troublesome neighbours

[BsBs]

Just move, who do you think you are and what do you think you can do ? NOTHING !

 

[Monkeyrobot]

Move,. It's not worth the drama.

[elgordo38]

11 hours ago, whoareyou said:

Can't approach them directly because most have a screw loose

Reminds me of my adjoining neighbor in Mexico who had a carpenter shop in the back bedroom. He thought it was OK and that I was just a shit disturbing Gringo. 

[kannot]

55 minutes ago, wildewillie89 said:

Go to your Tessaban office and ask to speak to the environmental health officer...if there is a smell and waste then they should be able to do something about it. I cant remember the law, but regarding smells and noises that come from business they have to be a certain number of metres from the next house. The reason, legally, people can not have rice machines and pig farms near houses for example. It isnt the actual business that is the issue, it is the 'nuisance' of the noise and smell.  

 

If they say they cant do anything about it then it is basically because they are too lazy to help you. It isn't a matter of suing anyone or any complex law, it is just like living back home...you have a problem, you report it to your municipality. 

In the   village and I mean "IN" two house  keep  about 10 cows  each with neighbours adjoining, the  smell  must be great and I have no idea where all the effluent goes to but glad i dont live there

[wildewillie89]

13 minutes ago, kannot said:

In the   village and I mean "IN" two house  keep  about 10 cows  each with neighbours adjoining, the  smell  must be great and I have no idea where all the effluent goes to but glad i dont live there

And that is perfectly fine until someone complains...usually these things get by due to ignorance of the law it seems. However, if someone does complain, the officer will go and teach the house methods of reducing the smell. If they do not practice these methods then fines and other punishments come about.

Edited March 30, 2017 by wildewillie89

[elgordo38]

12 minutes ago, kannot said:

In the   village and I mean "IN" two house  keep  about 10 cows  each with neighbours adjoining, the  smell  must be great and I have no idea where all the effluent goes to but glad i dont live there

You have a dairy close by. Yes the smell must be terrrible but here survival is the name of the game. They survive by hook or by crook. Like soi dogs barking and roosters crowing little bothers the village people. 

[wildewillie89]

Just now, elgordo38 said:

You have a dairy close by. Yes the smell must be terrrible but here survival is the name of the game. They survive by hook or by crook. Like soi dogs barking and roosters crowing little bothers the village people. 

People do and act on their complaints. We had police come to our house because someone complained about our dog. However, everyone knows that our dog is one of the few dogs in the village that does bark (as it only barks when there is a reason to). The policeman also knew this and said it is just because she is scared of your dog.

[elgordo38]

2 minutes ago, wildewillie89 said:

However, if someone does complain, the officer will go and teach the house methods of reducing the smell.

Sounds compassionate but usually its gimme me money and I go away. 

[elgordo38]

1 minute ago, wildewillie89 said:

People do and act on their complaints. We had police come to our house because someone complained about our dog. However, everyone knows that our dog is one of the few dogs in the village that does bark (as it only barks when there is a reason to). The policeman also knew this and said it is just because she is scared of your dog.

I guess that is the purpose of having a dog to keep strangers away. Sometimes neighbors tend to think they are relatives. He did not pass you an envelope perchance. 

[wildewillie89]

3 minutes ago, elgordo38 said:

Sounds compassionate but usually its gimme me money and I go away. 

Thai is incredibly corrupt but in this type of setting it is a bit different. Most villages are divided in two, depending on what side of local politics they are on. So if some business are allowed to continue and others arent it looks bad so the Mayors will generally discourage corruption about these sorts of issues as they are small scale in the scheme of things. Generally, from my experience, there is a uniformed approach on small things...bigger things maybe a different matter though.

[lowprofile]

Thanks for the replies.

Basically it comes down, as someone stated, to "how far do you want to take it"?

The problem is "consequences".

How badly do I want him to be a good neighbour? If I was here all the time I would probably follow up with the proper complaint process, but I'm not and there is the security and safety aspect of wife, house, cars, bikes, etc, etc. He may not (will not) like being reported and have something bad happen to me or mine - not necessarily by his own hand.

The neighbourhood is mixed 50/50 Thai and Falang. None of them are prepared to complain to him.

TIT

[wildewillie89]

15 minutes ago, lowprofile said:

Thanks for the replies.

