What is included in a building permit?

[H3 (Hua Hin House)]

I am getting my architect to get his (our) building plan approved for a building permit. Location is Hua Hin. In the list of costs, I see fees for water and electrical (and I am not asking for neither just yet). This is just for a building permit.

You gurus with all the experience, is this normal? or something Hua Hin only. those have built in Hua Hin please comment. Please, please. OR Am I just being taken?

Best regards,
H3

[jazzman]

All a building 'permit' requires are drawings of the:

• front elevation
  rear elevation
  side elevations
  floor plan
  foundation and footing plan
  roof truss diagram with specifications for steel
  wiring diagram
  plumbing and septic tank diagram
  land registry document (chanote)

The building permit is not a permit in the sense of a British Planning Permission, a German Baugenehmigung or a French Permis de Construire. It is more for getting the Tabian Bahn (house registration certifiacte) for a new building. This is what you need to get your final water, electric, telephone, accounts at the new address. The tabian also lets you register your car at that address, get a cable or satellite TV connection and an iPstar satellite internet connection and anything else which needs proof of address, like getting the kids registered at school.
There should be NO mention of the costs involved for obtaining any of the services, and it is beyond the brief of an architect. His job is to design, and or provide drawing for your house, and his fee for that should not be more than about 20,000 baht if it is a special, one off design following your instructions, or 5,000 baht to provide the drawings, or slightly modified drawings of a house that has already been built.

If you are buying a house on a housing development, that is a completely different ball game which exposes the buyer to all sorts of scams for which, unfortunately, there are no workarounds. There are powerful influences at play.

If you built or had the house built yourself, if you have the plans there is nothing to stop you doing all this yourself at the Amphur Office, district architect's department. If the town architect is pleased with the plans. If he's not, a discreet 'gift' will make him very happy to get out his rubber stamp...

Jazzman cannot guarantee the accuracy of the above info because different officials in different District offices are notorious for arbitrary action and you are a farang and can do nothing about it.
You may also try reposting your question in the Hua Hin Forum on this site.

[H3 (Hua Hin House)]

After pushing back, we found that the water and elec is deposits only for temporary services. Since we are not intending to build for some time, we declined the temporary services until later. Bottom line we are paying for architect services and some money to oil the machinery at the tabien for approval of the permit. Many thanks Jazzman.

[jazzman]

Jazzman paid about 4,000 bht for the temporary electro connection. This will be credited to the first proper bills.
Foe water supply, there was NO deposit. We simply breached the city 400mm mains pipe with a saddle and a 1/2 inch take off. We bought a water meter and took its serial number and zero reading to the the tambon office. We pay the water bills monthly.