Governor Chamroen quickly identified the dispute as a primarily civil one, one that would disappear if the tenants and the management company came to an agreement. (See story here.)
The tenants’ reports of electricity supply to some units being shut off and of at least one tenant receiving a termination of lease notice quickly gained perspective with the company’s counter-claim that such tenants had failed to pay their management fund fees. This may be Thailand, but this version of “no money, no honey” is found worldwide.
Also right to defer deep investigations were the Karon Police and the Phuket Consumer Protection Office, as there will be nothing to investigate if mediation wins and a successful agreement is hammered out.
The allegations of fraud from a distance seem more like a sledgehammer to crack a walnut. However, Vice Governor Prajiad Aksornthammakul’s assertion that authorities cannot investigate a company’s financial records for alleged fraud simply because he deems the issue to be a matter for lawyers is paper thin, as the ongoing Ace Condo case has shown.
That said, the Aspasia case differs markedly from that of the Ace 1 condominium project in Phuket, where both Amphol Wongsiri, Secretary-general to the Office of the Consumer Protection Board, and Col Angkul Klaikueng of Royal Thai Police Consumer Protection Division become specifically involved.
When crime-fighters with no vested interest get involved, the writing is on the wall for the accused.
Mediation is the right course, and the legal counsel for disgruntled tenants – if they have one – should by now have informed his or her clients that this will be the first course of action directed by Phuket Provincial Court before their plaint is presented before a judge. This is standard practice in Phuket, and rooms at the courthouse have been dedicated for such deliberations.
Whether readers will admit it or not, both the Aspasia case and the Ace Condo are good news for Phuket. This is what people need to see to help them decide whether or not to put their money where their new home will be on this fair isle.