Condo Extraordinary General Meeting Facilitator (Pattaya)?

[cigar7]

At 9 Karat Condo in Pattaya, after many years, we now have more 20% of the co-owners in agreement to hold an extraordinary general meeting (EGM), probably in January 2016. Hopefully, the EGM will result in the replacement of the condo committee, juristic person and the manager.

We realize that a highly experienced meeting Facilitator for the EGM would increase the probability of a successful outcome. Someone who has lots of experience and can: plan, organize, lead and control the EGM.

Any recommendations?

[KittenKong]

Most management companies would be prepared to do this for a small fee (or even for free if they can expect to get a contract out of it). Will you be employing a management company afterwards?

The person with the legal power in a building is the JPM. That's the one you should be careful about selecting. The building manager is just staff and can be terminated at any time by the committee through the JPM (with due notice and compensation).

I dont quite see why you have had to wait several years as all this can be done at the annual AGM. When is yours due?

[cigar7]

Most management companies would be prepared to do this for a small fee (or even for free if they can expect to get a contract out of it). Will you be employing a management company afterwards?

The person with the legal power in a building is the JPM. That's the one you should be careful about selecting. The building manager is just staff and can be terminated at any time by the committee through the JPM (with due notice and compensation).

I dont quite see why you have had to wait several years as all this can be done at the annual AGM. When is yours due?

An AGM has not been conducted according to the condo act for at least the last 10 years. Co-owners have never received 7 days prior notice of an AGM. One person use to own a large portion of the rooms, about 20-25% and he would call a meeting once in a while, decide on the JPM, committee and manager. Major opposition to this practice comes from foreign owners. So he would conduct the meeting at a time when most foreigners were not in Pattaya, during the summer. Co-owners would learn of the meeting by word of mouth, or see a 1 notice on one notice board, 1 - 3 days before the meeting. This person put his 129 rooms up for collateral for a bank loan and the bank has now taken possession of the chanotes. So now he has lost effect control.

Now concerned co-owners want to take control, as quickly as possible, without further delay.

Edited November 12, 2015 by cigar7

[Rimmer]

Off topic post removed

[blackcab]

Please keep us updated. This is extremely interesting and something that others will benefit from in the future.

[KittenKong]

An AGM has not been conducted according to the condo act for at least the last 10 years. Co-owners have never received 7 days prior notice of an AGM. One person use to own a large portion of the rooms, about 20-25% and he would call a meeting once in a while, decide on the JPM, committee and manager. Major opposition to this practice comes from foreign owners. So he would conduct the meeting at a time when most foreigners were not in Pattaya, during the summer. Co-owners would learn of the meeting by word of mouth, or see a 1 notice on one notice board, 1 - 3 days before the meeting. This person put his 129 rooms up for collateral for a bank loan and the bank has now taken possession of the chanotes. So now he has lost effect control.

Now concerned co-owners want to take control, as quickly as possible, without further delay.

Fair enough. I think your building wins the prize for "most corrupt building I know of". Still, the only way is up.

As I mentioned, you need to pay very careful attention to your selection of JPM. I also think that you would be well advised to take on a management company, unless you have co-owners who are honest and knowledgeable about condo management who are prepared to be on the committee and devote a lot of time to monitoring the building manager and office. The management company should be able to provide you with a competent building manager and should be able to get your accounts in order etc.

I suggest that you should not engage any one-man-band management companies and should carefully check what other buildings your chosen management company operates. And talk to a selection of committee members of those buildings and look at the minutes of their committee meetings to get an idea of how the management company works, always bearing in mind that most of the bad things may not be reported at all.

Crooks and incompetents abound in this business here.

Edited November 12, 2015 by KittenKong

[cigar7]

An AGM has not been conducted according to the condo act for at least the last 10 years. Co-owners have never received 7 days prior notice of an AGM. One person use to own a large portion of the rooms, about 20-25% and he would call a meeting once in a while, decide on the JPM, committee and manager. Major opposition to this practice comes from foreign owners. So he would conduct the meeting at a time when most foreigners were not in Pattaya, during the summer. Co-owners would learn of the meeting by word of mouth, or see a 1 notice on one notice board, 1 - 3 days before the meeting. This person put his 129 rooms up for collateral for a bank loan and the bank has now taken possession of the chanotes. So now he has lost effect control.

Now concerned co-owners want to take control, as quickly as possible, without further delay.

Fair enough. I think your building wins the prize for "most corrupt building I know of". Still, the only way is up.

