Buying a condo

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malcolminthemiddle
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Re: Buying a condo

Post by malcolminthemiddle »

Dannie Boy wrote:
Ginjaninja wrote:Guys,
I'm in a bit of a dilemma at the moment with the purchase of my new (build) condo. Tomorrow I have the opportunity of completing the transaction and receiving the keys however the compensation amount they have offered for the late penalty fee is only 40K thb, which by my calculation is around 80K thb short considering they are 6-months late.
Has anyone been in a similar situation? Should I just accept the measly 40K and get on with life? I recon the alternative is taking the selling party to court and that could take months/years? Should I stick to my stubborn Western :guns:s ?
Appreciate any advice.
Cheers,
GN.
I don't have any direct experience of the situation you're in, but I think your comment about taking months (and much more likely) years to try to get it resolved is probably correct from the one issue I have had involving a Thai lawyer. Having said that, it is almost certainly worth telling them that the 40k offer is insufficient and that you will take further action unless they offer a fairly substantial increase - although you have to be ready to deal with their reply if it's a no!!
The late penalty fee is compensation for any additional costs incurred due to late completion such as extended rent. If you can show the Contractor written proof that additional costs were more than 40K then you will have a better chance of him increasing his offer. He should be aware, the same evidence can be used in court should you decide to proceed to claim your contractual entitlement through the courts.
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hhfarang
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Re: Buying a condo

Post by hhfarang »

I don't know about a condo, but I had a similar experience with a house several years back. It was a year and four months late when I fired the builder and took over myself. The contract had a two thousand baht per day penalty so that, plus the unfinished part came to around 2 million baht. Fortunately I had staged payments written in the contract with milestones to be completed before paying, so at that point, I would have owed about 2 million had the construction been completed on time. I just witheld final payment and presented the builder with a letter and accounting showing that he actually owed me about 300,000 baht. of course he didn't pay, but he didn't get that last two million either.
My brain is like an Internet browser; 12 tabs are open and 5 of them are not responding, there's a GIF playing in an endless loop,... and where is that annoying music coming from?
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Ginjaninja
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Re: Buying a condo

Post by Ginjaninja »

malcolminthemiddle wrote:The late penalty fee is compensation for any additional costs incurred due to late completion such as extended rent. If you can show the Contractor written proof that additional costs were more than 40K then you will have a better chance of him increasing his offer. He should be aware, the same evidence can be used in court should you decide to proceed to claim your contractual entitlement through the courts.
Thanks for all the helpful feedback.

Regarding the late penalty fee; this is written up as a clause in the contract and states the penalty fee will be paid at a rate of 0.01% of the total condominium price per day for every day over the agreed finish date - 31-Oct-2013 (also stated in the contract). As the completion is now over six months late I should be entitled to a significant amount however the selling party has only offered me 45K thb which is not even half the correct calculated sum.

Today the sellers' representative (a 3rd party) contacted my girlfriend and advised that they will not conduct the final title-deed transfer at the land department tomorrow unless we accept the 45k. There was also mention that they are ready to refund me and reclaim the unit if I'm not ready to accept their terms.
This is a bit worrying considering I've a) paid the total amount and b) transferred 90% of our personal items to the condo.

I have also commenced an online complaint through the 'Office of The Consumer Protection Board' (http://www.ocpb.go.th/) and my girlfriend has phoned them up yesterday to confirm the complaint has been recieved. They advised that it would take one week for the complaint to be processed. The cynic inside me chuckles.
Has anyone had any experience with the OCPB (Sor Khor Bor)? I foresee things being dragged into court... :roll:

:cheers:
GN.
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