repercussions for not paying monthly fee (gated community)?

[Mr-Zedd]

I have just arrived back in Hua Hin to avoid another Canada winter. Glad to be here!

A lot of things have been happening in the gated community where I stay, and not in a good way.

When I left in May this year the water tower (for our street) was working, the communal swimming pool was being cleaned regularly, our grass was trimmed every month (by the maintenance staff), and things seemed fine.

Fast forward 6 months and now there is no water available from the tower, and getting the staff to deliver water to our house tanks is like "pulling teeth"… it sometimes takes 4-6 days to get refilled even though the filling station for the water truck is less than 1 km away and we have no water for days on end. We are just past the end of Soi 6 and off the Hua Hin water grid so we need to rely on trucks to fill the water tanks beside our houses.

The swimming pool is now unusable due to large algae growth and low water levels, and many of our yards have not been trimmed for 3-4 months. My grass is 11" (28cm) long in some spots.

This morning about a dozen owners (mostly Thai women with Farang husbands) had a communal meeting with the lady responsible for our subdivision and said they had enough of these neglected services. They are refusing to pay the monthly "maintenance repair bill" of 1500 bhat each. They said if the developer is not going to keep things running then screw him, he gets no money. The only thing I can see that is still being maintained is garbage pickup, the road sweeper and the night security guard.

I suppose this could go on for months if the developer decides he has no motivation to "fix" anything.

So what happens now?
1- might he reduce services further since he has less money coming in now? such as our electricity (which he supplies)?
2 - might he do a few "token" things to shut us up long enough to get us paying our bill again?
3 - could it be an incentive to actually fix things?
4 - is the developer going to take legal action against us for not paying our "maintenance repair bill" as is stipulated in our contracts?
5 - ???

From my understanding the developer (only met him once briefly) is not exactly a reasonable guy (I was told he took the light bulbs out of the light fixtures that illuminate our street at night so he could save money on electricity, it is very dark here unless some neighbours turn their driveway lights on) so who knows what he will do.

Incidentally over 50% of the houses are now for sale on this street since most people are getting so fed up with the lack of maintenance work done by this developer that they want to leave.

Just curious if anyone has any experience living in their gated community where this has happened? What was the result?

Reading through the forum postings the only related thread I could find is one dated March 2008 "Trouble with service charges" which mentioned a major increase in monthly fees.

Thanks for any experience or advice you can provide!

Mr Zedd

[Lung Per]

I am sorry I cannot guide you in any meaningful way. You do have my sympathy and I hope that somehow your problems will be solved.
I presume you have gone through your contract and verified the developer's contractual obligations. Is the developer farang or Thai? Seems like his well is running dry? Perhaps he is approaching bankruptcy? Legal action in LOS is most often a very long, costly and slow road and if the guy is out of money, will take you nowhere. I hope other members of the community can be of assistance. Good luck.

[Mr-Zedd]

Hi Lung Per,

I dont actually own the house, I only house sit every year for my friend who is living in Canada (with his Thai wife) so I dont have access to the contract. I have made him aware of the situation.

The developer is Thai and from what I have heard, he is working on 2 other development projects so I doubt he has much interest in this one anymore, since there is no more money in it for him.

If it gets really bad I suppose I can just move to somewhere else in Thailand... but it will mostly weigh on the Thai women (and their farang husbands) since they live here all year round.

We'll wait to see what happens...

[matthewnoel]

mai pen rai

[BOZ]

We are dealing with this type of issue on a different level... Work gets done when pushed to do it.. No major improvements over the past 7 years with the rates climbing significantly like 300% over that time period.. The local home owners are now looking to form a "Moo Baan" to take control of the common areas and manage the funds and give transparent insight into spending against revenue.. They are thinking a 50% decrease in monthly fees right away if approved in the courts!.... Time will tell, of course our water is controlled by them also, so interesting times ahead.... Your friend could look at doing something along these lines as well, takes time and commitment from the majority of the home/land ownwers to make this happen...

[terry+carmen]

Hi Zedd,

Much depends on whether you are a lessee or land owner?

If you are a lessee PM me and I will send you everything we have researched for Lessees in the mean time check your contract. Particularly look at the maintenance clause and what actions the the land owner can take if you fail to pay maintenance fees. As a lessee you could be sued for breach of contract however, not all contracts are the same for a definitive answer contact a lawyer.

[Mr-Zedd]

Hello terry+carmen,

I will have to ask my friend (the owner) if its lessee or if he owns the lands.... I am not sure.

Good question.

[arcadianagain]

Our gated community has a legally appointed committee to run the place and is overseen by a Brit lady who does a fantastic job liaising with all the workers and local authorities. This development was built a few years ago by a European who came into a lot of criticism on this site, however he was more than happy to allow the residents to run their own affairs. Due to the efforts of the committee we now have water connected to the mains supply instead of having to be topped up by tanker, all in all it is a well run site with just a few non-payers.

[Mr-Zedd]

When he finishes paying off the house he will own the land.

Yes, arcadianagain, I was talking with some people today and they seem to be exploring this idea of a committee to run the community. Beside the water supply issue however is electricity. At the moment the developer appears to control our power supply as we all pay him the money for power, not the utility company.

One concern is that if we "do this ourselves" and the developer gets pissed off, what's stopping him from turning off the power supply? That's a biggy.

Thanks for your feedback... we'll see which way it goes soon I guess...

[hhfarang]

This is a problem in several gated communities here. The developer retains the rights to the electricity supply, water supply, and often the public areas including sois and the gate, so if you piss him off he can just shut everything off and lock the gate. I have friends with the same worries. Good luck.

[Takiap]

I know this doesn't help, but sometimes the developers feel just as upset as the people living in these developments because many home owners don't pay their share.

If you have 60 houses and only 40 are paying their monthly fees, the developer has to try and make do with less money, while the residents still expect all the regular services. Once cuts start happening, those who do pay get pissed off because they are having to suffer just because others aren't paying, so a few more stop paying, which in turn leads to even more cuts.


I have personally seen this happen in the development across the road from me, and now it seems they are in the same boat.......no security, etc, etc, etc.


This is just one of the reasons why my wife and I weren't even willing to consider buying in a development. Anyway, good luck.

[charlesh]

I was living in a gated community where 1 Thai owner had not paid for 5years. 2 Expats had gone missing for places unknown leaving their properties including grass to grow. The only thing done was talk about removing services or restricting access which didn't happen. So the rest of the community was left to take up the slack.
Chook di.

[zeitgeist]

It's a shame that the Land Office don't demand a letter similar to a condominium sale where the Juristic office have to confirm all payments are up to date. That would enforce payment to a certain extent.
My suggestion would be to create a representative committee and first speak to the developer, keep it friendly first!

[Mr-Zedd]

Well, it seems the Thai women here are being pro-active. They got the electricity information from the developer's office and have gone to Hua Hin city today to start the process of getting us hooked up to the city grid. That will make a huge difference in removing our dependence on the developer.

So far, the developer seems to be ok with us forming this committee and removing him from the task of his "monthly duties"… but of course until he agrees to it legally… one can never be sure. Ironically... the developer still lives on this community street... although I think that will change in a few months...

Yes, charlesh, there is always the possibility that some people will not contribute or pay their fees to either the developer or a committee. Can't think of a way to fix that that.

Stay tuned…