Owners of condos and holiday homes: beware!
In Phuket News we read that owners of condos who rent their condo as a holiday home are being warned about the risk of a hefty fine or imprisonment if the rental period is less than 30 days.
The Phuket Provincial Land Office has issued a formal warning to apartment building owners, developers and managers that renting out condos on a daily or weekly basis is a violation of Thailand's Hotel Act 2004.
The notice, issued to all 234 registered condos, covering 26.071 legally registered condo units on the island, was issued on June 9, XNUMX and reads roughly as follows:
“To Managers/Developers of Condominiums,
We have learned that units in condominiums managed by developers or owners are being rented out to foreigners or tourists on a per diem basis to generate a sizable income like a hotel does.
This type of rental causes inconvenience to tenants in the same complex and creates unsafe areas for tourists, which in turn can lead to the loss of life and property.
It is contrary to the Hotel Act 2004 and therefore unacceptable to have a operate an illegal hotel. The penalty for this is up to one year in prison or a fine of up to 20,000 Baht or both.”
The measure is important for Phuket and especially for the hotel industry. There are 2090 registered hotels in Phuket with a total of over 120.000 rooms. The number of illegal hotel rooms is estimated at almost 100.000, which pose a serious threat to the officially registered hotels. The supply of rooms is greater than the demand, which puts pressure on prices.
An apartment (condo or apartment house) must therefore be labeled as such and be rented out for at least 30 days or longer. It is not a hotel room that can be rented for one or more days.
Read the full article on the Phuket News website: www.thephuketnews.com/phuket-condo-owners-warned
The article was taken over by Thaivisa, which received quite a few reactions. The main criticism was that people wondered how the government wants to control this. What happens if family or friends come to stay? What about rentals through Airbnb?
The law does not only apply to Phuket, of course, but to the whole of Thailand. I can imagine the thought that it is difficult to control, but the risk is not reduced. You have been warned!
Source: Phuket News
Oh well, how the readers of Thaivisa are suddenly concerned about the problems that the Thai government allegedly has with control. Let the government figure that out for itself.
Family and friends coming to stay? If you provide them with an entire condo and you yourself are somewhere else, it is not a place to stay.
There is nothing special about renting through Airbnb. The same rules apply.
Furthermore, it is not that complicated to check whether someone offers space only per month or also for a shorter period. Just ask or look on the internet.
If people who have rented something from you only have a 30-day stamp, the burden of proof could be reversed, in the sense that there is a legal presumption that an agreement has been concluded for less than a month, where the landlord may provide evidence to the contrary.
Always complaining that the law is not being enforced here, and then if something is done, the weather is not good.
I think the control for the Thai government will not be so difficult.
They are probably just applying the reversed burden of proof.
So show me you didn't rent the condo for two weeks.
That rental is likely to start playing now, as more and more hotel rooms remain empty on Phuket due to the increase in the number of tourists.
Making it difficult for those who take it easy or don't take it too seriously.
In both directions this will lead to settlements, not…
Certain owners of large Thai hotel (chains) will be complaining and then one scapegoat must be appointed. So tackle that airbnb, but you sometimes hear those sounds in the Netherlands from nervous hotel owners. In my opinion this is a sign of not being able to keep up with the current time of just airbnb, Uber, booking.com, tripadvisor you name them all. And standing still is going backwards, after all, we now live in what happened 1 years ago in the movie back to the future (that movie is still being repeated on Dutch TV after 30 years because that's nice and cheap, isn't it ;).