Thailand Real Estate Condoninium Act

New Condominium Act - John Fishbacks comments - complete revision above.

Condominium Law

This is the NEW, New, New translation of the revised Condo Act.  Many of its provisions are very different than the old act.

"These are the website editors comments gathered from the two meetings at which John Fishback spoke at length about the provisions of the new Condominium Act.This is the first set of note - John's comments following the third revision are below (editor). 

Thailand has adopted a new Condominium Act, which will go into effect on July 4, 2008. The new Act will have a substantial impact on developers, owners, and renters.

The new Condominium Act is a Law, and as such, violations of it are a criminal act, meaning that if a Condo owner is unsatisfied with the conduct or operation of the condo, and unable to get redress from the Juristic Manager, or the Condo owners Committee, they can go to the  police station and file a criminal complaint.
The new Act requires the developer to register certain documents at the Land Office including: (a) title documents showing the actual land site and identifying the commonly owned areas, and requires that the commonly owned areas be used only for that purpose; (b) a diagram showing access to the nearest public road, to assure that there is access to a public road; (c) a copy of the actual sales brochure and other sales materials presented to buyers, which then become partof the registered documents for the condominium, on which a buyer may file a criminal complaint if the facilities promised in the documents are not available (John also recommends that the same material be made an addendum to the sales contract - and cautioned that if the developer doesn’t want to do it, you need to seriously reconsider your purchase); and (d) a copy of the condominium regulations as set up by the develop..

The new Act requires that each condominium title document identify the ownership ratio based on area rather than price, which some developers have been doing (John noted that one of the abuses by unscrupulous developers was to assign an arbitrary high price to a small area owned by the developer; thus giving the developer a greater vote than the others with larger space. Or conversely, assigning a low value to greater space in order to reduce their financial obligation for maintenance and common area operations when they have a large number of unsold units).  The Act also requires an Office be included in the condominium for the Juristic Person, the legal entity which represents the condominium, and is the office to which all legal documents, complaints, requests, and problems should be reported to  create an official record. when dealing with condominium owners and outside vendors.

The Act also sets forth the minimum number of persons that are to be on the committee representing the owners at 3 with a maximum of 9. It also sets forth specific requirements for conducting the annual general meeting.  One significant change is that it also requires that monthly financial statements be posted on the condominium bulletin board within 15 days after the end of the month, and requires that there be an annual audits of the condominium’s financial operations, and the results posted for condo owners inspection.e. John noted that in the past, much of this was governed by the Condominium’s rules and stated that the Act provides that where there the new provisions of the act supercede the same sections in the older Act. The Act also sets forth the authority of the Committee over the Juristic Manager.

Several items that formerly required the approval of 75% or more of all condominium co-owners now require only a majority of co-owners, and only if they actually attend a General Meeting either in person or via a proxy. If a 25% quorum is not achieved at such a General Meeting, a second meeting is now required to be held within 15 days.

The new law is not selective as to Thai’s or foreigners.

John's latest comment - June 6, 2008 -  Well, folks, the English translation issue is not over yet and may never be but this weekend I had a sit down with several Thai versed in the new Thai condo Act. The reason, I ended up with 3 different translations of the important new Section 18/1 concerning penalties for overdue co-owners accounts each with a potentially different way to calculate penalties.

Well, I have finally determined what the intent of this Section is and it is to limit the maximum amount of penalty that can be charged, i.e. not to state what the penalty will be. That will be left to each condo to decide at a General Meeting in accordance with the other provisions of the Thai Condo Act. Anyway, I have input MY interprestation of the 3 translations and my conversations with other Thai people in the condo business and have attached yet again ANOTHER 'final' English translation of the 2008 Thai Condo Act amendments. Please post it on the PCEC website as a replacement for the last one and use it freely with the caveat that it remains an "unofficial translation". I have also been told that the Thai Governement does NOT make "official" translations of their laws, hence the many translations that will be produced. I will continue to 'tweak' mine to get the true meaning and intent of the Thai wording.

Sources: Pattaya City Expats Club