Unpaid Utility Bill In A Condo

[Delight]

A unit in the condo where I live was sold recently. It was company owned.

The unit had 2 months unpaid utility bills (generated

by a tenant) when it was was handed over to the new buyer. The former co –owner has now left Thailand.

At the time the condo was in between building managers- the new manager being supplied by an external management company.

The new co –owner refuses to pay the outstanding bill.

Legally who is responsible for the debt ?

Edited May 1, 2013 by Delight

[Crossy]

Probably the previous owning company, they should have retained the outgoing tenant's deposit to cover outstanding bills. But surely if the new owner had done his due-diligence diligently he would have discovered the debt.

Did the management company provide documentary evidence that the condo was free of debt?

As it is I suspect that he bought the condo with all its debts, unless he can negotiate with the management company he'll end up paying (assuming he wants power and water).

What sort of sum are we looking at?

[Langsuan Man]

I don't know how the Land Office works when transferring a condo in a company name but in order to transfer mine (in a farang name) we had to submit a statement from the juristc person stating that there were no outstanding debts on the property. We were annoyed that the condo management charged 5,000 THB for this statement, but TIT

[Delight]

Did the management company provide documentary evidence that the condo was free of debt?

This is the problem with company owned condo.

Neither the land office nor the management knew about the sale.The land office is not involved with this type of transaction. If the original owner decided to keep it quiet-then there is no way that the manager would know.

The unpaid bill is less than 5000 baht.

[Crossy]

Ah I see, so it was the company that was sold (along with all its assets and debts), the ownership of the condo (by the company) didn't change.

For 5k I'd just pay it to avoid hassle.

[Delight]

Ah I see, so it was the company that was sold (along with all its assets and debts), the ownership of the condo (by the company) didn't change.

For 5k I'd just pay it to avoid hassle.

Precisely. All that happened was the share holdings and voting rights were transferred from one farang(seller) to another farang (buyer)

However my question was about the legal position. Academic interest on my part.

Edited May 2, 2013 by Delight

[dave111223]

Sounds like it's pretty clear the new owner of the company is responsible for the companies outstanding debts...