Khun Sittiporn (Tut) and Khun Surasit Poonperm (Man) are foremen at Ton Company in Krabi. they are in charge of supervising the construction sites with the Engineers and Architects.Theyexplains in plain English how to sort Road access, Water and Electricity issues before building your dream house in the land of smiles.
Many people find themselves buying/leasing undeveloped land in rural areas with a plan to build a house.
Government road
In Thailand, a government road may be little more than a dirt or sand track. Regardless of the condition for the road, buying land on a government road is the safest bet because you will be guaranteed access. A government road should be on the government map at the land office unless it has recently become a government road. In either case, you must have your lawyer check if the road you are on is actually a government road.
If the government road is in poor condition, and you want to spend some money to develop it, most local governments will be happy to let you do so.
Many lots will not be on government roads. They will be accesses via a dirt track though a farmers field or a sand road through someone else’s land. There is a general rule in Thailand that if a track has been used by the public for more that 10 years, it becomes quasi-public property. The public should, in theory, be able to use that track forever.
However, that certainly does not give you the right to develop it into a real road (i.e. put concrete down) and does not preclude the owner of the road from making it difficult or impossible for you to access your land through it.
I strongly advise against buying land unless you have a guaranteed, do*****ented, right of way.
There are several ways to guarantee right of way. The ideal situation is to buy a strip or land, that connects your prospective land to a government road. Do this before you buy land otherwise you will find the prices goes up 10x. Also, before you buy the main land, you can get the current land owner to negotiate a favorable deal with the neighbors for the right to buy a strip. Buying a strip of land should be treated in the same way you buy the main land. Your lawyer should do a full title search etc. Also, because the strip will need to be separated from the big land, this is likely to take some time, maybe 6 months or more. Do not be tempted to go ahead and buy the main land until the access issue is fully resolved.
If you do buy a strip of land for access only, consider donating it to the government. Once the government owns it they may develop it for you. In any case, it may add value to your and your neighbors land to be on a government road.
Another way to secure access is to buy or in some other way acquire the right to access through a neighbor’s land, an “easement” as is it called in America. Any such deal should be do*****ented on the back of the neighbor’s land title deed at the land office.
Be careful, there may be more than one land owner between you and the government road. Your lawyer should be able to show you a map of how you will access your prospective land and that he/she has secured right of way all the way from the government road.
Water
Government (public) water
Ideally your prospective land will already have a water supply from government water. It not, you will probably want to run one. This may be a problem because, like access roads, it may have to run through a neighbors land to reach the main water supply. Your lawyer should check before you buy.
Do not assume that because you have road access that you can easily get a water pipe to your land. The main water pipeline may not necessarily be at the point where you access the land.
Well water
Is there a well on the land? Is there water in it? Is there water in the dry season? If there is no well, it may be a good idea to put one in. Government water in Krabi often stops for days or at least a few hours during the day.
A well is typically a 1-2 meter diameter hole in the ground, lined with concrete rings. Well digging in Thailand is usually done by hand. Better quality water and more reliable supplies are usually found at greater depths, sometimes 50 meters or more.
You may need a permit to drill a well, especially if it’s deeper than 30 meters, check with the land office or Amphur.
Electricity
Concrete poles and transformers. Does the land have power supplied on government concrete electricity poles already or close by? This is the ideal situation. Check how you will get from the pole to your land.
If the land has never had electricity before, you will need to apply for temporary electricity while building. When you have a tabien baan (house registration), you can apply for permanent electricity.
If you need to extend the concrete poles to your land, you will need to check the right of way.
Check your options with the power company and tell them how many kilowatts you want. This will largely be based on how much air conditioning you plan to use since AC is usually the biggest user of electricity in Thailand. If planning to use air conditioning, check the wattage of the units you plan to install. If you plan to use central air conditioning, you may need 3 phase power supply which is not commonly available to homes in rural areas.
You should research the electricity and water supply situation before you buy the land, it may be more expensive than you think.
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