Burgernev

WithMarco, on 2011-08-27 02:06:43, said:

Quote recent report on Cambodia:
"Ho Vandy, Cambodian Minister for Tourism is quoted as saying 'We still lack flights carrying tourists from one area to another area. We need diversity in tourism.' Currently most visitors fly to Siem Reap in Cambodia and may choose to fly back out to Bangkok. Only 7% of tourists arriving in Cambodia go to the south coast."


Quote recent report on Thailand:
"The highest number ever of arrivals is in the most recent period: the first quarter of 2011 (at 5.33 million visitors). Total arrivals for 2010 where the highest on record, despite the actually very serious political disturbances in the second quarter of the year. It looks like 2011 is going to be the best year for tourism on record, and we may be heading for close to 20 million arrivals."


Harp on all you like Marco, tell as many people as you like how you couldn't hack Thailand, it's not going to change reality though, is it.

Cheers.

petercr, on 2011-07-16 19:17:23, said:

I understand what you're saying about the 'nominee' lawyer, but without the absence of some concrete documentation from the farang, over and about the lease then I'd say as far as it makes no difference the Thai lawyer will always be 'ajudged' to be the landowner and lessor, rather than nominee. Just as an aside can a Thai actually be a 'nominee' when holding land for a farang to lease, I thought they had to hold it so a farang can 'acquire' the land, ie: Limited company/Thai wife' route where you 'can' have control over it!?

But re: your main points if you have a lawyer on board you shouldn't move forward another step (and should have paid a deposit really) until you have a copy of the land title, your lawyer will then go to the land office and carry out the neccessary checks... in under an hour...
1) House registration documents - there may not be any missing docs here as the normm is probably that 99.99% of houses in Thailand don't seperate land and house, I don't know any Thais that separate it. That would be fine and you can carry out registration during/after purchase. If never done there will be a larger tax liability though.
2) Building Permit - may not be an issue as 5kms from town centre in Hua Hin is outside Tessabaan area and they are not required. If it is in an area required then as part of the buying process I'd expect them to go to Tessabaan, pay the few grand required and get one.
3) Lease - the land office can tell your lawyer/Thai friend in 5 minutes if there was an officially registered one or not, they will have registered it and have a copy attached to their land office 'original copy' of the chanute on file. If there is one and it was lost/withheld by lawyer then they can get a copy, IF the lawyer never actually registered one... then the fireworks may start and I'd walk away at that point.

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I'd say your lawyer is the one who's been ineffective (if he was on board at the time) as you're behind at the moment due to the deposit being paid. It may ne difficult getting it back without a clear agreement on what docs they were to give you at deposit stage, and even then....

This is only my experiences in HH and they can be different depending on which lawyer or land office official you use.

Good luck,
Burgernev.

Here you go Joe...

Showed a couple of other landmarks to help, you'll see the 'right turn' signs to Kiri Nakara on the main Pala-U Road, ie: the mountain road coming out of town.

All the sites I've marked on are built, this is a very old map image.


Burgernev

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Hi Arran,

Can't add much re: costs that hasn’t been said, and having to pay OTT per m2 in Hua Hin there's not a lot I can say really   Not sure if any use, but have attached a list I did for a mate of things to check if the contractor has included in his price, should you want them that is. It's far from comprehensive and much of it I wouldn’t expect them to neccessarily include in their basic rates. And on this general theme, it's vital imo to make a schedule of the material and finishes specs, types etc, and include it in the contract. Otherwise if they have a freehand with this, most of them will get the cheapest stuff going.


On the floor plan, if I read it right you got a nice large kitchen/dining room, but the master bedroom (I'm assuming bed no.1) isn't all that big at 4m x 3m. See attached pic of one of our bedrooms which is exactly that size, and it's a bit tight width wise. I don't know what you had in mind for the kitchen/diner, but personally I would steal a metre for the bedroom. Or, if that didn't work you could dog-leg the bedroom/kitchen wall and build-in recessed wardrobes, if it's kitchen cabinets going on that wall, then should be easy to hide/dress around. You could make the bathroom 0.5m longer then and put a door in from the bedroom so it's en-suite.

As bbradsby mentioned, structure the payments so they do not get much ahead cash-flow wise, the more, smaller stage payments the better, reduce your risk level here and you can be seen to be helpful elsewhere. The stage payments always overlap, and they always ask for payment early, which gets annoying, but to be fair if they've just delivered a stack of floor tiles and started that, then personally I'll pay them for the roof even though there's a 3 or 4 days work left on it, keeping a good rapport with the contractor should not be underestimated in the grand scheme of things.

Good luck,

Burgernev

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Hi, I prefer to work it by a lump sum than by the truck so can't help you on that, but 1m of landfil has been around 120,000 Baht/rai for the past couple of years where we are, there was a sudden jump from the previous 80k/rai as a result of the oil price spike. Ofcourse they never dropped it back down when oil prices came down. It will depend also on where you are in relation to the nearest source is, ask around your area and the Thais will know the local companies. Now's a better time than ever to shop around and get a good deal, seeing as everyone's desperate for work.

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Price varies from builder to builder and what they think they can get away with, whether they're gonna get a nice house build from you or this their only job for you, that sort of thing. But from what I've seen and payed it's between 1,800-2,100 Baht per linear meter. That's with a src post every 2.8-3m with at least 1m deep footings into established earth, src beam at ground & top, render & paint both sides. Same story with oil, was 1,600/m a few years back. Again you should be able to better this if you shop around.

I'm sure you know already but don't let them have too much deposit or stage payments, it gives the less scrupulous one's the incentive to not finish the job properly, having a little agreement signed up, even just for a wall is normal in my experience. Good luck with whatever you're building, and ask to have a look round the builders recent jobs, most of them are only to happy to show you, if they're not then I'd probably not use them.

Cheers,