Thailand Condominium Rights of Unit Owners

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The amended Condominium Act No. 4 B.E. 2551 (2008) ensures the rights of an individual on his unit as well as on the common spaces that he shares with his fellow unit owners.

However, it must be clarified that the condominium rights do not start only after purchasing of a unit but even before such instance would occur. Such protection is a way of the Act requiring developers and others involved in marketing the development to keep copies of ads that were used in the promotion of the development until such time when all of its units are sold as these are considered as part of the purchase agreement. The purpose of this is to make sure that the terms and conditions do coincide with the ads and the sales contract otherwise if found of having inconsistencies, the whole thing would be treated accordingly to make it favorable to the buyer.

This amendment was designed to discourage developers and their marketing arms from employing excessive and far-from-the-truth ads that buyers would later discover to be different from the actual state of their units.

The same law also ensures a standard when it comes to the purchase contract and such standard must be at par with what has been prescribed by the Ministry of Interior. Such standard is aimed at avoiding situations in which some key elements of the contract may be accidentally or intentionally omitted. The standard contract also prescribes for a detailed description of the utilization of the development’s every area. In case of non-inclusion, the condo buyer may demand to have these prescriptions included in the contract otherwise differences of the contract with the standard format that lead to disadvantages on the part of the buyer will be considered as unenforceable.

Other rights and benefits that potential and current condo owners can enjoy:

• In case of businesses to be established in the development, it must not disturb the unit owners and one way of ensuring this is by constructing another passageway exclusively for such business.
• The funds to be used in paying for the maintenance and services, as well as the responsibility in paying for taxes of the unsold condo units, are now shouldered by the developer.
• The manager must be qualified under the prescriptions set by the same Act and that he is answerable to any questions of his fidelity in doing his responsibilities otherwise any actions on his part that can be considered as a breach of trust that may provide a right to a condo unit owner to request for a new condo manager replacing the current one.
• The Condominium Act also provides each unit owner the right to ask the condo management an updated account of expenses in line with the management of the condo which should be done within 15 days every month and the same should be posted at the development’s bulletin board.
• Lastly, the law provides for the condo unit owners the right to voice out their concerns during a general meeting.

The law has been amended to provide further comfort and sense of security to potential and current condo owners. And to understand more about the law and how it would benefit them, it would be better for interested parties to consult with Thai property lawyers.