End of the road for Golden Cliff House as "pool in the sea" is demolished

[webfact]

End of the road for Golden Cliff House as "pool in the sea" is demolished

 

Picture: Thairath

 

PATTAYA: -- The man running the Golden Cliff House Hotel in Pratumnak, Pattaya, has said that the hotel will probably close down for good.

 

The hotel is at the center of the case of the illegal swimming pool built jutting out into the sea at the end of Pratumnak Soi 5.

 

Yesterday workers were taking sledgehammers to the offending pool, reports Thairath. 

 

It was only a token gesture to show the Pattaya and harbor authorities that the hotel means to comply with the order to tear down the pool within 15 days (not 45 as previously reported).

 

A contractor with heavy equipment will move in to start the job in earnest on Thursday.

 

The hotel has also been shut after it was found to be violating the law. It was operating as a hotel when it only had permission to offer monthly rentals.

 

Wattanan Yimlamai, 64, representing the hotel said that they intended to comply with all requests from the authorities. He said that the demolition of the pool would cost upwards of one million baht.

 

Exactly how the area would look after was up to the Pattaya authorities. They were waiting to hear from them as to how much work would have to be done.

 

Wattanan said that the plot now used as a hotel used to be houses. An apartment building was constructed in 1995 or 1996 and along with it the swimming pool at the center of the controversy.

 

He claimed he never knew that the pool had broken any laws when he took over the running of the building in 2008. 

 

They knew there was no permission to operate as a hotel and his finance department tried to apply for such permission but were knocked back.

 

He said he didn't know why they were refused.

 

He said that most of his guests were Europeans with many having transferred money to stay through the tourist season until next April.

 

He said the hotel had returned everyone's money.

 

Some 35 staff will be laid off this week and compensated according to the labor law.

 

Wattanan added that he would probably quit running the place and return it to its original owners.

 

The hotel has already been shut up by the authorities and sealed off.

 

Source: Thairath

 

-- © Copyright Thai Visa News 2016-11-23

[onemorechang]

Good Job. 

 

[colinneil]

The owner is obviously totally brain dead to have built the pool in the first place.

How did he think he could get away with building the pool?

[Kerryd]

18 minutes ago, colinneil said:

The owner is obviously totally brain dead to have built the pool in the first place.

How did he think he could get away with building the pool?

 

I imagine that there wasn't an issue about the pool when it was built (20-21 years ago) and no hassles about it until just very recently when suddenly, for some reason, it became a priority issue.

[Bea]

Hallelujah. All sounds a load of rubbish excuses to me. This place was a hotel in 2000 and the owners were not the nicest of people then 

[Sphere]

No mention of penalties, owner remains anonymous behind his/her "representative".....case closed?

 

51 minutes ago, webfact said:

Exactly how the area would look after was up to the Pattaya authorities.

 

Depends on who pays the tab to clean up the place.......

[DavisH]

Sledge hammers? That's gonna take a while. 

[The Deerhunter]

6 minutes ago, DavisH said:

Sledge hammers? That's gonna take a while. 

Read!  Token demolition only. Heavy equipment to come.

[joepattaya1961]

Another example of being aware of permits, licenses and approvals upon buying a property. 

Although NOBODY will be able to provide information when asked.........

Just think of the 25 million land-purchase and the building of a huge villa on a piece of land which is crossed by a new stretch of HW 7.

 

 

[Lamkyong]

32 minutes ago, DavisH said:

Sledge hammers? That's gonna take a while. 

A contractor with heavy equipment will move in to start the job in earnest on Thursday.

[prakhonchai nick]

2 hours ago, colinneil said:

The owner is obviously totally brain dead to have built the pool in the first place.

How did he think he could get away with building the pool?

 

Well he did get away with it for a very long time!

[jlwilliamsjr18]

Somebody got on someones wrong side.  Another case of killing the chicken to scare the monkeys. 

[NanLaew]

1 hour ago, Lamkyong said:

A contractor with heavy equipment will move in to start the job in earnest on Thursday.

Since there doesn't seem to be a whole lot of access to the beach from the road for heavy equipment, I see a partial demolition of the 'hotel' and when the pool is gone, the whole lot will come down. The land alone is still worth a tidy sum though.

[NanLaew]

3 hours ago, colinneil said:

The owner is obviously totally brain dead to have built the pool in the first place.

How did he think he could get away with building the pool?

 

No. They simply didn't have enough money... like this lot.

 

[bark]

2 hours ago, The Deerhunter said:

Read!  Token demolition only. Heavy equipment to come.

Please be nice.

[losername]

Wouldn't it be a good idea to empty the pool first?

 

[Lancashireman]

2 hours ago, The Deerhunter said:

Read!  Token demolition only. Heavy equipment to come.

Quite...people don't read everything...

[petermik]

7 hours ago, losername said:

Wouldn't it be a good idea to empty the pool first?

 

Before demolition starts in earnest on thursday monks will be attending and blessing the water will enable the owners to sell it off as "holy water" thus paying for the cost,now understand sir 

[ujayujay]

[monkey4u]

2 hours ago, The Deerhunter said:

Read!  Token demolition only. Heavy equipment to come.

Heavy equipment =  6 sledge hammers

[lvr181]

A very suspicious and questionable "sudden" reaction about the long term illegalities of the property. Someone got their nose out of joint?

[dotpoom]

4 hours ago, colinneil said:

The owner is obviously totally brain dead to have built the pool in the first place.

How did he think he could get away with building the pool?

 

Is that a rhetorical question?....I suppose the answer is ........the same way every else does

[hobobo]

4 hours ago, colinneil said:

The owner is obviously totally brain dead to have built the pool in the first place.

How did he think he could get away with building the pool?

Bulging brown envelopes perhaps?

[nakhonandy]

The owner probably made loads of money over the years and decided to bow out.

 

The land is still worth a hell of a lot.

[AgMech Cowboy]

After looking at the Golden Cliff House website, it seems a pity. It must have gotten a bit rundown. The video and picture sure are nice. It should have, could have been a great place.

[elgordo38]

6 hours ago, colinneil said:

The owner is obviously totally brain dead to have built the pool in the first place.

How did he think he could get away with building the pool?

I agree building the pool only drew attention to his other illegal activities such as operating a illegal hotel. Do they ever do a legality check on hotels? I think a lot of them here must be operating on quicksand. I am sure the number operating illegally or with expired licenses must be high. He was the flavor of the day or his business was so poor his protection payments ceased and his insurance company foreclosed. 

[Basil B]

7 hours ago, onemorechang said:

Good Job. 

 

It will be a good job Miracle if they actually remove all traces of the pool and return the beach and rocks to what it was before they built the pool.

 

Now, time to start to investigate who took payments to look the other way when the pool was built.

[onemorechang]

7 minutes ago, Basil B said:

It will be a good job Miracle if they actually remove all traces of the pool and return the beach and rocks to what it was before they built the pool.

 

Now, time to start to investigate who took payments to look the other way when the pool was built.

 

Most likely left like a building site, with  trip hazards all over the place in

and around the waters edge.

 

 

[KenKadz]

7 hours ago, Kerryd said:

 

I imagine that there wasn't an issue about the pool when it was built (20-21 years ago) and no hassles about it until just very recently when suddenly, for some reason, it became a priority issue.

Sounds like someone was JEALOUS, Thai style!

[NickJ]

More to this story than anyone here will ever know about. But one thing is pretty certain. In no simple terms does this have anything to do with right or wrong. Rather,  see what I can do and who I know.