Is 75 wah land size a legal minimum requirement for rooms to rent building?

[cliveshep]

Basically the title says it all. My wife wants to buy a block of rooms to rent to provide some income, making the last of our savings work for us. She has seen some existing buildings within our limited budget but says that they cannot be legal and that the people are "hiding from the government" who would order the buildings pulled down if they knew they existed because they are on a plot of less than 75 talang wah.

While I agree that there may well be such a law I did ask her if it post-dated the buildings - what then, and where did she see it anyway? My experience is she gets a whole load of duff advice from the "Lady Inter" web-site - examples being about tricks to get a visa to live in the UK before which were total rubbish as I had loads of hoops to jump through as did she to get the visa.

However, that is by the bye and we have moved here now so can any one shed any light on this please?

I was going to post on "Ask the Lawyer" but the "lawyer" doesn't seem to respond anymore from what I can see so I am posting here. Thanks all.

[dotpoom]

Whether it's true or not true I wouldn't know.....but I would certainly be delighted to have a wife such as yours that seems to be watching out for pitfalls and examining the in's and out's and checking details before rushing ahead with the investment.

[blackcab]

I don't know for certain but I doubt it's true. Some shophouses are only on 20 (ish) square wah, so how would that work if she was right?

I stand to be corrected however.

[umbanda]

My wife wants to sell her building in Chiang Mai with 7 rooms, fully rented to university students. If you are interested send me a message. The place contains also a 2 rooms/2 bath house, and its is over a 100 wah size lot.

[khunPer]

75 talang wah, that's 300 sq.m.
Some Thai laws can be amazing, but this one I've never heard about - which does not mean, that it's not existing - however, many a guesthouse renting out rooms where I live, and also town houses for rent, are build on less than 300 square meter land...

The 75 talang wah limit can that be some special local regulations - building zones - or to do with the the deed title...?

I would ask a local lawyer, or at the tessa ban (office where they issue building permissions) for advice...

[Gonsalviz]

Only the land office knows for sure.

[cliveshep]

We went to the land office and the following rules apply it seems:

Rooms to rent - 2m from boundary at back for 2/3 storey, 1m either side and 2m at front. No land size limits advised.

Extensions to houses: 2m at back and front, 1m either side, so the same rules but minimum land size means some smaller plots and homes cannot legally extend. In that case said Land Office, we won't check up anyway, get your neighbours to sign a paper to agree what you do and go ahead and do it.

They went on to say - "if we checked any soi for complience with law we know we would find most did not comply and we cannot simply order demolition of hundreds and thousands of peoples homes for non-compliance so we can do nothing anyway."

[khunPer]

We went to the land office and the following rules apply it seems:

Rooms to rent - 2m from boundary at back for 2/3 storey, 1m either side and 2m at front. No land size limits advised.

Extensions to houses: 2m at back and front, 1m either side, so the same rules but minimum land size means some smaller plots and homes cannot legally extend. In that case said Land Office, we won't check up anyway, get your neighbours to sign a paper to agree what you do and go ahead and do it.

They went on to say - "if we checked any soi for complience with law we know we would find most did not comply and we cannot simply order demolition of hundreds and thousands of peoples homes for non-compliance so we can do nothing anyway."

That seems like the normal basic building regulations: 2 meter inside own land facing road (or public area), 1 meter from neighbor (½ meter if no windows/openings).

[blackcab]

Agreed - that's the standard building regulations. What they have told you is that you can rent anything, regardless of the size as long as it is a legal construction.

[cliveshep]

khunPer they never said we could reduce to 0.5m from side boundary if we had no windows? If that is correct then as we have no windows planned there that works for me very well given that they don't want to see plans anyway as the total land area is under sized. So I can comply in a way that won't offend the neighbours anyway.

As for the "room to rent" scenario - so long as these existing new buildings offered for sale appear to have adequate space around them the 75 talang wah rule doesn't exist, or at least not for the no of storeys we have in mind, so I can go ahead and buy an apartment block, or wifey can!

Thank you all for your interest.

[AyG]

My wife wants to buy a block of rooms to rent to provide some income, making the last of our savings work for us

Putting the last of yours savings into an investment which is (a) very illiquid, and ( doesn't guarantee a reliable return, strikes me as utter folly. I do hope for the OP's sake that it's not really true. Unexpected large expenses can crop up any time.

