Neighbours building / extending their property to the boundary wall which your the other side off

[Millenial]

As mentioned above, what are the rules when a neighbour extends their property but uses the parameter wall as their new exterior wall from extending the property

[kannot]

think they have to be 1 metre off that wall?

[lopburi3]

There is a setback rule but most neighbors do not object and thus both parties are allowed to build to wall and remain neighborly.

In our mo-ban know of one case of this being legally enforced (over 40 years old and about 300 homes) and both properties are now abandoned.

[fey]

Be careful with this one.

I had a neighbor who tried this and it was just testing the waters. After problems they had to take the wall down and ended up rebuilding a good foot or so onto my side. This made a huge difference in the narrow side yard I had.

It also eventually extended into them reaching onto my side to uproot plants and even walking around the block to uproot things I had re-planted on my side.

I ended up moving out.

[Crocbait]

The law I believe states that they can build to within 50cm of the boundary. If they do they cannot have any windows on that side of the house, nor glass bricks that can emit light onto your property. I have been through this with a new house being built on a 9 mtr wide plot next to me. They built the walls within 30 cm of the boundary and their plans included windows and a roof overhang that would have dumped all their water onto our land.

My wife tried talking with them politely about the law, but the neighbour started getting angry with her, so she put her foot down and they had to dig up the columns and beams on our side and move them 20 cm. You don't piss my wife off!

As you can imagine, the neighbours don't talk to us.

[TheSwede99]

A neighbor of mine built a new house and I saw that they were in the process of building all the way to the wall. I complained to the department of building permits at the municipality, the only answer I got was to go to the neighbor and negotiate.

[MaeJoMTB]

What about roof overhang and rain runoff?

If they use the boundary wall,

their roof will be hanging over your garden.

their water runoff will be washing away your topsoil.

[wvavin]

The game rules in Thailand is there is no rules but only the wealthier side wins. Is this clear? If you are still not clear then read on. Do you think your neighbour dares to do this if you belong to the rich & powerful? Got it? To make matters worse for you is that you are a farang.

[crazykopite]

The law I believe states that they can build to within 50cm of the boundary. If they do they cannot have any windows on that side of the house, nor glass bricks that can emit light onto your property. I have been through this with a new house being built on a 9 mtr wide plot next to me. They built the walls within 30 cm of the boundary and their plans included windows and a roof overhang that would have dumped all their water onto our land.

My wife tried talking with them politely about the law, but the neighbour started getting angry with her, so she put her foot down and they had to dig up the columns and beams on our side and move them 20 cm. You don't piss my wife off!

As you can imagine, the neighbours don't talk to us.

I to had a problem except I was way when the build took place they were 80 cms from the border but with the roof overhang it meant water coming onto our land . I went to planning who instructed the owner to cut the house in half but then 4 days later I was summoned back to planning and the same officer told me he had changed his mind ( it was clear that over those few days money had been exchanged ) I got very angry with the planning officer and said I would take it to the highest court in the land , to my amazement the next day a whole team came from the planning department they made the owner take all the windows out as well as move the air conditioning the roof overhang also had to be shortened on top of this the planning officer told me I could build as close to the border as the neighbour had done needless to say the neighbour was not happy , all this was because he wanted to sell / rent the property as being with a seaview which was correct as you could see a metre of sea from the lounge window. I decided to plant a beautiful flowering tree just within my border line 7 years on it is huge , shades his house and the sea view is no longer and any water that comes off the roof is swallowed up by the tree !!!!

[ggt]

It has been my experience that Thais respond well to being shown the error of their ways...very apologetic...humble and appreciative for you pointing out their wrong doing...

[SOTIRIOS]

....good luck...and be very careful....

[asdecas]

The game rules in Thailand is there is no rules but only the wealthier side wins. Is this clear? If you are still not clear then read on. Do you think your neighbour dares to do this if you belong to the rich & powerful? Got it? To make matters worse for you is that you are a farang.

That rarity on ThaiVisa, someone who has a clue about how things work here. Good post.

[Denim]

One tactic is to get your foot in the door first. If you think this is going to happen to you get a wall built along your boundry asap.

[tajtom]

No the law

Solicitor and first talk to them

If fails let the law take effect

There all dummys and they have no idea of the law in there own country. You must do the work for them

[connda]

There is a setback rule but most neighbors do not object and thus both parties are allowed to build to wall and remain neighborly.

In our mo-ban know of one case of this being legally enforced (over 40 years old and about 300 homes) and both properties are now abandoned.

