House too small. Won in court.

[dozer]

Posted for Peter H.

We built a 2 floor 200m2 house. The stair was only 90 cm wide instead of 120 cm. Could not carry large furniture upstairs. The windows 30 cm to high. 140 cm tall people could not look out of the window. The height of the ceiling 300 cm instead of 320 cm. The balcony 40 cm to short. etc etc.
We followed locals advice and did not pay the last step of THB 400,000 . The builder took us to court. Fortunately the court accepted finally all our photos taken of this mess. But it took 2 years and a lot of power of my wife to withstand our lawyers and the judges pressure. Finnaly it was agreed that we did not have to pay these THB 400,000.
Summary: Never give up to the pressure of false lawyers and judges wanting to finish the job quickly.

[dozer]

Hi Peter.

Interesting story. I would love to hear the details around

power of my wife to withstand our lawyers and the judges pressure.

Do you mean they wanted you to settle. Can you provide some more details maybe a chronology? What type of pressure was applied?

Glad it worked out OK and thanks for the note.

[the limey]

Peter, Judges are alright, its the lawyers that want an early settlement so they can get their money, anyway well done

[Peter H]

Hi Peter.
Interesting story. I would love to hear the details around

power of my wife to withstand our lawyers and the judges pressure.

Do you mean they wanted you to settle. Can you provide some more details maybe a chronology? What type of pressure was applied?
Glad it worked out OK and thanks for the note.

Five rounds in court during 2 years.
We used a court approved building specialist to help us and presented 62 photos and a bill of THB 520 000 to remedy all the faults. Builder denied all and judge could not understand all the details and pressed for settlement. Second round same style and remarks from judge and our lawyer the falang has enough money , he should pay the THB 400 000. Third round we should pay 300 k, judge pressed again.
New judge in round 4 looked first time at design, photos and did listen to the approved specialist. Now we should pay 50 k. In round 5 the builder asked for 80 k late payment and 50k. I denied late payment because building not finished and I offered to brake the house completely because functionality not guaranteed according to new consumer protection law. Now the judge pressed the builder and he had to agree for non payment of the last step of BT 400k. Lawyers and court cost payed by the builder. Final price of the house THB 1.8 mill
PS:
My wife (Thai) found out that judge 1 was to be transfered soon and wanted to finish his job quickly. She resisted the first judges and our lawyers permanent pressure and ignored all the several remarks about rich falang pay now.

[the limey]

Half a million bahts worth of mistakes? Thats a quarter of your house...

[Peter H]

Half a million bahts worth of mistakes? Thats a quarter of your house...

The big mistakes are related to structural design matters. The stair going upstairs can not be made wider. 20 % of the building must be broken down to make it 30 cm wider. The ceiling can simply not be made 20 cm higher, the roof including the whole framework must be broken down. The whole building is rock solid roman styled with big pillars in front and roof extensions of 1.5 meter.
We claimed half a million for a total of 14 faulty items including to small kitchen and bedroom etc. Basically the whole house was to small wherever we measured, about 370 m 2 instead of 400 m 2 . The claim of Bt 500k was a bit to high knowing that settlements are common in Thailand. The price reduction of Bt 400,000 was fair according to the approved specialist.
PS: I learned from my swimming pool experience. As the pool was finished it was 15.5 meter by 7.6 meter instead of 16x8 meter. Could not brake it. Payd last step trying to avoid court case.

[the limey]

If your pool is the over flowing type, then it would be quite difficult to state who was wrong, but if you was quite specific in that the internal measurements had to be that( ok you have to allow a lee way of a few centermeters on each side) then they were wrong, you should have just worked out from the price how much they had charged per sq met and paid them that.

Anyway you won in the end and thats the most important thing.