REVEALED IN THAILAND – A PROPERTY WRITER WITH A CONSCIENCE

Imorn has some rough edges reportf buyers

A popular ‘independent’ Pattaya property writer appears to have had a ‘Road to Damascus’ conversion and is having trouble getting on to his keyboard to write another word about the local industry.

Writing and blogging under the name NEWPATTAYA he committed to Facebook in a mood of melancholy.

Having spent years promoting property in Pattaya much of it by unscrupulous businessman he has to come to terms with his ‘raison d’etre’.

And it seems he cannot find any.

“The worst thing? It is knowing some good stuff and not feeling in the mood for writing about it. This feeling that things have changed, that things are not the same as they used to be.The question is; Have things really changed or is it just me that has been here too long? Am I the one that has changed?You know, when I go and explore other cities I am still my old self. It is clear that my feelings towards Pattaya have changed.Pattaya used to be the centre of my universe. Now I feel nothing. Nothing at all…Yeah, confession time…..”

This sound a far cry from the blurb below with which he opens his website.

Ignore the cosmetic soul searching and self questioning. Actually this confession lasted only a couple of days. He took it down yesterday. 

Perhaps the conscience of writers down on the eastern seaboard is as momentarily accidental as that of some property dealers.

But of the last story written on this site about property developers in Pattaya he goes on to say:

“Parts of the article might be true, and if so, it means there will be big changes in Pattaya in the near future. 

I am not sure if posting the link would get me in hot water. Not worth it…. 

This might be the story of the year 2016. This could be pretty big if you ask me…”

And in answer to a request to post the article he replies:

‘No, why take that risk? I am not looking for trouble. It is about the local mafia’.

Surely not? NEWPATTAYA’S depression could perhaps have been diagnosed last year when he wrote:

” My predictions regarding the property market in Pattaya finally came true. The bubble really did burst. I never imagined it would come to this, I never imagined it would be this bad. The real estate market in Pattaya is in the middle of a very difficult time. Frankly, writing about it is depressing. For several reasons I won’t be able to tell the full story. But even the part I am allowed to talk about is ugly.”

It begs the queston – who allows him to write. But he then provided a list of over 20 projects which he, perhaps understating, says have caused ‘raised eyebrows’.   I can’t imagine what makes his toes curl.

NEWPATTAYA and the local newspapers have a lot to answer for – for not talking about that ‘ugly’ part and NOT daring to be different.

They were ALL willing to take the advertising and now may wonder why their credibility is questioned when they do not report what happens to these projects.

Here is for instance what NEWPATTAYA wrote about ‘the best condo deal in Pattaya in 2012 from the company CW Assets, which has been repeatedly exposed on this site.

The Abtalay land being sold from under Imorn’s feet.  She had never paid for it.

 Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you AbaTalay Condominium located right here in Pattaya. AbaTalay Condominium may just be the most attractive condominium value offered to buyers in the market. 

Listen carefully: price starts at only 30.000 Baht per square meter.

You have to travel at least 10 years back in time to find similar prices. 

These days it is difficult to find new developments with prices at less than 60.000 baht per square meter. 

This certainly is the best condominium deal in Pattaya in 2012 – it is not bad to be the best considering Pattaya is experiencing a property boom with dozens of developers competing right here and now. 

Investors had better hurry up before this property sells out. 

Once the word gets out it may be too late. Prices from as little as 699.000 Baht sounds too good to be true. 

But it is true and it is also true that there are only 215 units in this development. The first month 15% of the units were sold.”

Not surprisingly it wasn’t true. Abatalay has never been built. And there are some very angry investors out there.

New Pattaya’s follow up last year was muted and it’s now on his ‘raised eyebrows’ list. He wrote

He could have prefixed that with ‘whoopsy’.

NewPattaya – and most of the local newspapers for that matter – must have known that the company CW Assets had a tainted reputation before it even started by its involvement with Richard Ian Silver – ‘The Guv’ – who sold a fictitious condo called ‘Royal View Talay’ before walking off with buyers deposits.

Newspapers ignored this warning put up by victims

He was the common law husband of Imorn Luekhamharn the principal Thai person in the projects Abatalay, Bang Saray Beach Condo, Abatalay, and Bang Saray Ocean View condo. and CW Bayview.

Imorn with her one time sales team

This company did actually sort of complete Bang Saray Beach Condo (BBC) eventually (read on), but Abatalay and Ocean View which were due for completion three years ago, and CW Bay View remain paper dreams.

In fact as we revealed here – Imorn was selling units in Abatalay when she did not even have the land let alone the bricks.

But first of all lets look at the one condo that CW Assets did build and then boasted hundreds of happy buyers.

This really is not quite true and there are precedents to this sort of behaviour.

In fact many buyers were not happy. This condo was promoted as a green project according to a write up in the Bangkok Post.

It was promised in March 2013 but delivered incomplete  in December 2014 and not to the specifications promised. It was not in the least bit Green. The promised swimming pool was not completed until the beginning of this year, and was more of a plunge pool than the one illustrated. Parking is available for ten cars for 200 units in area you need a car to get to.

“Its not a place to live in,” said one of the buyers

“The 220-million-baht Bang Saray Beach condominium will generate its own electricity from solarpanels, said Ms. Luek, managing director of CW Asset Co, the project developer’ 

‘The electricity generated by solar panels will be used to light all internal and external common areas as well as power common-area facilities. Excess electricity produced will be sold to the Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand. 

