Real estate law

[Zoda]

What can legally be done to multiple owners in a townhouse development who have not paid their Common area fees and thus put the entire project in jeopardy of defaulting and not being able to provide normal services to other good standing owners?

[KittenKong]

You asked a somewhat different question in the "ask the lawyer" forum.

You need to be aware that the answers for housing developments and condo developments are very different indeed.

So is this a housing village or a condo building?

[KittenKong]

Apparently it's a housing village that you are asking about. That's very tricky. Your only real options are to take the recalcitrant owners to court (slow, expensive) or to deny them access to common areas/services if practical.

I've heard that in some villages in similar situations they have changed keycard codes to stop people who dont pay their bills from bringing their cars into the estate, or have stopped collecting their garbage. Naming and shaming seems to work for some also (watch out for Thai defamation laws). None is a perfect solution.

For condos it's quite a lot easier.

[Maestro]

Legally, the person, natural or juristic, to whom the money is owed can sue the debtor in court.

[siam2007]

Apparently it's a housing village that you are asking about. That's very tricky. Your only real options are to take the recalcitrant owners to court (slow, expensive) or to deny them access to common areas/services if practical.

I've heard that in some villages in similar situations they have changed keycard codes to stop people who dont pay their bills from bringing their cars into the estate, or have stopped collecting their garbage. Naming and shaming seems to work for some also (watch out for Thai defamation laws). None is a perfect solution.

For condos it's quite a lot easier.

Just out of interest (as I am living in an older-style Condo where several units seem to be abandoned since quite some time): What can be done at Condos ? I guess it all depends on the management company if they are willing to track the owners. Not even enough money here to replace the ancient faulty generator :-(

[KittenKong]

Condo units cant be sold unless the JPM issues a debt-free certificate so the building is pretty sure to get its money, sooner or later (company-owned units could change hands without the unit being sold, but the debt stays with the unit).

Interest can be applied as soon as legally permissible. Starts at up to 1% per month and rises to up to 20% per year after a while.

If the debt is overdue enough (6 months as far as I know) the JPM can, after sending the required warnings and letters, legally turn off water supply (where this is billed by the building) and also prohibit access to common areas of the building (technically even including the elevators) and car-parking, pools etc. Obviously this isnt going to bother owners of abandoned units, but it's usually quite effective for units that are occupied. Who would want to live in a unit without water?

Apart from that it's a court case, but the rules are pretty straightforward when it comes to condos as everything is co-owned and there should be properly registered building regs to back up your action. A building I know of successfully applied to have a unit sold to repay quite large debts going back several years. Just be sure to abide by the legal technicalities of dates, paperwork, warnings etc.

[kirkieb]

I live in a Village developed 15 years ago and at the time was considered very High So it has never been transferred into a legal Juristic Person where the Committee could take necessary steps to retrieve from those unwilling to pay the fees. The village is slowly going down and has little to no maintenance and with the current laws making it almost impossible for us to make a Legal committee due to ignorance or a blase attitude and a developer we have been unable to locate so many years later. The Village is dying. I personally delivered by hand a voting slip to all 140 properties in the village asking if they wanted a juristic identity and we had an overwhelming response of about 70% in favour. Yet to this day we are unable to have a legally established committee because of the multitude of Chinese whispers by residents that our voting was unlawful or it was only valid for three months or whatever daily reason we seem to get from those opposing the need for change.

The reason these committees are necessary is to maintain a high level of security for all owners, common grounds kept to a high standard and maintenance of the village set to an acceptable standard so all owners can enjoy the village in its full glory. The other reason is to be able to lawfully place an encumbrance on a chanote of those properties not paying.

Its unlawful as I understand to restrict anyone access to their own property and making them open the gate is about as far as we can go on that. The use of swimming Pool etc is difficult to restrict owners without security 24 hrs a day policing such things. In the mean time these owners flaunt the fact they don't care and their selfish attitudes go unaddressed.

Why is it so hard to fix. Is it because our village has a few derelict properties that are owned by officials who intimidate? I'm at a loss but from talking to so many who live here it seems there is a case of how can we fix this once and for all so all owners/investors can see that things are being done to protect our investments is in place.

[donx]

Based on all the problems others seem to have with properties that require maintenance fees, I'm glad that our townhouse in Krabi isn't part of a similar development. Of course there isn't any gated security, swimming pool, or other community facilities but at least we don't have the headache of seeing things deteriorating within the community.

[MaeJoMTB]

As foreigners aren't allowed to own property in Thailand.

I wonder at the level of interest some foreigners show in such threads.

Which is worse, illegal proxy ownership or not paying fees?

It's a tough call.

[donx]

As foreigners aren't allowed to own property in Thailand.

I wonder at the level of interest some foreigners show in such threads.

Which is worse, illegal proxy ownership or not paying fees?

It's a tough call.

My interest in a thread like this? The answer is that my Thai wife owns the townhouse we bought 2 years ago. I'm sure there are many more foreigners out there like me reading threads like this one.