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Published on April 19, 2008

Sucheera Pinijparakarn

The Nation

Property buyers are showing greater awareness towards protecting their interests, as reflected in the growing number of complaints filed with the Office of the Consumer Protection Board (OCPB).

Complaints from disgruntled property buyers totalled 1,462 in the first half of fiscal 2008, from last October to last month, up sharply from 1,198 in the same period the year before. Most involved property-transfer problems and failure by developers to deliver on promises.

Chuensuke Methakulawat, who chairs of the OCPB's Advertisement Committee, attributed the increase to a growing awareness among consumers towards protecting their interests. Encouraging them is the fact that several buyers won lawsuits and damage claims after seeking OCPB assistance.

She anticipates a continued increase in complaints, with more residents moving into recently purchased properties only to find construction flaws. Government measures to boost the property sector are also expected to increase the number of complaints.

"Many developers may speed up construction of their projects to lure buyers, and that could cause problems afterwards," she said.

During the first six months of fiscal 2008, the office received a total of 2,977 complaints of all types, up from 2,815 in the same period the year before. Ranking second were complaints involving poor-quality services and goods, 773 cases, down from 1,090 cases a year earlier.

Next were complaints involving exaggerated advertising, 549 cases, and complaints about direct sales, 193 cases.

"Most of the service-related complaints involved fitness centres," said OCPB secretary-general Rasamee Vistaveth.

She said most of the consumers filing fitness-centre complaints wanted their contracts terminated after finding they could not maximise the value of their agreement.

She said to win such cases and have any money returned, consumers should be able to back up their complaints with good reasons, such as a health condition or sudden move abroad. They should also carefully read any contract before signing it.