Buriram Thai Immigration

[TonyT]

After due consideration I am moving towards the option of cutting my losses & moving on.

When I first came to thailand I decided to buy a house (not realising that i could never own the property.
I wrote a contract which involved paying an initial deposit of Thai baht 1M with the remainder of TB650,000 payable in 12 months. The house was a new spec house built for that reason When I realised that I could never own the property I considered writing off the 1M Baht and walking away but somehow could not do that (a bad decision)!

The conversion rate was AUD/Thai 32 per AUD which meant the house was reasonably cheap but after 12 mths the conversion rate was AUD/Thai 20 per AUD.

The house was typical thai standard with many things like floor tiles very good but with the wter pipes throughout the house being such that I think the plumber forgot to apply glue and roof tiles so so. It took me 6 months to fix the plumbing which involved replacing all plumbing from the neat internal plumbing to everything being outside including both the bathrooms plumbing.

i also installed guttering and rain-water tanks that collected the then plenterful rainwater & two pumps, one for rainwater and the second for town water. These have to be altered as I realised that the rainwater tanks were all but empty.

The latest change has been to convert all the tanks to be town water which is quite good water in satuek so now we have 20,000 litres of town water being stored and delivered to the house with the two pumps which works well.

Recently I discovered that the three 2,000 litre tanks (the original ones) had deteriorated due to exposure to the sun that they have had to be retired.

Now that everything is as good as it can be I am pretty much decided to cut my losses & walk away.
This will mean returning home to AUS or NZ with virtually the clothes on my back.

QUESTION

Can anyone help me with knowledge about the AUS or NZ embassies in Bangkok as to whether either country has a scheme to offer subsatised housing for their residence. I have dual citizenship in these countries.
If they do, who should I talk to.

For the last 6 years I have only dealt with the NZ Embassy because it is a smaller embassy, and more personal whereas the Australian Embassy is big and not particularly frendly .

Any advice PLEASE!

[pagan1]

TonyT .......Sorry to hear that you have decided to leave. I wish you all the best and hope things turn out well.
Unable to help concerning NZ or AUS information (a Brit)

[TonyT]

Forgot to say that my last marriage visa renewal cost me a bribe of Bt20,000. I negotiated half of that not knowing that my wife had previously given them Bt10,000 which was money the Thai Government had paid her regarding a small rice farm she owns.

I have decided that this on-going situation will probably not resolve itself and it is not one which I am willing to tolerate.

Thank you for your comment pagan1

Have just been in touch with the NZ Embassy and presently I would have to serve a 14 day guarantee in a hotel on arrival in NZ (at no cost to myself)

[CO-CO]

After due consideration I am moving towards the option of cutting my losses & moving on.

When I first came to thailand I decided to buy a house (not realising that i could never own the property.
I wrote a contract which involved paying an initial deposit of Thai baht 1M with the remainder of TB650,000 payable in 12 months. The house was a new spec house built for that reason When I realised that I could never own the property I considered writing off the 1M Baht and walking away but somehow could not do that (a bad decision)!

The conversion rate was AUD/Thai 32 per AUD which meant the house was reasonably cheap but after 12 mths the conversion rate was AUD/Thai 20 per AUD.

The house was typical thai standard with many things like floor tiles very good but with the wter pipes throughout the house being such that I think the plumber forgot to apply glue and roof tiles so so. It took me 6 months to fix the plumbing which involved replacing all plumbing from the neat internal plumbing to everything being outside including both the bathrooms plumbing.

i also installed guttering and rain-water tanks that collected the then plenterful rainwater & two pumps, one for rainwater and the second for town water. These have to be altered as I realised that the rainwater tanks were all but empty.

The latest change has been to convert all the tanks to be town water which is quite good water in satuek so now we have 20,000 litres of town water being stored and delivered to the house with the two pumps which works well.

Recently I discovered that the three 2,000 litre tanks (the original ones) had deteriorated due to exposure to the sun that they have had to be retired.