As I mentioned, you need to pay very careful attention to your selection of JPM. I also think that you would be well advised to take on a management company, unless you have co-owners who are honest and knowledgeable about condo management who are prepared to be on the committee and devote a lot of time to monitoring the building manager and office. The management company should be able to provide you with a competent building manager and should be able to get your accounts in order etc.

I suggest that you should not engage any one-man-band management companies and should carefully check what other buildings your chosen management company operates. And talk to a selection of committee members of those buildings and look at the minutes of their committee meetings to get an idea of how the management company works, always bearing in mind that most of the bad things may not be reported at all.

Crooks and incompetents abound in this business here.

Thank you for the excellent recommendations.

[OneZero]

Hope the new buyer of those 129 rooms is cooperative and not self serving in a corrupt way. See thread:

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/870182-129-condo-rooms-bank-foreclosure-sale/#entry10071370

[cigar7]

Please keep us updated. This is extremely interesting and something that others will benefit from in the future.

We had our EGM 10 December 2015. Registered letters were sent to all the co-owners and meeting notices were posted. In the registered letter was an application form to become a condo committee member. However there was no committee member job description. 50% of the application was in Thai only.

Lots of co-owners came to the meeting. I haven't heard if the meeting had a quorum, 25% of the total votes registered in the meeting. 28% of votes requested the EGM. We voted for a new condo committee 5 foreigners, 4 thais were elected. The old JPM showed up and initially resigned claiming she didn't understand the job, was duped into the job, and didn't know how to resign - Amazing!!

The meeting planner, a Thai, decided she didn't want foreigners to contribute to the running of the meeting. A complete and correct ballot voting form had been submitted to the planner by an American, but the planner decided it was not suitable and assigned the job of making a new ballot to a Thai. The Thai ballot design and printing contained a major error.

In the meeting we were told, just to put our room number on the first ballot and sign it, no need to fill in the names for the committee. The fill-in would be handled by the planner after the meeting. Then we were told to sign a second ballot 5 times for each of the different agenda items, then were told the second ballot of 5 signatures wasn't required.Then we were told to adjust the first ballot to correct the error. Very screwed-up meeting due to the Thai planner.

The meeting was arranged without a management company. A person who had run previous EGMs and AGMs did run the meeting and I heard that she was paid 15K to do the job.

About 10 security guards were hired for the meeting because we were expecting violence - but there was none. 3 police and Army guys in uniform also showed up at the meeting.

In hind sight, there was no need to hire a person to run the meeting. It was very simple and the co-owners who had volunteered to the do the job, could have handled it easily. Again, it was the insecurity of the Thai meeting planner that cost lots of extra money and confusion at the meeting.

Edited December 11, 2015 by cigar7

[KittenKong]

In hind sight, there was no need to hire a person to run the meeting. It was very simple and the co-owners who had volunteered to the do the job, could have handled it easily.

Maybe it's just my imagination but it doesnt sound as though the meeting or the result were entirely positive.

Yes, co-owners can do everything perfectly well on their own assuming that they are competent and dont have some ulterior motive. In Thailand this is a big assumption that I would not make.

That your previous JPM didnt understand the job does not surprise me at all. I have never met a bigger crowd of idiots as those I have met here who are involved in condo management. Most of them dont seem to know anything at all.

Still, all said it sounds like progress so congratulations are in order.

[smutcakes]

In hind sight, there was no need to hire a person to run the meeting. It was very simple and the co-owners who had volunteered to the do the job, could have handled it easily.

Maybe it's just my imagination but it doesnt sound as though the meeting or the result were entirely positive.

Yes, co-owners can do everything perfectly well on their own assuming that they are competent and dont have some ulterior motive. In Thailand this is a big assumption that I would not make.

That your previous JPM didnt understand the job does not surprise me at all. I have never met a bigger crowd of idiots as those I have met here who are involved in condo management. Most of them dont seem to know anything at all.

Still, all said it sounds like progress so congratulations are in order.

You have obviously had a poor experience with management teams, committee's and JPM's. In my experience you get what you pay for. Most of the top condo's in BKK have very good management, with committee's full of business people who understand their role and how to run a condominium. In Pattaya it is slightly different, as most of the developers flog their properties as cheap as possible and in reality the buildings cannot afford proper management companies, and this will become more and more evident when these huge developments get completed. Also many Co-owners themselves do not help the situation again particularly in Pattaya by micro managing and failing to understand the laws themselves or the roles and responsibilities of the management company. I think Northshore is a prime example of this, the buildings problems are mostly because of infighting among co-owners rather than problems with management.