We had something similar with our neighbors that they needed to modify part of our exterior wall in order to built a gate. Being neighborly we just say, 'Mai bpen rai'. Without a gate on their property, people walked across their land as a short cut from the other side of the village to get to the soi that goes past our home to the main province road through the village. We sort of welcomed the gate due the the fact that it cut down foot traffic past our homes by about 99%. We all look out for each other.

Edited October 7, 2015 by connda

[connda]

The law I believe states that they can build to within 50cm of the boundary. If they do they cannot have any windows on that side of the house, nor glass bricks that can emit light onto your property. I have been through this with a new house being built on a 9 mtr wide plot next to me. They built the walls within 30 cm of the boundary and their plans included windows and a roof overhang that would have dumped all their water onto our land.

My wife tried talking with them politely about the law, but the neighbour started getting angry with her, so she put her foot down and they had to dig up the columns and beams on our side and move them 20 cm. You don't piss my wife off!

As you can imagine, the neighbours don't talk to us.

I to had a problem except I was way when the build took place they were 80 cms from the border but with the roof overhang it meant water coming onto our land . I went to planning who instructed the owner to cut the house in half but then 4 days later I was summoned back to planning and the same officer told me he had changed his mind ( it was clear that over those few days money had been exchanged ) I got very angry with the planning officer and said I would take it to the highest court in the land , to my amazement the next day a whole team came from the planning department they made the owner take all the windows out as well as move the air conditioning the roof overhang also had to be shortened on top of this the planning officer told me I could build as close to the border as the neighbour had done needless to say the neighbour was not happy , all this was because he wanted to sell / rent the property as being with a seaview which was correct as you could see a metre of sea from the lounge window. I decided to plant a beautiful flowering tree just within my border line 7 years on it is huge , shades his house and the sea view is no longer and any water that comes off the roof is swallowed up by the tree !!!!

Under the circumstances that was a great idea, and a good idea for anyone who comes out on the losing end and has their land encroached on. Get a wall up on you property boundary, and then plant trees, plants, vines, bamboo, shrubs all along the wall. Within 5 years, you won't even see your neighbors house any longer. Just a jungle. Bamboo works really well. In our case though, the surrounding neighbors all look out for each other, so we want that clear line of sight between our homes.

Edited October 7, 2015 by connda

[bazza40]

Be careful with this one.

I had a neighbor who tried this and it was just testing the waters. After problems they had to take the wall down and ended up rebuilding a good foot or so onto my side. This made a huge difference in the narrow side yard I had.

It also eventually extended into them reaching onto my side to uproot plants and even walking around the block to uproot things I had re-planted on my side.

I ended up moving out.

Yet another thread which supports renting......

[misterphil]

What about roof overhang and rain runoff?

If they use the boundary wall,

their roof will be hanging over your garden.

their water runoff will be washing away your topsoil.

If it hangs over your garden fit guttering and channel it in to their front door lol

[rockwell585]

The law I believe states that they can build to within 50cm of the boundary. If they do they cannot have any windows on that side of the house, nor glass bricks that can emit light onto your property. I have been through this with a new house being built on a 9 mtr wide plot next to me. They built the walls within 30 cm of the boundary and their plans included windows and a roof overhang that would have dumped all their water onto our land.

My wife tried talking with them politely about the law, but the neighbour started getting angry with her, so she put her foot down and they had to dig up the columns and beams on our side and move them 20 cm. You don't piss my wife off!

As you can imagine, the neighbours don't talk to us.

We were lied to by out Thai neighbour, they initially said they were putting up the Thai style privet fence along one of our boundaries.

Turned out they tried to steal about 500 square metres of our land. So I insisted that they got the land office involved and establish real planning permission, which they eventually did, lost the 500 M they tried to steal.

Trees and overhang as far as I was told by the land office, if it encroaches on you land you can remove it. It seems a bit different to UK Law, in the UK if you cut their trees you have to throw it into their land, here it appears you have to keep it.

Anyway, we no longer have friends next door, the tea tree privet hedge is now a 6 foot high barbed wire fence.

Stuff them, stick to your guns or they will end up living in your front room.

[Rogergreybeard]

Your stuffed they do what they want if you don't like it go home..... They want you to

[chickenslegs]

I found a couple of relevant threads in the "Ask the Lawyer" forum.

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/838972-building-too-close-to-property-line/?hl=building

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/838695-building-regulations/?hl=building

[Sayonarax]

My neighbor did this also.. Annoyed us for a while, so we built a bridge and got over it and did exactly the same. Houses shouldn't touch each other..

[PattayaClub]

I have seen this done. The problem is, regardless of what the law might be, what are you going to do about it. The Thais have a saying, "Before you go to court, fill your mouth full of dog feces. If you don't like it, you should not go to court."

