Boundary Dispute - A National Thai Sport?

[lazyguy]

my Thai wife has bought a small piece of land on KP before we have married. next to our land a Thai

familiy has bought a plot as well. when we went for an extended trip of four months to Europe and

came back we could not found any Chanote pins on our land anymore but therefore the back wall of

a newly built house on which we assumed was the boundary to the neighbouring land.

own measurements have confirmed our suggestion. the roof of neighbours house is sticking for about

1m on a length of 10m onto our land. no big problem if we both would have big plots but they´re both

under 400sqm each.

however, we have recently announced to the neighbour to apply for new measurement by the land

department as we do not see our Chanote pins anymore. and then the trouble began:

after Khun x was exposing his unbelieve that his house could have been built on the boundary to our

land he told my wife that she better respect his social position (being "greng djai") rather than ordering

the land department for new Chanote plot set out.

we have a date for new land measuring in the third week of September. if you notice a story popping

up about a blood bath over a boundary dispute between a Thai and a Thai/Farang party it was probably

us and most likely as victims.

nice, we just thought that this would be the better environment for our son to grow up rather than the

rental house we are staying long time already.

any suggestions how to prevent a blood bath in 3 weeks?

[churchill]

If you have a Chanode there can be no argument - you should not worry - Your bounderies are set and cannot be moved .

and so speak to a lawyer if it is not resolved amicably .

Edited August 30, 2009 by churchill

[Lite Beer]

Moved to here. Hopefully you will get some expert help.

[Jose]

Koh Pha-Ngan is a lawless remote outpost - don't expect much help from police to enforce the law of the land here, even with new Chanote pins in place.

I would be giving some serious consideration to this thought:

With the potential for escalation of tensions being in place (and unlikely going to go away in the longer term), do I really want to build my house here, with my family living in fear under such aggravating conditions?

[yabaaaa]

my Thai wife has bought a small piece of land on KP before we have married. next to our land a Thai

familiy has bought a plot as well. when we went for an extended trip of four months to Europe and

came back we could not found any Chanote pins on our land anymore but therefore the back wall of

a newly built house on which we assumed was the boundary to the neighbouring land.

own measurements have confirmed our suggestion. the roof of neighbours house is sticking for about

1m on a length of 10m onto our land. no big problem if we both would have big plots but they´re both

under 400sqm each.

however, we have recently announced to the neighbour to apply for new measurement by the land

department as we do not see our Chanote pins anymore. and then the trouble began:

after Khun x was exposing his unbelieve that his house could have been built on the boundary to our

land he told my wife that she better respect his social position (being "greng djai") rather than ordering

the land department for new Chanote plot set out.

we have a date for new land measuring in the third week of September. if you notice a story popping

up about a blood bath over a boundary dispute between a Thai and a Thai/Farang party it was probably

us and most likely as victims.

nice, we just thought that this would be the better environment for our son to grow up rather than the

rental house we are staying long time already.

any suggestions how to prevent a blood bath in 3 weeks?

Happens all over the world from stupid cases in the UK over 1 inch strips of land to huge losses.

I can never understand some folks point of view.

[PoorSucker]

Sell the plot to a local Thai.

You can not win this battle.

[Daffy D]

I have always maintained that the first thing to do with a plot of land is build your own boundary wall.

Edited September 1, 2009 by Daffy D

[katabeachbum]

my Thai wife has bought a small piece of land on KP before we have married. next to our land a Thai

familiy has bought a plot as well. when we went for an extended trip of four months to Europe and

came back we could not found any Chanote pins on our land anymore but therefore the back wall of

a newly built house on which we assumed was the boundary to the neighbouring land.

own measurements have confirmed our suggestion. the roof of neighbours house is sticking for about

1m on a length of 10m onto our land. no big problem if we both would have big plots but they´re both

under 400sqm each.

however, we have recently announced to the neighbour to apply for new measurement by the land

department as we do not see our Chanote pins anymore. and then the trouble began:

after Khun x was exposing his unbelieve that his house could have been built on the boundary to our

land he told my wife that she better respect his social position (being "greng djai") rather than ordering

the land department for new Chanote plot set out.

we have a date for new land measuring in the third week of September. if you notice a story popping

up about a blood bath over a boundary dispute between a Thai and a Thai/Farang party it was probably

us and most likely as victims.

nice, we just thought that this would be the better environment for our son to grow up rather than the

rental house we are staying long time already.

any suggestions how to prevent a blood bath in 3 weeks?

offer them to buy the land. If no response, sell to someone else. survival.

or fight. Nomally a policecase, but they probably wont even file a report without teamoney.

[Gary A]

My wife has two rai where the house is built. The chanote shows the boundaries as straight lines. The concrete marker along the road had been moved towards our house about two meters. we were in the process of building a wall. I told my wife to call the surveyor but she talked to the neighbor instead. He insisted the marker was where it was supposed to be. Rather than start a fight, my wife had the wall built from the marker despite my objections. She told me the guy stole that land and every time he or anyone else looks at the dogleg in the wall, he and they will know he stole that land from us.

