Apologies if you all know all this info I am providing but hopefully it will help newer folk to get a better grasp of what is going on when they come here. Ok I'll start with renting as this seems to cause the most problems. Typically people move to Udon because its cheap compared to the Southern cities, so naturally they will be looking for cheap accommodation, fine, you can find cheap, ive seen places cheaper than 3000 baht, rough and ready but a roof over your head type of thing. Usually you will find these kind of places from the grape vine or by just cruising around Udons many moo bahns looking for rent signs. You sign a three or most usually a six month or a year contract and move in. Nothing works, the roof leaks, the door doesn't shut, the sink leaks, It's super noisy at 5 am in the morning, you contact the landlord to complain or get repairs done and nothing happens, you get angry demand your deposit back, nothing happens. Well try and work out of the amount of rent you are paying how it would be possible for a landlord to repair anything, why is the rent so cheap, take a look at the area you are living in. One of the reasons it is so hard to find decent places to rent in Udon is that the going rental prices rates are not reflective of the building and maintenance costs, so for most people it is really not worth doing in any serious kind of way. This is starting to change and I have seen some Thai landlords starting to anticipate the Falang market by including some furnishings an odd air con and sometimes even a phone line but it's rare. Bottom line is on the whole expect to pay 10 thousand up for something half decent, look in the tidier moo bahns where the you can see visibly the houses are well maintained, maybe ask amongst the ex pat community incase any of them have had to leave suddenly and will rent you their fully furnished house. If you want to rough it then you must expect that any repairs/maintenance, phone installation, air cons etc you will have to arrange and pay for yourself, also don't rely on getting your deposit back, it will most likely have already been spent.
This Syle villa 4 bedroom Kitchen Bathroom garage. is in Udon about 15 min to the City and rents for 10.000 a month Fully furnished and White goods Internet Cable Tv Rubbish collection Email Charles Law
Buying a house is a different prospect all together. Over the last few years a lot of changes have been made to the law regarding foreigners that have scary implications, most notably buying a house in a bogus company name, income required to live in Thailand as a foreigner that has been raised and various changes relating to all types visa rules. Shortly we will have a new Government and we have no idea what kinds of changes they might make that might effect out security here, so if your thinking of buying make 100% sure you are aware of all the latest rules, Thai Visa web site forum has a lot of information on this, check it regularly, also make sure you are aware of what is going on in immigration when you visit, insist your wife explains to you what is being said if you don't speak Thai. I can't stress enough that Immigration must be your top priority living in Thailand, they can close your world down in a heat beat. So assuming you are on top of all the legal issues and have a firm handle on your immigration status what should you consider when buying a house. Well first off what method you will use to buy it, it is very hard to get finance here in Thailand and if you do it will most likely require the loan to be in your wife's name if you are married. Be careful doing this because if things go wrong in your marriage you will end leaving a huge debt on your wife that she will most likely not be able to pay back so the bank will repossess the house and that will be her credit rating in the toilet, no matter how much you might dislike her that is a terrible thing to do to anybody, it worries me that a lot of Thai ladies can't see this possible outcome and it happens a lot.
So now you have not done that and have found a way to buy the house with your own money you need to think about what kind of contract to have, if you are married and are buying a property that is not a condo you will not be able to own the house in your own name, (this a fair law in that it stops rich foreigners coming over and buying up Thailand) so the common method is to buy the house in your wife's name and then take out a 30 year lease with her, this lease legally allows you to occupy that house for 30 years and to then have the option to continue for another 30 years. It means if you split with your wife, she will have no debt but she will also have no right to live in the house unless you let her, you however have the house guaranteed to you by law for the lease period, as far as I am aware this law is cast iron and I read somewhere that it has never been disputed in court because it is too tight to challenge. This would be the method I would suggest you use, do not deviate, do not be hog washed with other types of contracts, if you do not have that 30 year lease any other contract is meaningless and you could be kicked from your house at anytime, it happens a lot. Again this is where you need accurate translation ideally a third non interested party, not even necessarily a lawyer just someone that can translate very well, lawyers in Udon often can't speak English well enough and often have little experience of this kind of contract law, when you think you have a good understanding of what they are offering take all the information to some different people to get it checked before you sign, don't be sloppy on this many people can't be bothered and lose their house with no compensation. If you don't care that your wife gets the house and it is paid for then don't worry just knock up a contract to allow a fair division of cars furniture etc, that will hold up and is also part of Thai law.
Ok we're getting warmer, now choosing the house. My stock advice is to try if possible to rent the house first, not always possible if its a new house, but try anyway if you can convince the property owner or developer that you will almost certainly buy if your happy after your rental period they will most likely yield, in Udon there are a lot of new moobahns with a lot of houses sitting empty with money borrowed on the developments so that should give you an edge. Again as with rentals check the up keep of the houses, if its a new moobahn find out details about communal responsibilities, rubbish removal, thin walls in the house, water pressure, where the electric is coming from, proper transformer, depth of the sewage tank, road access, width of garage for pickups, security, local shops, local schools and hospitals, telephone line for internet, cable availability, maintenance crews, stuff like that, oh and also nightmare neighbors, rent first and you can get all this info easily. If your going to buy an older house anywhere check the title is in the owner name and not governments or someone else, one advantage of buying an older house is you can get a good idea how structurally sound it is because it will most likely show all the faults, old houses are rarely repaired so you can see all the concrete cracks easily, if they are not gaping then no worries just fill them in, all concrete in Thailand cracks a bit, I think its because it dries out too fast in the heat. The other advantage of the older house option is you can get some amazing deals if you hunt about, usually with some small repairs and redecoration you make them look new again, the downside is older houses are harder to sell as Thais mostly like to buy new if they buy at all and that's because it's easier for them to get finance on a new house.
Build your own house is another option, land in Udon can be had very cheap if you buy outside of the ring road but beware this option is fraught with difficulties, personally I would advise against this idea unless you already have building experience and can supervise the build yourself or you know somebody that has done it and have seen the finished product. Building materials are not as cheap as they used to be because of huge demand so your builder can often give you house quotes that are completely wrong based on when he last built a house, last five years materials have rocketed, also you have to think of getting phone lines installed, electric, water, a road and hope to Buddha you have a savvy building team. The tales of disaster in this area are infamous, proceed with caution.
Condo is the last option, nice thing with a condo you can own it in your own name because it is not attached to the land technically. Sadly you will be hard pressed to find any in Udon Thani
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