How to enforce short term rentals in Pattaya Condo

[KittenKong]

5 hours ago, lkn said:

The exemption is that if the place has less than five rooms, the Hotel Act does not apply.

 

What is not clear to me is if that is the entire building (so e.g. most townhouses would be exempt), the person doing the renting (having less than five rooms in total or in that building), or, that it means that the place being rented out does not fall under the act if said place has less than five rooms, which IMO would be the least logical interpretation of this exemption, yet, a Thai lawyer actually told me that this was the correct interpretation, which seems absurd to me.

 

My understanding was that even if it has under 5 (I remembered 6 but thanks for that correction) rooms then it still has to register but does not have to be licensed.

 

I also understood that the number of rooms relates to the number in the entire building. The idea presumably being to allow small guest-houses to operate without having to get a full hotel licence.

[KittenKong]

4 hours ago, inThailand said:

Good points!

 

A condo development or a condo owner can get a hotel license and pay all the associated taxes and income taxes. This is why no one does it.

 

Our building cannot rent out rooms or act as an agency for room rentals. We looked into the question and the legal structure of the condo association prevents it. Besides which the building doesnt own any individual units: these are owned by individual co-owners. The building only owns the building structure and common areas.

 

In a building with many unsold units the developer could presumably apply for a hotel licence though the building regs would probably stop him from operating a business outside of the designated commercial areas of the building. They would certainly stop him in our building.

[trogers]

7 minutes ago, KittenKong said:

 

Our building cannot rent out rooms or act as an agency for room rentals. We looked into the question and the legal structure of the condo association prevents it. Besides which the building doesnt own any individual units: these are owned by individual co-owners. The building only owns the building structure and common areas.

 

In a building with many unsold units the developer could presumably apply for a hotel licence though the building regs would probably stop him from operating a business outside of the designated commercial areas of the building. They would certainly stop him in our building.

Areas designated for residential and commercial purposes are demarcated and approved by the Authorities.

 

The owner of such spaces cannot legally change the purposes so approved.

 

Unsold units can be rented out on monthly leases. The developer would then be competing with his buyers...good luck.

Edited August 4, 2017 by trogers