Condo Complex Is Changing For The Worse

[Kf6vci]

A few years ago, we moved in at www.pgp.co.th in the Don Muang area. Our landlord pays the HOA fee (about 15 and soon 20 Baht per m2). Once a year, lists with apartment numbers and amounts owed are posted in the elevators. How is this issue being dealt with at your condominium?

a) The payers cover the non-payers and over the years and for large condos, this amounts to tens of thousands of Baht which will never be paid by some.

The PM company takes action and ultimately puts a lien against condos.

c) If the PM company isn't paid enough, it would have to fire staff and community bills might remain unpaid. Henceforth my belief that the paying people have to carry the non payers.

d) Those who consider buying a condo should look into this and ask for up to date data on unpaid HOA fees. guess who will have to pay those at the end of the day? Right - that will be you, the buyer!

e) How come so many top floor owners are on the deadbeat list? Are they clever business people who take advantage of an opportunity to save money, making others pay their share? And how does such behavior fit in with the concept of face in Thailand?

A prosperous New Year to All!

Chris

[Pib]

For some people any periodic bill that does not result in an immediate, painful impact if not paid promptly (i.e., like electricity being cut off, being evicted, etc) they are just not going to pay the bill until they have to. They prefer to wait and see if any painful impact actually occurs. I think some people live by the motto of "Pay No Bill Before Its Time and Let's Play the Wait & See Game to See How Long We Can Stretch Out That Time." Then other people just buy over their head. And for those folks who have just walked away from their home or condo investment, they could care less about a monthly association fee because they ain't even paying the monthly mortgage, utility, etc., bill anymore either. Even if they paid cash for the residence they still don't care when they are not living there anymore....guess they figure they will pay all past-due bills/fines/penalties once they sell.

Before I moved to Thailand I owned a single family home in a nice development and that development had a Home Owners Association with monthly fee of $30 (paid quarterly) to maintain the common areas, recreation center/pool, etc. Now although all of the homes were in the $400K to $550K range, probably with most folks paying a $1K to $1.5K monthly mortgage plus another couple hundred for monthly utilities, during the Association's monthly meetings the board would also mention the percentage of homeowners in the rears for payment of the association fee....that percentage was around 5%...with some folks 6-12 months in the rears.

The problem kept getting worst and finally the Association started getting tough on the non/late payers by imposing fines which included notices that liens would be initiated with all lawyer fees paid by the late payer. Before the Association had only been sending notices that they need to pay up or appropriate action would be taken...oooooouuuuu, yawn, the threat of "appropriate" acton. We'll even threat of fines didn't bother some folks and they blew off the threat of a lien....guess they thought the Association would not carry through in applying liens. But the Association did get tough and started issuing liens and even was able to auction one home off. Before I sold my home and moved to Thailand the number/rate of folks in the rears for association fees had went down to less than 1% and was steadily dropping.

Yes, the painful impact came along fairly soon after not paying the periodic bill, so the people started paying the fee on time. But the State I was living in allowed liens to be issued fairly easily and fast so this approach worked; if the country/state/province/city makes issuing a lien a pain/hard to do then such an approach might now work as quickly.

Edited December 28, 2010 by Pib

[trogers]

How is this issue being dealt with at your condominium?

Remember the coffer was empty when residents took over management of the condo in 1998. Developer did not pay his due for unsold units' date=' as well as many buyers - in all, over a third of the units defaulted in payments for over a year or more.

Threatened litigation and actually started filing court cases on amounts over Bt40k from 2000. Now the common funds stand at >Bt10m positive. Juristic managers had to attend court 1-2x a month over a 3-year period.[/b']

[JWJ]

Interest on late fees is 20 % after 6 months. The condo can terminate services, lift, water etc. and collect when the unit eventually sells or a court order foreclosing the unit.

Some owners, like Thai police can be very nasty when asked to pay.