WARNING – HOUSE BUYING IN THAILAND – AGAIN

WAKE UP FROM THE DREAM!

When buying a house in Thailand beware you may be just paying someone’s bar bill.

The symbolic guy here wants his money back. He has invested in
property in Thailand and paid pretty much all of the price. Yet the company
building the property does not even have the land – even though it produced its
own due diligence report saying that it did.
Over a hundred people have bought condos in the same project
Abatalay Condo in Jomtien so that’s a tidy sum the ‘developers’ have made by putting
out an artist’s impression of what the buyers thought they would get.
The man behind it is Canadian Richard Ian Silver, though he
uses his Thai wife as the front. 
He was listed at one time as MD of the project
– but that lasted just three months. People remember him from a project called
Royal View Talay which – also never happened.
Silver and co are putting on a show saying they (CW Assets) are suing
the owner of the land for not handing it over (The owner did not because she was
not paid). But Silver will not go near a court of course. He’ll probably send along a bar girl.
He has invented a staff including his own imaginary PR lady.  It’s all bull.
Nevertheless he can
and will delay this for years – unless sensible action is taken.
There are over 50 artists impression up on the internet for
properties offered for sale in Pattaya by people making promises which will
never be kept.

And don’t believe the blurb written by Pattaya Brits for their beer money
A favourite trick is to offer the property under the name of
the company, but actually hold the land in the name of another – or even better
change the ownership of the land when everyone has already bought!  Or they can even mortgage (your property) to
a bank. The tricks are endless and banks won’t help you even if they have bought a dud. They will get their cash back first.
It’s not just happening in Pattaya – it’s happening
everywhere in Hua Hin, Phuket, Koh Samui – you name it.

Anybody can do it. You do not need any cash. Just wait for the cash to come in before starting to build, well. if that’s what you intend to do.

The local police will not help. Nor will the local Consumer
Affairs Department, unless you can find the proverbial red hot poker. 
These frauds are so lucrative that now a crime syndicate from the UK is even investing in them – and if there is a crime syndicate from the UK involved – you can bet there are similar syndicates from other countries.
I get
flooded with requests for help. I wish I could. I do not have the time.

All I can do is warn and perhaps steer people in the right
direction – but even that has its hazards in Thailand.

Footnote: Live where Thais live. If the property is specifically built for foreigners there are catches – many. Or, as a reader points out, buy second hand and buy a second hand condo from a foreigner. (after getting it valued). There are real bargains. Thais often do not like buying second hand.

3 thoughts on “WARNING – HOUSE BUYING IN THAILAND – AGAIN

  1. I think the hook of 30,000 bt per square metre was the obvious clue that this was a scam from the outset. Anything kosher within sight or sniff of the sea around Jomtien or Pattaya will be between 60,000 and 90,000 bt per s.m. Anything less is just silly or crooked. The land price and building costs would militate against such uneconomic pricing rendering any developer bankrupt before he began.
    In view of the chronic ability, or unwillingness, of the Thai legal system to deal with these crimes,it is really incumbent on the various embassies to forewarn their nationals in their websites.
    Thailand's reputation is becoming increasingly tarnished and, frankly, it's their own fault: if a country is content to play host to fraudsters, thieves and conmen then they can't complain when even more gather around the honeypot.
    Quite disgraceful really how these thieves can escape prosecution.

  2. I presume this is Goldies MO in Bang Kao Bay…potential victims only have this website toward them, and their common sense if they see the place!

  3. No Gerry the clue was a complaint came in from a guy who set alarm bells ringing when he clicked on Ian Silver after paying a deposit on paypal in Ian’s name. He then saw oops — Ian as the receiver then googled him & walla; Ian had done a runner over the Royal View Talay non existent project as said on Asia Trading Post. The rest just follows & all falls into place with round 2? everything sent out by CW has been a lot of nonexistant hype to the unexpected?
    I thought people would know better but many still do not learn that buying something they have not seen or been built doesn’t quite match in Thailand. Then buying from a picture or not even checking the condo first or Thai legalities or the Company’s track record. Added to not checking the pitfalls of buying a condo in Thailand as a foreigner makes me wonder even further?
    CW are promoting condos with their guaranteed rental income and giving you a company to hold the condo in? Well whose company and where is the 49% foreign ownership for starters & who owns the land ? etc. Guaranteed rental income – no such thing & it should have set off alarm bells. Those who invested need a wakeup call as Ian is sitting back enjoying the fruits of free money by portraying condos that do not exist with little comeback to those who invested. Forget even getting your money back etc unless “youre in the know” & watch out for those would be “foreign Thai law graduates” who can guarantee your money back 150% but left their ticket behind.

    AD is trying to get points across to those wanting to invest in Thailand the safe way. He is not there to be a lawyer but to help those foreigners avoid the traps investing in Thailand that many have fallen into and still don’t read the writing on the wall. Time and time again we see these reports and nothing seems to register for those thinking of either a quick buck or a cool bargain? For heavens sakes intended buyers—read up about buying a condo in Thailand as theres many points where you will get burn’t if you don’t do your homework. That’s unless you have money to burn & don’t mind exerting your own initiative into buying something you will never own cause you didn’t read up!!!!!

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