 5 years time as they are only building as and when the plots are sold, so could end up with a house on an estate that faces non completion.

Still no money back, of course!!

[looby]

Dear Louise I so sorry to answer your email late,about GRAND HILL VILLAGE. I go to talk with khun Kae new salesman. and I inform a problem is dissatisfied of house you buy.Khun kae take a story and inform give project owner know. project owner need to talk with you again. by claim old salesman resign be finished, and be wrong sale house for customer. Model a house has you seserve can't build at area. At project owner give you chang to reserve the area other replace,In the project no have policy pay money back for the customer. At project owner claim to the mistake and can't communicate give you to understand. and need you to go and talk with you again, now in the project have new salesman foreigner can speak and communicate with the foreigner. If you are not dissatisfied to change, I advise you to go to the court for call tor all your money returns Regards suthipong

So this is the reply from our solicitor, in other words forget it!! What a surprise.There is no way we would waste further money taking anyone to court in Thailand.

Has anyone at all not lost money when dealing with property purchase??!! Just spoken to a friend who has returned from Thailand and they lost over £20,000 and still saw the builder driving round in his massive car.

[gmac]

Dear Louise I so sorry to answer your email late,about GRAND HILL VILLAGE. I go to talk with khun Kae new salesman. and I inform a problem is dissatisfied of house you buy.Khun kae take a story and inform give project owner know. project owner need to talk with you again. by claim old salesman resign be finished, and be wrong sale house for customer. Model a house has you seserve can't build at area. At project owner give you chang to reserve the area other replace,In the project no have policy pay money back for the customer. At project owner claim to the mistake and can't communicate give you to understand. and need you to go and talk with you again, now in the project have new salesman foreigner can speak and communicate with the foreigner. If you are not dissatisfied to change, I advise you to go to the court for call tor all your money returns Regards suthipong

So this is the reply from our solicitor, in other words forget it!! What a surprise.There is no way we would waste further money taking anyone to court in Thailand.

Has anyone at all not lost money when dealing with property purchase??!! Just spoken to a friend who has returned from Thailand and they lost over £20,000 and still saw the builder driving round in his massive car.

Admittedly the English is not clear but I don't read this the same as you. To my mind it is possible they are trying to say that they unable to change the area of the plot for the particular house you reserved, presumably due to its location amidst other plots, but it might be possible to change to a different house in the village built on a smaller plot. Not every developer is out to get you, with these Thai builders there is a lot of scope for misunderstandings with both sides not really hearing what the other is saying. Good luck.

[MeetJohnDoe]

Has anyone at all not lost money when dealing with property purchase??!! Just spoken to a friend who has returned from Thailand and they lost over £20,000 and still saw the builder driving round in his massive car.

Yes...I know lots...including me! Of course, most of these folks are long-term expats, who lived in Thailand full-time and rented for years (and got their "This legs") before making a major purchase like a house. None of us were recently arrived retirees or "two-week millionaires" who rushed into making this purchase.

[looby]

A very belated update on this situation, but just to know how things are.

A solicitor very kindly offered to pursue this for us, we would definitely win and we would get our money back, so I suggested that we would not pay a fee upfront but would instead pay 10% of any money he got back for us (well in excess of the fee he suggested|), but guess what??? Wasn't interested in the case any more?

Have also been told that our estate agents, Town & Country, should have checked the Chanote for us BEFORE we signed anything, but I do know they got their commission even though sale not completed. Very disappointing.

Still love Thailand, but the blinkers are off!!

Been back to see partially bujilt house. Estate far from completed, hardly any houses and only the swimming pool been worked on.

[neilf]

ok first of all lets assume the lawyer is working for you and the developer and more for the developer than you------------how did you find the lawyer-----------lawyers have to have a law degree and be recognised by the thai equivalent of the uk law society

it is illegal for them to practice without this

so find a way of checking-------------poss 1337 in pattaya for info re. the lawyers body prob in bkk or see a lawyer here for advice-----------the one on thepprasit where the market is-----------wirchapoon or similar--------cant find name but am sure someone knows who i mean has advised in a newspaper that a lawyer must be reg with the thai bar as it is known

so if your lawyer was or is working illegally follow it up and see if anything changes

look out for 2 men in black on a motorbike with no number plate dont forget