Basically it comes down, as someone stated, to "how far do you want to take it"?

The problem is "consequences".

How badly do I want him to be a good neighbour? If I was here all the time I would probably follow up with the proper complaint process, but I'm not and there is the security and safety aspect of wife, house, cars, bikes, etc, etc. He may not (will not) like being reported and have something bad happen to me or mine - not necessarily by his own hand.

The neighbourhood is mixed 50/50 Thai and Falang. None of them are prepared to complain to him.

TIT

By the sounds of it, it would be the easiest thing to fix in the world if all of you complained. I have made 3 complaints about different things. Once the official told them it was an issue, then it all stopped with a 'I'm so sorry, I didn't know that was the law'. Usually all it takes is a visit, as they are scared of being fined.

[GarryP]

10 minutes ago, lowprofile said:

Thanks for the replies.

Basically it comes down, as someone stated, to "how far do you want to take it"?

The problem is "consequences".

How badly do I want him to be a good neighbour? If I was here all the time I would probably follow up with the proper complaint process, but I'm not and there is the security and safety aspect of wife, house, cars, bikes, etc, etc. He may not (will not) like being reported and have something bad happen to me or mine - not necessarily by his own hand.

The neighbourhood is mixed 50/50 Thai and Falang. None of them are prepared to complain to him.

TIT

Rather typical. A lot of it is about face, not losing it and not making others lose it. As a result things get ignored and passed over. No one prepared to rock the boat. But I understand your position.  In my case, others in the neighborhood had a problem with the same home owner, but no one would say anything. Some of them were scared. When I explained the matter to the neighbor from hell, using reason and without raising my voice and showed her that I was neither scared nor would back down, she actually did something about the problem. She realized that getting aggressive would not work with me as it had done with her former neighbor. Other residents in the neighborhood have thanked me for doing something and mentioned they too had seen an improvement. BTW I speak fluent Thai so I do not come across as a wild foreigner raising his voice/shouting because no one understands what he is trying to say, a problem I have seen before and which does not seem to get the desired results.  

[Jimbo2014]

I think you have just broken the first rule of fight club.  Unleash project mahem

[Davehappen]

Had a similar problem with a guy across the road from us who keeps goats, there a bit of noise from the animals and sometimes a farmyard smell, no problem, we are in a village afterall. What was a problem was something he was burning in the evening, thick black smoke, acrid smell, affecting eyes, throats and chest. Contacted poo yai ban, she came down had a look, talked to ya man and bingo. Never did it again. 

So advice would be to talk with poo yai baan.

[madusa]

On 2017/3/29 at 4:39 PM, colinneil said:

Well at least you could get some cheap soap    

No, no, those are not cheap soap my friend, a company will contract to buy them up and pack them with beautiful wrapping then sell them for a good price at market or shopping area, although they can't make the grade to the big shopping mall. That's what my friend does with the tea grown on the Chiang Mai mountains, he contract a tea plantation and pack them with nice wrapping even with his name on it. See, that's how you make money in Thailand, buy cheap sell expensive.

[madusa]

On 2017/3/29 at 10:14 AM, A1Str8 said:

Yes. Go to the local cop shop, tell them what's up. See where it goes. 

Ha, ha, go to the cop? See where it goes? How long have you been in Thailand, just arrived last year may be? You can do nothing about it- full stop.

Good advice is go to them and make friends with them saying you like to buy their soap and try them out. Then check the quality of the soap, if they do make good quality (if you know what soap making is all about) then consider join venture to make and sell them.

The goat's milk soap is very very popular in Malaysia. Sell at a good price too.  Yes, think about it, turn the negative to the positive.

Once your soap sells on the website in China "Ali BaBa". China will place big order. Once successful consider shifting the factory to a town in Malaysia near to the Thai border. Why? Because all the malaysian mercantile laws or business law protects you- you get what is yours, but not in Thailand, you risk loosing everything, be smart make the smart move.  Law in Malaysia is always in English language and they use the British law handed down to them.

Well, if they make bad soap, then teach them to make good ones, see what I mean? Have you had your shower yet? I begin to smell some B.O. where is the soap?