[cliveshep]

My wife wants to buy a block of rooms to rent to provide some income, making the last of our savings work for us

Putting the last of yours savings into an investment which is (a) very illiquid, and ( doesn't guarantee a reliable return, strikes me as utter folly. I do hope for the OP's sake that it's not really true. Unexpected large expenses can crop up any time.

Well, we'll have the odd mill left over but the whole object of this relocation excercise was and is to provide a home and a future for the family and also a little income. Rooms to let in BKK are at a premium if not at exhorbitant prices. I'm old already, my wife is much younger so who am I saving for if not to provide for my family? I don't want her rushing me into hospital and throwing everything at trying to save me a year or so down the line. Why if I've had my life should I sacrifice theirs for a few months of my life?

Or maybe you are thinking if the car breaks down? Tough, we've got 2 so one can go. Their future comes before anything else and if I've spent most of it on investments they cannot quickly rush to undo it..

[AyG]

My wife wants to buy a block of rooms to rent to provide some income, making the last of our savings work for us

Putting the last of yours savings into an investment which is (a) very illiquid, and ( doesn't guarantee a reliable return, strikes me as utter folly. I do hope for the OP's sake that it's not really true. Unexpected large expenses can crop up any time.

Well, we'll have the odd mill left over but the whole object of this relocation excercise was and is to provide a home and a future for the family and also a little income. Rooms to let in BKK are at a premium if not at exhorbitant prices. I'm old already, my wife is much younger so who am I saving for if not to provide for my family? I don't want her rushing me into hospital and throwing everything at trying to save me a year or so down the line. Why if I've had my life should I sacrifice theirs for a few months of my life?

Or maybe you are thinking if the car breaks down? Tough, we've got 2 so one can go. Their future comes before anything else and if I've spent most of it on investments they cannot quickly rush to undo it..

I was more thinking if one of your loved ones gets sick or has a serious accident. Medical bills can run up quickly. And what if someone kills or injures someone else in a car crash and is, for some reason, uninsured? And what if the house is destroyed by something that isn't covered by insurance? (The list of exclusions in most policies is now very long following the 2011 floods. I know my house isn't covered for flooding, airplane crash, rampaging elephants, amongst other things.)

And what if all these things happen at the same time? Unlikely, but entirely possible.

[alfieconn]

We went to the land office and the following rules apply it seems:

Rooms to rent - 2m from boundary at back for 2/3 storey, 1m either side and 2m at front. No land size limits advised.

Extensions to houses: 2m at back and front, 1m either side, so the same rules but minimum land size means some smaller plots and homes cannot legally extend. In that case said Land Office, we won't check up anyway, get your neighbours to sign a paper to agree what you do and go ahead and do it.

They went on to say - "if we checked any soi for complience with law we know we would find most did not comply and we cannot simply order demolition of hundreds and thousands of peoples homes for non-compliance so we can do nothing anyway."

That seems like the normal basic building regulations: 2 meter inside own land facing road (or public area), 1 meter from neighbor (½ meter if no windows/openings).

Always thought it was 2 mtrs from boundary line and 1 mtr if there are no openings, 1/2 mtr would mean that 99% of rooflines would overhang the boundary line.

[khunPer]

khunPer they never said we could reduce to 0.5m from side boundary if we had no windows? If that is correct then as we have no windows planned there that works for me very well given that they don't want to see plans anyway as the total land area is under sized. So I can comply in a way that won't offend the neighbours anyway.

As for the "room to rent" scenario - so long as these existing new buildings offered for sale appear to have adequate space around them the 75 talang wah rule doesn't exist, or at least not for the no of storeys we have in mind, so I can go ahead and buy an apartment block, or wifey can!

Thank you all for your interest.

½-meter is the norm – if not changed recently – but no windows or any kind of openings; your architect shall know the local building rules. Often Thai architect’s make two sets of drawings, one duplex-set for the building permission (house owner will get an approved and stamped set back), and another set for the constructor’s foreman – i.e. you may have openings/windows, but not officially. However, best way to be safe is just to follow the rules. When I planned my house on a tiny land plot (ca. 70 talang wah), I made sure to be some minimum 60-80 centimeter inside where no openings/windows, just so nobody should had a reason to complain – also in case foreman measure 5-10 centimeter wrong, when doing the posts lay out on the flat land and not compensate enough for a sometime thick layer of plaster – one never know what can happen to a farang in LoS...

[blackcab]

An example of a single shop house to rent with no additional land (Bangkok near mid Sukhumvit).