House Built Not According To Plans.

[Sharp]

By the way that's nothing a pal of mine having a house built while in the UK ,when he came back it was facing the wrong direction we still laugh about it now sitting on the porch .

The builder after being told he wanted to sit on the porch look at the sunset built a porch on the back said u can see the sunrise

Hilarious ...

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[utalkin2me]

Though he did not say, I am guessing the OP was not around. He probably had his plans prepared, handed them off to a contractor and went off.

This should just be another lesson to every farang who is planning to build something and wants it done a certain way to certain specs. YOU MUST BE THERE 24/7 TO MONITOR THE WORK. Virtually every bad building story I have heard involved the farang being absent from the job.

If you are not there, you get what you get; it's that simple.

But even if you are there, you still get what you get: ie crap.

[Denizen]

You need to immediately see a lawyer and get the work stopped by lawyers letter to builder.

The lawyer can then determine with local government and the builder what the consequences are.

The best outcome might be to fire the builder and get a new builder and cut your losses. The matter could take years in court.

[eyecatcher]

By the way that's nothing a pal of mine having a house built while in the UK ,when he came back it was facing the wrong direction we still laugh about it now sitting on the porch .

The builder after being told he wanted to sit on the porch look at the sunset built a porch on the back said u can see the sunrise

Hilarious ...

Sent from my iPad using ThaiVisa app

and thats nothing.....I was a surveyor with Barratts in my youth, one site engineer set out 5 plots on an estate, only for someone to realise after footings were in that the first plot was too far from the boundary.

The engineer was sacked, and the final plot on the row became a solitary looking tiny townhouse amidst the large 4 bedders!

Then there was the time my boss bought a small site after the architects trainee had planned the site for an exclusive 5 plot development. It was later discovered the trainee had mixed up the scales of the site plan with his new house plan. The site in the end could only fit 3 houses.

mistakes are easily made in construction, but there is always a solution.

[harrry]

It is allright saying blame the owner. The consequence is that if his house is in a tessebahn area he probably will not be able to get a house registration for the house and thus it cannot be connected to any services.

[ProdigalSon]

Thank you to everyone who has replied to this thread (both constructive and, errr, well, the rest!). I should expand on the original OP because at that time I was in a rush to meet with the architect to see what he had to say.

The house is/will legally be my girlfriend's, paid for by herself and obviously in her name. It's on a new moobahn which is about 70% complete. Construction on the house itself started four weeks ago and we've been going every week to check on the progress and it was only two days ago that it was apparent that the wall to one side of the house was one metre closer than as per the plans. So, yesterday afternoon (armed with some helpful info. that you helpful TVers posted), we went for a meeting to get to the bottom of what had gone wrong with the architect. He was very apologetic from the start and that, further to a meeting he will have with his boss tomorrow, there should be several options available to us which range from doing nothing to getting a refund of the deposit back (this developer asks for a 10% initial payment and then the remainder when construction is finished to everyone's satisfaction).

Thanks again for everyone's feedback and I'll let you know how things unfold.

[ataloss]

Well, you can ride this tiger if you want.

Why not take a ride round all the new housing developments and most older neighbourhoods too; a lot of owners have built extensions to include the intervening fence as their wall.

I rent a house and a Thai teacher has built his second addition about a foot from the intervening fence. I've rented in many other parts of CMai and in all instances was enclosed by Thais who had built right up to the property line and included the fence as their wall.

I wasn't sure why the 2 meter-distance is the accepted 'norm' until I moved into my current rental where the roughly 2-meter high concrete wall is leaning precipitously into the teacher's new property: the government's thinking is probably to avoid injuring folks or property should they topple into adjacent property.

Said teacher wanted me to go halve-zies on a new fence: I told him to speak to the thai owner of my rental. Guess that didn't pan out. BTW he already had 3 perimeter walls, one on each side of his property. Anyway, the wall will hold until I move out within the month.

This property is 10K per month but the entire time I've been here, the owner has advertised it on multiple sites at his then asking price of 15K and 3 months deposit - I gave him 1 month's notice and 10K.

I'd let you know where,except the wall issue could prove a pain - thais will come for those actually living in the place, not the owner. Besides the kitchen extension is sinking and has parted ways with the roof, probably into the same sinkhole that is currently toppling the fence.

[tingtongfarang]

so many i know have had outrageous problems here either buying or renting, My last rental was just fine for me until the manager of the moo bahn decided to increase the monthly charge by 400%,, then installed a key card system with gate to enter, I found i was one of the few who had been paying even at the cheap rate....suspected corruption was the reason all the non payers gave,

A while before moving out i got a shock while making coffee, A very large monitor lizard came crashing through the false ceiling hitting me on the head but also bringing the cables and spot lights down with it, i dropped every thing and made a very fast exit closing the glass door behind me then observed while it destroyed the kitchen including ripping doors off kitchen units,

The landlady considered it to be my problem and should be repaired at my cost, My only option was to withhold the rental payments long enough to cover the deposit and move.

[Langsuan Man]

This is Thailand. There will be no inspections by any government agencies during the build. There will be no inspections after the build. Any mistakes will not be known since no one will check. Mai pen rai = no one gives a sh...

[utalkin2me]

This is Thailand. There will be no inspections by any government agencies during the build. There will be no inspections after the build. Any mistakes will not be known since no one will check. Mai pen rai = no one gives a sh...

Sometimes I feel like it is the consumer who drives the market though. You could have a village devistated by a flood, with only 2 buildings left standing, both built by the same guy. The Thais would not even ask who built those after, they's just say "oh, those two were lucky" lol. There seems to be no quality recognition, and no recognition for lack of quality as well.

Edited February 11, 2013 by utalkin2me

[Chao Lao Beach]

Welcome to Thailand, you have to spend dawn to dusk on site and involved in Thailand if you want any thing done right !