Rights in a Housing Estate

Question:

I live in a housing estate in Jomtien. This project was started 12 years ago by a major developer. The situation is now as follows: The street through the residential area has become a public road. The owners were never notified that the developer planned to withdraw after the pool was built.

Two Thai women have been around for eight years, collecting a common fee. We’ve seen no accounts or budgets. If anyone has any objections, and therefore tries to withhold payment, they are threatened with countermeasures. There’s a gate being serviced by guards. These guards never note the registration number of the vehicles passing, so none of the numerous burglaries here has been solved.

The question is: Can we residents take control through the establishment of a Juristic Person?

Norseman, Jomtien

Answer:

Some builders—both Thai and foreign—have built housing estates without having applied for a Housing Estate Permit (Moobaan Chatsan in Thai). They do this to save time and money in the initial phase of a project. It also means they can save money by lowering the cost of infrastructure—roads, electricity, water and sewage.

You have a much better security as a resident if the estate is registered according to the law. Then the residents have decision-making power through the Annual General Meeting.

We don’t know if your estate is registered properly, so you have to find that out first. This you can do by visiting the Land Office and checking the deed for the site. If the estate is registered correctly, there will be a Juristic Person for the estate, especially since the project is already several years old. If there is such a registration, you can ask the two ladies to see the paperwork. If they don’t have any papers, or are reluctant to show them to you, then it’s best to involve some Thais who understand the law, either a concerned residents of the area or an external lawyer. There is also an English translation of the Law on Housing Estates in Thailand. It may be a useful read.

Before you start the whole process, you should check with your neighbors that they agree that it’s necessary. It's often difficult to collect the common fee, whether it’s a residential estate in the legal sense or not. So, ask yourself the question, could it actually get worse if you fire the two ladies? Who will collect the money then? And, what will you do with those who don’t pay? It’s often the case that you actually have to make threats to residents in older housing estates before they pay. Who’s willing to take on that job?

 (From Thailands Tidende Issue 6/2012)