[A1Str8]

1 hour ago, madusa said:

Ha, ha, go to the cop? See where it goes? How long have you been in Thailand, just arrived last year may be? You can do nothing about it- full stop.

Good advice is go to them and make friends with them saying you like to buy their soap and try them out. Then check the quality of the soap, if they do make good quality (if you know what soap making is all about) then consider join venture to make and sell them.

The goat's milk soap is very very popular in Malaysia. Sell at a good price too.  Yes, think about it, turn the negative to the positive.

Once your soap sells on the website in China "Ali BaBa". China will place big order. Once successful consider shifting the factory to a town in Malaysia near to the Thai border. Why? Because all the malaysian mercantile laws or business law protects you- you get what is yours, but not in Thailand, you risk loosing everything, be smart make the smart move.  Law in Malaysia is always in English language and they use the British law handed down to them.

Well, if they make bad soap, then teach them to make good ones, see what I mean? Have you had your shower yet? I begin to smell some B.O. where is the soap?

How long in Thailand? Almost a decade, kid. I know for a fact that there's no such thing as can't do anything about it. 

Take responsibility for your very limited world view. Go to the cops yes all it takes is go to the cops. If you don't know what to do from there that's your problem but that doesn't mean you can't do anything. 

A can't do anything attitude is what creates average. I don't want average anywhere near me. 

 

Respect

[chickenslegs]

There is a proper, tried and tested method to resolve this sort of problem (albeit a bit slow). It has been described by Carlosm in post #24 and verified by Davehappen in post #45.

 

Thais have been using this procedure for generations.

 

We are not in Kansas now. So, when in Rome...

(Pardon the mixed metaphors)

[scorecard]

8 hours ago, wildewillie89 said:

By the sounds of it, it would be the easiest thing to fix in the world if all of you complained. I have made 3 complaints about different things. Once the official told them it was an issue, then it all stopped with a 'I'm so sorry, I didn't know that was the law'. Usually all it takes is a visit, as they are scared of being fined.

 

That can be true of course, but Thais (like many folks) can react with revenge.

 

Some years back in Chonburi city a farang buddy was rying to find a shop which did car interior repairs (seat coverings) he stopped on the very wide driveway of a shop that he thought was the correct address to quickly go inside and check he had the right place.

 

All quickly confirmed and within 2 minutes he went quickly back to his car to drive it inside the shop. And discovered two very large dents in the bonnet with a large hollow house brick on the ground.

 

Turned out the owner had instructed his workers to damage any cars which encroached on his driveway. In reality the farangs' car was not blocking anything and was parked on the public footpath.

 

Farang now had a business card and called the number. Manager appeared onto the driveway quickly, farang asked 'what's this? , manager says 'you shouldn't park on other peoples driveway'.

 

Farang's Thai wife called the police. They came quickly and demanded the shop owner pay the farang 5,000Baht cash on the spot for the damage done.

 

No sale on the seat repairs. 

Edited March 30, 2017 by scorecard

[jacko45k]

20 hours ago, OmegaRacer said:

I live in a Thai Mu Ban. It's very quiet with normal people. The only problem comes from a house of 2 female farang teachers who shout their heads off at every occasion. Even worse when they get drunk and have parties until well after midnight. Hopefully, their backpacking time is soon finished.

Bad neighbours are bad wherever in the world they are.

At least here we often have the option of them being over 10m away rather than on the other side of the wall of a terraced house (hopefully). Even 20m away is not sufficient as  they may  have their 3-4 canines run amok all hours of day or night.  Do the best you can... a soap factory sounds less intrusive than a pig slaughterhouse, keeping fighting cockerels or 25 living there with a vehicle each. Rent don't buy should be 1st choice.... I may yet move to the wife's 5 rai, with not another house for half a KM.

[Thongkorn]

On 30/03/2017 at 10:32 AM, DekDaeng said:

Could they make soap from dogs?

 

Got their phone number?

Yes they can. They use to make soap from people.

[exemplary21]

On 3/30/2017 at 9:48 AM, OmegaRacer said:

I live in a Thai Mu Ban. It's very quiet with normal people. The only problem comes from a house of 2 female farang teachers who shout their heads off at every occasion. Even worse when they get drunk and have parties until well after midnight. Hopefully, their backpacking time is soon finished.

 

After midnight...! Goodness gracious me...!