Condo Problems

[tnewman]

Okay, I'm new to this forum and new to Thailand, having just bought a 2-bed apartment in a newly built condominium in Patong, Phuket. Apologies if I come across as asking daft questions, but as I say, I'm new here. Any advice would be welcome.

Like I said, I bought a new apartment in a condominium block. The building is finished, but almost all the units are still owned by the developer company, and are being rented out. I suspect that the developer did not want to sell all the units in the middle of a market slump and is waiting to sell when the market picks up again, and sold mine and (I think one other) to get some cash in.

I've already run into a few problems. Firstly, I received an invoice from the management company, which appears to be identical to the developer, telling me I needed to pay the management fees up front for the whole year. This contradicted what it said in the sales agreement, which said it would be charged quarterly. When I challenged them on this, it took them about 2 days to get their story straight. Eventually they settled on the matter having been decided by a majority of residents' votes before I bought the place, way back in June 2009. I asked them for minutes of meeting from this decision, and had to ask them several times. After a few days I received from them a hastily-drawn up word document, unsigned, which by the electronic record suggested it was created that afternoon. It listed the developer's representaive, his dad, and business partner (2 Americans and 1 Australian) as being present only in their capacity as shareholders of the developer/management company and owners of the various units. There is no reference to a committee, chairman, manager, etc. When I asked them why the minutes of meeting had only just been drawn up this afternoon, the developer's rep. said they were being translated from Thai. I agreed to pay the money up front, but told them I expect more transparency in future meetings/decisions.

This seems to have pissed them right off, and they decided to submit to me a very amateurish-looking invoice alleging late payment of the final puchase installment. For the sake of this discussion and to keep things simple, let's assume the payment was not late (my lawyer was in charge of the final payment, and it was dependent on a lot of things, such as appointments at various govt. bodies, completion of construction works in the unit, etc. It wasn't late.). I am now concerned they are going to start witholding services because I haven't paid this latest invoice. So I have a few questions addressed to anyone on here who might be able to advise.

1) Is it normal for the developer and management company to be the same company? Is a debt from one transferable to the other, i.e. if there is a dispute related to the purchase of the unit can it be considered to be a debt owed to the management company and therefore they can start withrawing services? I would expect the accounts for each to be separate, but can somebody confirm this?

2) Is it normal for the residents' committee to also be the owners of the management company? I get the impression they demanded the full year's fee from me because as the only independent resident, I was the sole source of outside cash. What is stopping them from increasing the management fee by 100% whenever they feel like it?

3) Is it normal that the minutes of every meeting would be recorded in Thai and they would have to translate them? Or are they, as I suspect, pulling a fast one here?

4) Are they allowed to make a decision, and record it in the minutes, based soley on their being shareholders of the developer/management company and owners? From a brief reading of the Condominium Act, there is supposed to be a committee and a chairman, not just three blokes saying they are the majority owners.

5) The byelaws imply that I am not allowed to rent the apartment. Eg.

Each owner shall occupy his/her unit as a residence for said owner and/or the owner's family (whether related by blood, marriage or adoption). For the purposes of these rules, the word "owner" is taken to mean any person, bona fide beneficiary of a trust, shareholder or executive officer of a corporation, or partner of a partnership, holding legal title to a unit ownership.

Followed by:

No more than one person may occupy the unit with the owner or the owner's family as a nonrental occupant. However, nothing in this provision shall be construed to allow boarding house type arrangements, individual room rental arrangements, student dormitory arrangements, hotel arrangements, transient occupancy for compensation arrangements, and temporary residence exchanges of more than one year, all of which are prohibited regardless of the presence of the owner or the owner's family member.

and:

With respect to hardship situations involving sudden job transfer, sabbaticals, illness entailing an extended stay in a health care institution, or the death of an owner, the Board must grant permission to an owner to lease or rent his/her unit to a specified lessee for a period of not less than six consecutive months nor more than twelve consecutive months, or on such other reasonable terms as the Board may establish

Which I take to mean I can only rent the place out under special circumstances with the Board's (whoever they are) approval. However, the rest of the units are being rented out to tourists both long and short terms like a hotel. Am I right in assuming that having bought the place I can rent it out to whomever I like (within reason)? Or do I need approval from the residents' committee/management company first? Also, to what extent are the byelaws legally binding? What is stopping the management company/resident's committee deciding I am, say, not allowed to install a fixed telephone line in the apartment? Or I'm not allowed to let the mother-in-law stay?

6) To what extent can the management company refuse to cooperate in the maintenance of my apartment? Say I want to change the water heater and need to temporarily turn off the water supply, can they refuse a building contractor access?

I do have a lawyer here, and I am due to meet with him to discuss these issues, but so far his advice seems to be along the lines of Rodney King: can't we all just get along? He has a point, but I need him to represent my interests, not just find a solution whereby I shell out $10k whenever it is demanded and everybody is happy for a month or so.

Any help would be very much appreciated.

Edited March 11, 2010 by tnewman