It has been a few weeks since I provided and update on Jan’s house and the reason for the stoppage is simple…….nothing has happened and the project has stopped for two months!

The builder went away at the end of April after taking an advance of B100,000 to pay for the wood panelling and promptly started a new project in Chang Rai. He has persistently promised that he will return and finish the job in a few days, but has never arrived. After him telling so many lies and breaking so many promises, and despite him being a family friend, we are now in a situation where no one in the family will ever trust him again.

So to bring things to a head, Jan has been to see a Lawyer who will be writing to him in two weeks time (if he doesn’t show up before then) claiming breach of contract and threaten to start court proceedings to recover the money advanced to him and to claim compensation for the extra costs in completing the house. Hehehe and I only thought they did that in the States! The Lawyer is confident Jan will get her money back quite quickly as both the builder and his wife signed the contract so their house and farms will be at risk.

In order to make the claim, she has to value of work he has performed already and get a price for completing the house. Getting a new price isn’t a problem and she should have the price this week, but assessing the value complete is. My view is that based on the original Contract, she should have paid 70% when the roof was on and all wood panelled walls complete, but as the panelling hasn’t started yet and will cost about B100,000, I think 60% is a reasonable assessment. Anyone wan’t to give their opinion as to how much is complete, if so here are a couple of photos taken today when the rain eased off for a couple of minutes.





I am trying to be optimistic and still believe he will return when he gets paid from the Chang Rai project but the close relationship that existed at the start of the project will be gone forever. Even if he finally does return, he is likely to think that Jan will try to get revenge by not paying the final instalment and as if this is the case, it will be very hard getting him to perform well.

I cannot deny that my main concern is the overall cost of the house as I am helping with the funding. A low budget was set at the beginning for a smaller version of the house, but when the Builder (an old family friend) agreed to drop the price for the large version by 25% to fit within the budget, the deal was made. But if he walks away and another builder comes in, then the budget will be well and truly shot to bits.

Strange how things change…..the builder himself encouraged me to start this thread as he thought it would be good advertising and he would get plenty of other farang clients….bet he doesn’t think the same now!

Cheers