Roberto Manco, a resident at the Sinsuk Thani housing estate in Srisoonthorn, said the issue began last year, when his neighbour first started sizing up where the wall was to be built.
Attempts to negotiate for the wall to be shorter to allow some sunlight into his 10-year-old son’s room proved fruitless, often deteriorating into arguments and even threats.
Roberto asked for the wall height to be built just 50cm shorter to allow some sunlight and breeze into his son’s room. The neighbour refused to compromise.
“The bulwark in question has removed all visibility and daylight from me, I no longer see anything, not even the sky, there is no more breeze and the voices and noises of the neighboring house are amplified with an uncomfortable echo. It is more like a prison,” Roberto said.
The Sinsuk Thani housing estate management group has done nothing to prevent or regulate the construction of the wall.
The wall stands on his neighbour’s property, but breaches the construction guidelines set out by the housing estate management group mandating that structures must be at least two metres from the boundary line.
Roberto, an Italian-Swiss who has lived in Thailand for 16 years, and not new to antics by people ignoring rules, attempted to hire three lawyers to resolve the issue.
“The first wrote a letter of protest to Srisoonthorn Municipality and opened a case, but despite several appointments he never managed to speak to any head at the municipality. After about a month he gave up the case and told me it wasn’t his specialty,” Roberto explained.
Of note, during the first lawyer’s attempts it was discovered that the municipality issued a building permit for the wall two months after its construction began.
“The second, a specialist in these problems, listened to the exposition of my problem and told me at the time that he would contact me. Several days passed, and despite my insistence he made me understand that he was not interested in it,” Roberto continued.
The lawyer requested “an exorbitant figure in advance”, Roberto said. “Despite my agreement of 50% right away and the balance at the end of the case, the lawyer never responded.”
The third and last law firm Mr Roberto contacted met with him to discuss the case. After 15 days of not hearing back from the firm, Mr Roberto contacted them only to be told they were “too busy” to take up the case, but then gave “a really exaggerated fee” to continue with it.
“All this discouraged me from continuing with the law firm,” he said.
What was confirmed during the process was that the legal minimum distance between separately standing dwellings in Thailand is just 50cm, Roberto said.
Any other construction conditions required within housing estates is up to the housing estate management authority to enforce its own rules.
The offending wall stands 1.2m from the boundary line, but not 2m from Roberto’s house.
“I would like to publicly reveal my story, that of a building abuse that is forcing my family to live in very disadvantaged conditions, and for which I cannot get justice,” Roberto said.