Reading Thai Survey Plans

[outdoorbloke]

Hi All

My Girl is planing on buying some land and she has sent me a copy of the survey but I have no idea how to convert it to meters I am trying to work out the boundary sizes in meters so that can put it into my house design program.

Also does any one know the building regulations in Thailand for the required house setback from boundary's and roads etc

[seaeagle]

My God - soooo narrow!! Is that a plot of land, or a road?

Even without knowing the dimensions, you look as if you're going to be stuffed trying to build a nice place on something that shape.

There are a number of regulations, and, as ever, it depends whether they're enforced, or not. I'll only mention the regulation I once enforced on a neighbour myself.

The house walls can be as close as you want to the boundary wall. However, if you want windows in those walls, then the house wall must be at least 2m from the boundary wall. So, 2m+ - window is okay; less than 2m - it needs to be a solid wall.

[LennyW]

That is only the drawing on the Chanote - no scaling whatsoever, if you need it to scale you have to get it measured, ask the land office nicely* and they can give you a proper drawing with sizes on.

*nicely = donation!

[seaeagle]

Following my earlier point, I just wish to add this.

People here are totally obsessed by square metre / square wah, ie the overall size. And, they price it according to that.

I'm always more interested in what you can do with the land. You've got much more build flexibility on a square-ish plot, than something which is the same size, but is oblong / triangular.

Give some serious thought to buying this land - to me, it looks a pretty useless shape.

[Riley'sLife]

All you require is a scanned copy of the Chanote (rather than the photographed one you have posted). This will enable you to quantify the dimensions yourself, using the correct scale ruler. The scale to which the drawing is drawn will be noted clearly on the Chanote, as will the orientation of the site.

[LennyW]

All you require is a scanned copy of the Chanote (rather than the photographed one you have posted). This will enable you to quantify the dimensions yourself, using the correct scale ruler. The scale to which the drawing is drawn will be noted clearly on the Chanote, as will the orientation of the site.

The orientation of the site is always shown with an arrow pointing to indicate north, however the drawings are never to any scale, they are just an indicitive sketch, no scales on the chanote, i just checked a handful of chanotes just to be sure.

[Delight]

I estimate that it is 1.2Km x 79 meters

Just a wild guess

[Riley'sLife]

All you require is a scanned copy of the Chanote (rather than the photographed one you have posted). This will enable you to quantify the dimensions yourself, using the correct scale ruler. The scale to which the drawing is drawn will be noted clearly on the Chanote, as will the orientation of the site.

The orientation of the site is always shown with an arrow pointing to indicate north, however the drawings are never to any scale, they are just an indicitive sketch, no scales on the chanote, i just checked a handful of chanotes just to be sure.

Not trying to be contentious, but every Chanote in my possession, and every Chanote I have ever seen, without exception, is drawn to scale and clearly states -to the right hand side of the word "Measurement" (in Thai) -the scale at which the plan is drawn. The scale is written in Thai, so maybe you don't recognise it. Additionally, the local Land Office has a master plan of the entire area under their jurisdiction drawn at the same scale.

If you look at the OP's attached photo you will see part of the word "Measurement" (in Thai) at the top left hand side, but the photo crops the area where the scale would appear. From my experience I would happily wager that the scale is 1:500. I would seriously recommend that you check the authenticity of the Chanotes you have, if they are not drawn to scale!!!

In the case of the OP's photo there is a notation referring to land of public use (a soi) on the eastern boundary and the usual width of this would be about 4metres. Applying logic and proportional scale this would suggest that the overall dimensions of the land are approximately 7metres wide on the eastern boundary - that's the boundary with the public use notation (soi)-, narrowing down to about 4.5metres on the western boundary, with the approximate length of the land being 44metres, so an area of just less than 500 sq. metres. Disclaimer: As the above is based upon a photo and not a scanned copy all measurements can only be guessed.