Now that everything is as good as it can be I am pretty much decided to cut my losses & walk away.
This will mean returning home to AUS or NZ with virtually the clothes on my back.

QUESTION

Can anyone help me with knowledge about the AUS or NZ embassies in Bangkok as to whether either country has a scheme to offer subsatised housing for their residence. I have dual citizenship in these countries.
If they do, who should I talk to.

For the last 6 years I have only dealt with the NZ Embassy because it is a smaller embassy, and more personal whereas the Australian Embassy is big and not particularly frendly .

Any advice PLEASE!

This is not intended as having a pop at you Tony, but your situation is a classic example of the need to acquire sufficient knowledge before embarking on a life in Thailand. There are so many sources of information, and advice, often from those of us who have trodden that path already.


Your story should be shown to every planning to move to Thailand.


Just one example; there was no need to pay a bribe of 20,000 Baht, a retirement extension can be bought in Pattaya from 13,000 Baht up (others may have cheaper examples).


Apart from education, nothing can be done to help anyone who does not understand the basics of land ownership in Thailand - the number one rule, or start point, is 'What is spent in Thailand stays in Thailand' and 'Only spend in Thailand what you can afford to write-off'.

[Smithy]

Apart from education, nothing can be done to help anyone who does not understand the basics of land ownership in Thailand - the number one rule, or start point, is 'What is spent in Thailand stays in Thailand' and 'Only spend in Thailand what you can afford to write-off'.

Coco is spot on BUT in some case's many are lucky , I built a house in Koh Samui and sold it after a few years , the profit paid for the house in the village.If you going to buy a house for resale make sure you buy it where people want to live.Houses in the Village will never ( or very rarely ) make any money , so as the old saying goes ( that CO-CO has said also )  dont spend more than you cant afford to walk away from .
There are many people I know or have met over the years that have Married their Thai Partner ,built a nice small house in the Village and lived the remainder of they days happily living the quiet Village life BUT there have been many who's relationship doesn't stay the course and they leave with their tails between their legs !!! . That's Life 

[TonyT]

Could not agree more. Hindsight is a marvellous thing. I had been briefly in Thailand many years ago & assumed that it would be roughly the same rules as the countries I had been used to (aus). With honesty of government, fairness and so on. In fact a big boy called Glen said how he had come across the same thing at the time and after he had pointed out the house investment he had made the authorities understood & agreed. (How different it is now!) BUT THAT WAS 12 YEARS AGO.

I was reasonably wealthy before I came & felt the ball was at my feet. I only came at a whim when my current new partner decided to go to Vietnam  to attend a cooking class & I felt "It was a while since I had been overseas, having travelled through Europe 7 mainly Italy twice on my BMW K1100lt twice, so I contacted a lady whom I had communicated with a year previously and arranged to visit. (The rest is history due to a severe attack of brain hemorage). Never mind I have since learned through a lady in the NZ Embassy, whom I have communicated with many times, that on arrival in NZ I would have to quarantine for 14 days in a hotel (at the government's expense) . That sounds good as hopefully I will be able to negotiate the purchase of a cheap car (after having sold my 12 year old Fortuner here in Thailand) and find some temporary accommodation when I am at the enforced hotel stay. The accommodation also offers 3 meals a day. (If I went to Australia I would have to serve a similar 14 day isolation, but at my own expense). Also my wife tells me that she is not interested in coming with me (even if she could) and plans to find another more suitable "alien" to support her having the house that I have supplied and fully developed as a bait. I had hoped to let my situation see me out (as I turn 80 this year) but having had my health re-generated with the help of Doc Martyn here in Buriram and having my adopted family from my first marriage in Australia shed themselves from me, I am now looking forward to the next phase of my life. (BRING IT ON!)

[DeputyDavid]

Best wishes Tony. Look forward to the good stuff, don?t let the past bring you down. Safe travels!