Once the work is done, it is a fait accompli. What I would do is that at the moment I realized what was happening, I would talk to them and try to reason, maybe even pay them off to preserve the peace. If that did not work, I would intimidate the workers and stop them from laying blocks. If they called the police, I'd have it out with everyone over what the law is and demand that the police stand behind the law.

[jacko45k]

Yes there are quite a few rules about not being able to build within 0.5m, or more for higher buildings, also restrictions with respect of overlooking.

I have a similar structure which was there before I bought the house and it was claimed the previous owner 2 removed gave consent! Hard to prove.

Sticky situation, you let it happen and you may end up with a large eyesore in your garden, you try and block it and you have a feud on your hands.

[BKKBike09]

I believe law is - certainly for commercial buildings / condos - minimum one metre set back from property boundary if the building wall (as mentioned above) has no windows, vents, overhanging features etc. The wall is also supposed to look presentable i.e. no bits of rebar sticking out. If wall has windows etc, then set back is supposed to be 2 metres. As others have said, though, what the 'law' says and what actually happens are likely very different, and once something is completed your options are very limited.

Next to my condo they built what was claimed at start of construction to be only a 2-storey building ... it's actually the same height as the sixth floor of my condo because each of the two storeys is three storeys high ... The side wall is 1 metre from the boundary but has an overhang that dumps water onto the condo side of the boundary. In addition there's a f###ing great window and there were also several a/c units on the wall.

I (and the condo management) complained several times to the local district office and to the other building owner. Upshot was that after several months of discussion he agreed to move the a/c units to the back of the building and put frosting on the window, and also to paint the wall rather than just leave it bare. In the circumstances I thought that was a result and he has actually done it all.

It's all a fine line to tread. Say nothing and they'll ride right over you. Complain too much and as a foreigner things can get tricky, particularly if you make the other party lose a lot of face.

[Crossy]

An off-topic (rent don't buy) post has been removed.

There is a special thread for this argument, here http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/819665-reasons-why-one-should-rent-and-not-buy-property-in-thailand/

[Keesters]

What about roof overhang and rain runoff?

If they use the boundary wall,

their roof will be hanging over your garden.

their water runoff will be washing away your topsoil.

If it hangs over your garden fit guttering and channel it in to their front door lol

At whose cost? It should be at theirs as they are the ones encroaching over your land.

[Keesters]

What amazes me most about this is the builders don't know the law and build whatever they are asked too. Down my street a new extension in the front of a house has a roof overhanging the public footpath. Not yet finished but I doubt that guttering will be installed as no one else has installed guttering to their houses except me, and all my gutters are within my boundaries. There are also many instances of footpath in front of house turned into a flower box making it extremely difficult for both electric & water meter reading and means that cars are parked well into the road so that nearside passenger doors can open. This often means the street is blocked for other traffic.

Land encroachment is rife in this country and is probably the countries number two crime after driving offenses.

Edited October 9, 2015 by Keesters

[connda]

The law I believe states that they can build to within 50cm of the boundary. If they do they cannot have any windows on that side of the house, nor glass bricks that can emit light onto your property. I have been through this with a new house being built on a 9 mtr wide plot next to me. They built the walls within 30 cm of the boundary and their plans included windows and a roof overhang that would have dumped all their water onto our land.

My wife tried talking with them politely about the law, but the neighbour started getting angry with her, so she put her foot down and they had to dig up the columns and beams on our side and move them 20 cm. You don't piss my wife off!

As you can imagine, the neighbours don't talk to us.

We were lied to by out Thai neighbour, they initially said they were putting up the Thai style privet fence along one of our boundaries.

Turned out they tried to steal about 500 square metres of our land. So I insisted that they got the land office involved and establish real planning permission, which they eventually did, lost the 500 M they tried to steal.

Trees and overhang as far as I was told by the land office, if it encroaches on you land you can remove it. It seems a bit different to UK Law, in the UK if you cut their trees you have to throw it into their land, here it appears you have to keep it.

Anyway, we no longer have friends next door, the tea tree privet hedge is now a 6 foot high barbed wire fence.

Stuff them, stick to your guns or they will end up living in your front room.

You either stick to your guns, or you defer and become someone else's bit*h. The barbed wire fence, in your case, sounds like a fine idea. Now plant a hedge row along it and you won't even have to see them anymore.

[fey]

Be careful with this one.

I had a neighbor who tried this and it was just testing the waters. After problems they had to take the wall down and ended up rebuilding a good foot or so onto my side. This made a huge difference in the narrow side yard I had.

It also eventually extended into them reaching onto my side to uproot plants and even walking around the block to uproot things I had re-planted on my side.

I ended up moving out.

Yet another thread which supports renting......

I was renting.