“This green system is expected to help a condo juristic person reduce spending on power by 50-70%,” Ms. Amorn said. 

“CW Asset has made it a priority to develop residential projects that have green operations and sustainable practices,” she said. “We feel it should be a priority for all types of buildings to strive for the goal of green processes and sustainable eco-friendly methods.”  Bangkok Post

WATER RECYCLING

“Bang Saray Beach Condominium will be an energy efficient building, generating its own electricity from solar panels, recycling water for landscape use and minimize water-consumption with high-tech plumbing fixtures.” Homebuyers News

“The 220 Million Baht development will generate its own electricity from solar panels. Wonderful – they strive to become an environmentally friendly development….We hereby recommend this project – NewPattaya.com

Residents moved in to find no such features. The only energy saving equipment was flourescent lightbulbs.

The metered electricity rate was in fact fixed above normal by the developers who have refused to attend residents meetings to discuss the issue.

There was no water recycling.  The developers did not even put bricks in the cisterns as a water saving gesture, joked one of the new residents. The plumbing fixtures were to pardon the pun – bog standard. When people complained the company finally replied:

“CW Assets does not control the public news. News stories are not company advertising and not part of the company’s agreement to sell.”

They pointed to the company’s disclaimer stating prices, features, conditions etc., can be changed without notice.

In other words ‘you can’t believe the lies we tell newspapers,’ because if anyone now believes the property journalists down on Thailand’s eastern seaboard, or Bangkok for that matter, then they really are living the dream.

(now removed)

Needless to say a series of salesman have quit the company, one specifically complaining to Richard Richie, Ian Silver, Richard Ian Silver, or as one wrote ‘whatever you call yourself,’ of unethical business practices.

The salesman demanded payment of monies due (8 per cent commission on every sale) stating that he had saved the company from damaging and potentially successful legal action against it.

Buyers however are cynical of the view that he could be a Pattaya property man with a conscience.

As CW Assets are in the cheap end of the market they attract customers who do not have much money to spare – not least to take expensive legal action. The costs are likely to exceed the price they paid for the condos in the first place and CW are well aware of this as shown below.

Work on Ocean view stopped after two weeks

Currently over 200 customers are complaining  about CW Assets, according to a buyers’ representative.

Not only has CW Assets failed to start work on Abatalay, and is unlikely to, it has also failed after ground clearing to start its third project Ocean View condo which was due for completion a year ago.

One of many customers who complained received the following reply:

“So sorry for the delay. We are working as fast as we can, given the political and financial state of Thailand.

We are continuing with construction. We have a government approved construction permit. 

Please consult your purchase contract for the completion date you agreed to accept. 

There has been no legal breach of the purchase contract and no grounds for any legal action. 

A reminder that per your signed purchase contract you have agreed to Arbitration, not court action to clear any contract disagreements.

The Thai court will dismiss any court case submitted and you will lose hundreds of thousands of baht in legal and court fees. Thai lawyers may or may not tell you this, their priority seem to be getting paid. 

One final note. Your written email statements constitute criminal libel in Thailand punishable by imprisonment and payment of large financial damages. Court actions last for years requiring your constant personal appearance 

However we will not proceed with a criminal complaint against you at this time, but maybe later.
Update: We will be completing Bang Saray Ocean view condo as soon as possible per the signed purchase contract.”

 Having read the above, clearly not written by a Thai, the client then looked up the formal agreement he had been sent to view before signing.

 And then he compared it with the agreement which he actually signed.

Yes the completion date has been removed entirely and now he was being threatened with libel.

His demands for the proper original contract of course fell on stony ground.

In CW Assets latest project CW Bay View Imorn and Richard Richie (Silver) are offering affordable luxury in a natural setting. This project has been promoted since 2013 but even many Pattaya’s estate agents have cottoned on and realised that it could be damaging them to promote sales.

COMMENT:

Actually this whole story is something of a comment. I have not disguised my views. This is not a ‘ he said, she said’ report. CW Assets have made it clear in statements to buyers that they will not answer media enquiries on their complaints. And there you have it the scandal of CW Assets has been going on for years – see the links below.

The man behind it Richard Ian Silver, is quite clearly still in Thailand and checks show he is known to others in the property market. According to immigration though there is no record of him under that name.

The company refuses to answer buyers’ questions….and nobody, not police, not immigration, not city hall, is doing or has done a thing about it…because quite frankly they do not care.

Currently the Mayor of Pattaya, Itthipol Khunpleum, is reported to be under house arrest. I have no personal knowledge of this, but his picture is not currently in the local Pattaya English language press and instead events are being attended by his deputy Ronnakit. Here above is a video of the Mayor dancing along to the ‘Pattaya Wonderland’ song because it cracks me up every time I see it.

Of course a news event of such magnitude would struggle to find a place in the local media as it stands.
The military will move in. I am not supporter of the military. I am however a supporter of any attacks on endemic corruption.

The problem of course is that the military while having some good intentions, almost certainly never seem to show  know how to go about the problem. It also seems to have difficulty in determining who the enemy is. In the big picture the military might merely replace problems with larger ones.

But its time foreign criminals, and here I am referring to long standing networks already set up, and avaricious developers, were not treated like royalty, and foreigners who want to invest or retire are not routinely fed to the sharks,