No Trust ( word of advise )

[Diana Hind]

Well we bought a lovely new house in Cha-am signed all papers in June and recieved the Chanot ( Nor sor 4 ) went back in July to expect all snagging & Air conditioning finished - ( kept 200,000 baht back ) for the builder to finish.

Arrived and not finished so we had workmen in for the 3 weeks we went over for vacation- 6 days in a hotel and moved in the new house without bathrooms ready other than the maids room and only temporary electric.
The second week the builder ordered the ground floor Air con to be supplied & fitted by the Sony shop in Hua Hin ( which don't forget we had already payed the builder for & also the agreement was made between him & the sony shop)we have signed legal papers of the money he has recieved.
whilst on holiday we was made aware that he owed money to various workers - which we payed and made them sign for the amount out of what we owed the builder due to the builder disapearing .So upon leaving other than having a fire caused by the electrical company which has now been sorted we thought we were ok.
Oh my god.....our friend what stayed in our home after we left phoned us in the UK saying he had 3 thai visitors demanding the Air con money or they would rip it out.Our friend then phoned the police who said if they come back to phone them, so we thought ok ?
Our thai lawyer phoned yesterday to advise a criminal case had been raised against my husband and he has untill the 20th Aug to pay 118,000 baht for the air con plus 20,000 baht to the police or else a arrest wil be issued - what has really upset me is that we bought TV / FRIDGE/ COOKER / UBC ETC from the sony shop and aparently a lady there has said to the police to take out the court action that my husband with the builders girlfriend ordered the Air con ( which is a blaintent lie....)- she had a copy of my husbands passport which was required for the UBC connection.. we have now had to transfer money over to our bank in cha-am to avoid my husband being arrested when he arrives in Thailand again, this experience has really made me doubt that we have made the right move into what we thought was such a lovely country.......

[Jaime]

So sorry to hear this story. Makes my problems with builders pale into insignificance. I don't know what your experience of Thailand was before buying the house but I think most long term visitors would be able to see alot of this coming (I apologise if this seems patronising - it is not meant to be). A salutory lesson for all getting involved in the burgeoning housing market but I sympathise with much of what you say. One thing I certainly noticed was the way that builders like to pass their debts to their subcontractors on to the house purchaser. This is a difficult one because you know that if you don't pay it then work will grind to a halt and if you do then the chances are that the recipient will do a runner with the cash - catch 22.

I can tell by the way you have typed your post that you are fuming but if it is any consolation, after I had everything sorted out I sat on my porch, sank a beer and the weight of the world lifted from my shoulders. Hope it will be the same for you and hopefully someone can offer you some more practical advice on how to deal with this situation.

Also, see below:

[buksida]

That is an extremely unpleasent predicament to be in. There were a few things you could have done to lessen the likelyhood of something like this happening such as not trusting the builders as far as you can throw them but its a little late for that now.

My advise would be to get yourself a good lawyer (I'm guessing you already have one), don't be too alarmed by the police, all they want is one thing and they'll do pretty much anything to get it. They just think its christmas when a case against a farang is available, you can almost see the skinny brown wretches rubbing their hands together while they slurp their fishball soup while watching the TV in the cop shop. It may even be worth trying to track down the rogue builder with your own legal team providing you have contractual proof of the agreements between you and him that he has since broken.

Good Luck.

[Pundi64]

We are going to have a home built in Hau Hin, and this sometimes crosses my mind about ripoffs with construction builders etc.
Who were the contractors for your home? (main builders company name) so we can have a heads up on this BS.

[JW]

I sympathise with your predicament, and you will get some valuable advise from members of the forum.
Anyone who chooses to have a house built should really do some serious homework, look at what the builder has built, speak to customers - Falangs not thais, If you are not going to be here to oversee the build of your dream home - it is not an option to have a place built in my opinion. You hear many similar stories. Even people who are here all the time have problems, spoke to one guy who is renovating a house two doors from his - he went in the house to find his tiler using black grouting! Go to a reputable real estate agent, who has a good track record and some longevity in the area.
Hopefully you will be able to sort out the issues, and enjoy your new home. Hope that someone else avoids the same mistake by reading your story.
Next time your here come to Hua Hin and have a beer with us down here.
Best of luck