Building and Business Permits

[Itchy]

Two questions:

When is a building permit required (ie are there certain rules about the size of a building that does/does not require a permit)?

When is a business permit required (any advice/experience on that).


We are now seriously considering adding a few 'guest bungalows' to our plans to rent out to visitors (guest house style). The bungalows would be simple single floor beach hut type.

So I'd like to know if we need a permit to put them up and if we need a permit to set up a guest house business.

[John]

Go to the local orbortor office to discuss these matters

[Itchy]

Indeed we shall, but it is my experience that it is never a good idea to ask a question of any government official unless you already know the answer.

Not knowing before you go in is like having a huge sign above your head saying 'Rob Me Blind'.

[Attila]

Indeed we shall, but it is my experience that it is never a good idea to ask a question of any government official unless you already know the answer.

Not knowing before you go in is like having a huge sign above your head saying 'Rob Me Blind'.

And if you ask , do not show your farang face anywhere, you know, the one with the for farangs invisible but for Thais very visible $ sign on the forehead, but let a Thai ask for you.

[dozer]

In Pattaya at least the building plans must be approved for any size house or other building. There is no post building inspection, but if you had planned for a single story house and built an apartment building you might be in trouble.

Agree with Attila - sending in someone to discreetly ask for info.

[SVielha]

When I build my house in Sukhothai, the only thing I had to do, was to keep 2 m space between house and border of the ground.

[jazzman]

This is an older thread but anyone picking it up here will be pleased to know that;

There are many parts of the country, particularly rural areas where panning permission id definitely not required at all. You just go ahead and build. However, as Itchy and Attila have mentioned, to go to the office and ask is to invite a smile and a request for a special "fee". Just find out from the locals.

We have not started our bungalows yet, but we now know that we can build what we like on our land. Nevertheless, even a small fruit and vegetable stall on the land needs a business licence in our village. I will report on the process when we are ready to open the bubgalows for trade.

-J

[Smithson]

This is an older thread but anyone picking it up here will be pleased to know that;
Nevertheless, even a small fruit and vegetable stall on the land needs a business licence in our village. I will report on the process when we are ready to open the bubgalows for trade.
-J

I'm curious about this. We don't need planning permission also, but will start a small business there. It won't be selling anything directly and the work will be done by locals paid on a day rate. How do I know when we need a business license?

[thomas.fontaine]

There are many parts of the country, particularly rural areas where panning permission id definitely not required at all. You just go ahead and build. However, as Itchy and Attila have mentioned, to go to the office and ask is to invite a smile and a request for a special "fee". Just find out from the locals.

My wife went to the office yesterday to ask for the building permit, but when the officer looked at the Chanote with my name at the back, he told her that I had to apply myself. Merde, I should have anticipated this one, as I have now the exclusive right to do whatever I want on the land with this usufruct. I can now imagine the clerk thinking "come here my friend, I'll explain to you how it works here". What kind of problem I am risking if I don't go the the office and just carry on with the building? Alternatively, can I arrange a power of attorney and ask my Builder to go and do the paperwork for me?

[jazzman]

Firstly Thomas, you need to establish whether or not you really do need planning permission. These questions are best asked by somebody who is not obviously connected with you. Secondly, if the plans you have are the free government plans, as far as we know the houses will have automatic planning permission. The one way to find out is to ask the other farang who built near you what he did.

[thomas.fontaine]

I did ask to the neighbors. Building persmission has been asked by the Builder and approved 1 month later. So, I am a bit confused whether the land owner, or usufructary in my case, has to go there personally or if it can be fully subcontracted to the Builder.

[jazzman]

If you were using professional services, it would usually be taken care of by your architect or consultant. If you a re using a bonafide building company with proper offices and a secretariat, they can probably do it for you. Find out fist from your neigbour how much he paid and certainly refuse to pay more. You will normally get a temporary permit that will allow you to break ground. - or if you are lucky you may come away with the main permit immediately.

[Rick B]

Perhaps it is different in each Jangwat. But I don't think so. In my Janwat, Suphanburi, we had to apply personally for a Building Permit before we could break ground. We applied at the Tesaban office. I should note that if your property is outside of the Tesaban's limits, then you should not have to obtain a permit before construction. But it would be better to confirm this with the Tesaban if you are, in fact, outside their limits. Our application was very straight forward. We presented our plans to the engineer's office and he reviewed them. After waiting about one month, we were notified that the plans had been reviewed and approved. We had to pay something less than 2,000 baht in all. We perhaps had to wait longer than normal because we refused to offer a "facilitating payment" to the engineer. Perhaps if we had offered him 5,000 baht, or more, to "expedite" things, we could have had the permit in a week or two. Who knows??? But we never paid a Satang.

We also were advised by the Tesaban that had we used any of the government's pre-approved plans, we would not have to wait for approval. We would have been issued the building permit straight away. It should be noted that my understanding is that by using the government plans, you don't have to wait for approval, approval goes along with the plans. However, that should not be interpreted as meaning you do not need the building permit. My understanding is that you still need the building permit, it is just automatically given in a day or two (which in Thailand is essentially instantaneously), since you avoid the time for the engineer to review your plans.

It should also be noted that when your house is completed and you want to connect the permanent electricity to the house, you will first need to have a house number issued by the Tesaban or Ampor. And when you apply with them for the house number, they will want to see the building permit and the approved plans. So you must have them. In our case, a representative of the Tesaban actually came to our house to confirm that we built the house in accordance with the plans. To confirm this, a lady drove up our driveway, got out of her car, looked at the house while standing next to her car, smiled, and said thank you. She then departed after advising that we could come by her office the next day to get the new Tabien Ban (House Book).

[jazzman]

Thanks for that Rick. Yet another different experience, proving that it is essential to find things out first, but without letting on that a farang is holding the purse.

Thanks also for confirming that the government plans are pre-authorised. As far as I rememmber, Thamas Fontaine's plans are a slightly adapted version of the free plans, so his question about plannig permission is now answered - theoretically...

[tung]

Jumping through hoops at the moment to try and put a house in my name on company land. Lawyers want in excess of 70,000 so trying to work out a route ourselfs by visiting tessabahn and land office. G/f went to the tessabahn today and got good feedback and said yes we can do it, however I think that there is a communication problem here between the 2 of us and the tessabahn are only talking about the building permit in my name and so we will tell her to approach the land office tomorrow. In the meantime to be able to communicate with the g/f does anyone know what the Thai name for building permit is to enable me to tell the missus what I think the tessabahn is talking about?

Also why we are at it, I was informed via the lawyer that as part of their work the land office will supply me with a document confirming that I own the house. Any ideas what this document is or called?