Homeowner'S Association Problems

[parallaxtech]

I live in a community of homeowners where we had to all buy our infrastructure (water pump, transformer, cables, etc.) collectively. The HA manages the water and power bills and charges us each month. We have a contract whereby the owners will maintain the equipment, but a few times a year the HA hands us a bill for fixing the water pump or electrical transformer. It's just one Thai woman running the HA and she usually follows up the bill with a threat to turn off our electric and water. I got sick of it last year as I knew there were no repairs and told her to stick it, and she didn't do anything. This year I got our group together and suggested we all ignore the bills. The others are worried that she may try something so voted just to pay her with the caveat that she advise one of us beforehand of the equipment problem so that we can have it fixed. The current bill is for 4000B each. The question is since I paid up my electrical bill does she have the right to turn off my electric?

Edited March 3, 2012 by parallaxtech

[4evermaat]

Why not dissolve the homeowners association, or change by-laws so that each person is responsible for their own house repairs?

"2nd best time to plant a tree is today." Sent from TV android app.

[ROBINPATTAYA]

Why don't you have a Juristic running your village? Then you are covered on every aspect of the daily running of the village. The Chairperson or company in charge must report with financials every year & be responsible for the collection of all monies & the expenditure of same. I don't know how many people are involved but where I live we have over 150 homes.

It costs about thb30,000-40,000 to setup from memory, you must be registered with the local authorities & are actually a company. That is why there is total acountability of every baht taken in & spent.

Perhaps the initial cost may be worth the ongoing peace.

Cheers

[onlycw]

You have to audit these "expenses". Nice rounded up amounts are a dead giveaway of fraud. Transformers come with a warranty, as do water pumps.

Here where I rent an apartment near my place of work, the kw/h is "6 Baht" and the water is "100 Baht per person". Stuff like that irritates me.

My HOA (for a condo) fails to collect from all owners!! Since they need money to continue, those who are decent get shafted and hit with the unpaid bills by the deadbeats.

When irregularities surface, the Thai way has been a quick resignation. I would suggest you all remove this lady. And audit her expenses! If necessary, hire an engineer to check whether pumps had bearings replaced and transformers had any work performed.

Check if all members got the same bills. As 4,000 Baht times 60 or whatever is a very high amount. And the lady might just bill a select few foreign suckers...

Chris

[rfukata]

how detailed is the Homeowners - so called maintenance contract, is it a signed contract amongst the owners?

if it is legit - the so called association should presents a financial/budget type report semi or annually.

-charge for water pump? or is it a huge water tank sitting on the property common area-which needs

scheduled maintenance?

I live in a western type Moo Bahn with approx. 60 homes; we have an association made up of the

residents-but it is all voluntary work from our resident home owners.

Our association volunteer presents each of us a financial/budget report annually.

We do have our problems too; as ONLYCW noted;

"My HOA (for a condo) fails to collect from all owners!! Since they need money to continue, those who are decent get shafted and hit with the unpaid bills by the deadbeats."

There are always as- holes who shaft and spoil your investment.

[parallaxtech]

Thanks for the responses. I think it would be very difficult to remove this lady as she is making more than the Pattaya jetski mafia. The other owners are scared not to pay so just pay up. We have a poorly written (English) contract. There is no audit or meetings or budget. I think I have a better shot at going to the Tesebahn and filing a complaint or even letting my Thai wife do it. They may force her to justify the expenses. I have called engineers over and they have verified that no work was done so I know it's a scam. Like I said I haven't paid the last few maintenance bills and she hasn't turned anything off. I am just concerned about what to do if she does.

Edited March 4, 2012 by parallaxtech

[miksguevara]

don't back down with this, if you get the support of the village you can remove her..follow the above post on getting a juristic running the village...sounds like she has a nice little earner going on , do you want to carry on paying this woman for nothing forever or are you all going to grow a collective pair of bolloxxs and do smething about it...course she might get a bit mad so what..

[miksguevara]

I know this can be done because we 'removed' the lady in charge of a place we used to live at,she wasn't scamming on the level that your parasite is but we are pretty sure the money she earn't was nicely subsidizing her lifestyle...she wasn't to plzed after the event lolz

Edited March 5, 2012 by miksguevara