Here is a salutary tale for those about to build in Thailand, using an apparently reputable building company up in Chiang Mai. It is also an insight into the law and justice system
We have some friends ( a farang/Thai couple) who bought an older condo, very large but a bit outdated. They decided to totally remodel the whole place and got some building quotes – they eventually chose one of the companies and made a contract with them
This included a 3.5 million baht upfront fee with the balance payable upon completion, so quite a lot of work and some very expensive fittings
They paid the money, the builders started work and then…vanished, along with the money. The couple went to the police and got little joy, it seemed as if they were just not interested. They gave all the information to the police, including a copy of the contract (which had details of the main builder’s name etc) but nothing happened. They felt that the police had been paid off to do nothing.
The Thai woman, however, had a nice father, who was an ex-senior policeman with several powerful friends. He asked one of them, a high up Army man, to help sort out this problem for his daughter. He was happy to do so and within a few days found the man in Bangkok. They arrested him and took him to a police station where he was locked up by the army, the police having been told to keep out of it.
After three days the army men went back to the station and beat up the man severely, leaving him unconscious, they then left again. After another three days they went back and gave the man a choice, either pay the money back or vanish. Apparently this Army guy is an expert in “vanishing” people for senior government figures.
The builder paid back all the money immediately and was let go.
Now this builder and his company have been doing this for years apparently, taking money from farang and vanishing, and most of them have little recourse and just lose their money, the police having been paid off to do nothing.
Whether he will continue to do this is now an interesting question