[lazyguy]

Koh Pha-Ngan is a lawless remote outpost

agreed! so far I have enjoyed it for the last years :-)

don't expect much help from police to enforce the law of the land here, even with new Chanote pins in place.

POLICE? only in Europe you call the police your friend & helper and in many cases even thats not true anymore.

I would be giving some serious consideration to this thought:

With the potential for escalation of tensions being in place (and unlikely going to go away in the longer term), do I really want to build my house here, with my family living in fear under such aggravating conditions?

I think I should simply blow him away before things are coming to escalation. then his family wont be having enough money to pay the bank back the loan for the land and after a year my wife will buy his land for peanuts from the bank. that would be a very efficiant Thai style variation of solving two problems in one go. as police presence is indeed not really given here and the quality of their investigations are in fact depending on a cryptic formular made out of the grade of public interest, the current amount of public bribed black money of tourist tickets for driving without helmet, the quality of food on the day the case will be filed at the police station and the quality of sex the day before and - of course - the position of the moon.

damned good chances to get away with it!

well, of course I am kidding. I would let a gunman do the dirty part of the enterprise. of course.

[lazyguy]

Happens all over the world from stupid cases in the UK over 1 inch strips of land to huge losses.

I can never understand some folks point of view.

me neither...

[lazyguy]

I have always maintained that the first thing to do with a plot of land is build your own boundary wall.

true, but was not possible with our land as we only have a 5.6m entrance from the road which now is at a level of 3 meters only 4.6m

wide as neighbours roof is lapping 1m over. the wall towards the other land has been built already but could not be built on the entrance

side as it was planned that trucks pass through to deliver building material.

with a bit of luck and a low Laowkaow level it might be possible for truck drivers to set back carefully without damaging anything but

I am afraid the crane which will put the concrete panels for the second floor up will most probably leave very ugly marks an his back

wall if not - accidently of course - break through.

[Big Guy]

Go to the land office to get it sorted out, they will deal with the problem, and if he is on your land will make a ruling on what has to be done, most often he has to reimburse you for the land taken and new chanotes done

[Daffy D]

Unfortunately it's not always practical or desirable to build a boundary wall. But if one is to be built anyway I would do it first as this will raise any possible disputes and it's better and cheaper to argue over a wall than a newly built house.

A solid wall can't be mysteriously moved overnight like those boundary markers and any overlapping roof is easily noticed.

Also should any access or right of way over your land be disputed it is better to sort it with a wall before building the house and then finding out there is an ancient tradition of gathering coconuts or using well water or something similar.

Also you should have less snakes about with a high wall as they can only get in through the main gate.

[maccaroni man]

Go to the land office to get it sorted out, they will deal with the problem, and if he is on your land will make a ruling on what has to be done, most often he has to reimburse you for the land taken and new chanotes done

agree and the tesabon (sp) has very clear rules on how close a structure can be to the lands boundry i.e. 2meters for a building etc... so it looks like your neighbor is way out of order so let the govt offices do their work, it will take tea money to get them out there quickly but it will happen either way.

[katabeachbum]

Go to the land office to get it sorted out, they will deal with the problem, and if he is on your land will make a ruling on what has to be done, most often he has to reimburse you for the land taken and new chanotes done

agree and the tesabon (sp) has very clear rules on how close a structure can be to the lands boundry i.e. 2meters for a building etc... so it looks like your neighbor is way out of order so let the govt offices do their work, it will take tea money to get them out there quickly but it will happen either way.

hehehehe, tessabaan and landoffice helping a farang to fight a local hotshot. I bet Tabien Baan has already been issued.

[yarm]

I have always maintained that the first thing to do with a plot of land is build your own boundary wall.

not so sure it will work in thailand.......

[lazyguy]

CASE DISMISSED

the new survey has clearly shown, that ca. 30% of my neighbours entire house is on our land

but as this corner of our plot has two Chanote posts one can belive (or not) that my neighbour

was not aware of it. however, he had built too close to our land even from his first perspective.

in the end of the day (nearly 4 hours team sweating) we sold a strip of 40sqm of our tiny land

for redicolous cheap money to our beloved neighbours to seal peace of mind and a happy future

for everybody.

thanks to maccaroni man for your wise words and suggestions, entirely true. thank you also to

the competent and friendly surveyor of the Koh Phangan land department which has fundamentally

recreated my faith into this specific authority in case of boundry disputes.

I learned that marking your land clearly (fence, bamboo/wood-patchwork, LEGO bricks, wall, etc.)

is as cruicial as to clearly know where the Chanote pins of your land are. being a lazyguy/girl in

observing and keeping up with this has cost us 40sqm land which would be ten times more worth

in life quality than the natural rise of it's financial value over the time.

[Lite Beer]

Well done . Happy you got it sorted amicably .

[stevejones123]

When I bought land in Sri Lanka the first thing my lawyer told me after the contract was signed was build a boundary wall. Only problem of course is a foreigner doesn't just want a wall of breezeblocks (looks ugly) so you have to plaster it, and then paint it. Bloody wall ended up costing 75% the cost of the land!