[LennyW]

All you require is a scanned copy of the Chanote (rather than the photographed one you have posted). This will enable you to quantify the dimensions yourself, using the correct scale ruler. The scale to which the drawing is drawn will be noted clearly on the Chanote, as will the orientation of the site.

The orientation of the site is always shown with an arrow pointing to indicate north, however the drawings are never to any scale, they are just an indicitive sketch, no scales on the chanote, i just checked a handful of chanotes just to be sure.

Not trying to be contentious, but every Chanote in my possession, and every Chanote I have ever seen, without exception, is drawn to scale and clearly states -to the right hand side of the word "Measurement" (in Thai) -the scale at which the plan is drawn. The scale is written in Thai, so maybe you don't recognise it. Additionally, the local Land Office has a master plan of the entire area under their jurisdiction drawn at the same scale.

If you look at the OP's attached photo you will see part of the word "Measurement" (in Thai) at the top left hand side, but the photo crops the area where the scale would appear. From my experience I would happily wager that the scale is 1:500. I would seriously recommend that you check the authenticity of the Chanotes you have, if they are not drawn to scale!!!

In the case of the OP's photo there is a notation referring to land of public use (a soi) on the eastern boundary and the usual width of this would be about 4metres. Applying logic and proportional scale this would suggest that the overall dimensions of the land are approximately 7metres wide on the eastern boundary - that's the boundary with the public use notation (soi)-, narrowing down to about 4.5metres on the western boundary, with the approximate length of the land being 44metres, so an area of just less than 500 sq. metres. Disclaimer: As the above is based upon a photo and not a scanned copy all measurements can only be guessed.

I stand corrected, yes there is on all of my chanotes, i asked my wife just for confirmation - answer......never mind that, don't need???

Lot of different scales though, 1:200, 1:500, 1:2000, I will have to try working a few of them out to see how accurate they are.

[Riley'sLife]

Ahhhh, the source of your information was your Thai wife. That usually explains all dogmatic incorrect statements made by farang.

Maybe you could ask her from me, -what exactly would be the point of placing a drawing without measurement annotation on a legal document, the sole purpose of which is to delineate precisely the location of boundaries and their respective Chanote pole markers for a parcel of land, relevant to adjoining precisely delineated parcels of land, and never draw the plans to scale? Defies logic!

“Never mind that, don’t need.” Just wouldn’t cut it in the event of a boundary dispute!!!!

I am now worrying that you believed her when she told you that all the land you have bought in your name doesn’t show your name on the Chanote in English, but that it does in Thai script.

Contemporary Chanotes usually denote two scales only, seen immediately above the plan and the orientation marker.

The scale on the left hand side referring to the scale at which the subject Chanote will appear on the Master Plan for the area of the Land Office’s jurisdiction and which can be identified by the reference number of the subject Chanote, (That scale will be common to all Chanotes issued by a particular Land Office, for a particular area - for rather obvious reasons that will perhaps be beyond the grasp of the odd Thai wife, and will ordinarily be 1:1000).

The scale on the right hand side is the scale at which the subject Chanote plan is drawn. The scale for most will be 1:500, although this may vary to more suitably accommodate the need for the entire parcel of land to be shown on the Chanote Plan when the area referred to is large.

Older Chanotes may be drawn at less common scales.

Checking a scale for accuracy would be an activity in futility on a par with checking the money dispensed by an ATM. Maybe you could enlist the help of your wife Lenny. Then again, she’d only say “never mind that, don’t need” wouldn’t she?

[LennyW]

^ Thanks for the explanation, makes perfect sense to me.

I can understand my wifey's reasoning though, it is something that is probably never physically used during land transactions, certainly not by the buyer and seller anyway, we always just ask the land office to verify the pin positions and provide us with a plan with the dimensions on - job done, and i suspect most transactions are the same in this respect. Just cant envisage Johnny foreigner pacing about the tapioca field with slide rule in hand!!

Thanks again though, good info.