Evergreen – A building and its future

Evergreen View Tower

This is all about Evergreen View Tower, Bangna, 10260 Bangkok

Evergreen View Tower is a condo and apartment project located in Bang Na, Bangkok and was completed in Dec 1992. It has 368 units across 33 floor.

Currently Evergreen view tower looks like 50 or 60-year-old building with countless cracks especially on the western side and around some columns near the lobby of the building.

Whilst in the Western world it would be easy to create a community that help together, work together and oversee the project together it seems that this is not possible in Evergreen View Tower.

We pay more than 200,000 Thai Baht/month for the management that should take care off Evergreen View Tower. Where are the results?

As a qualified Quality Management Advisor ISO 9001:2015 I find we pay a lot for little maintenance!

Here you find how the business is done:

Here you can find

Photographs of Evergreen View Tower, land- and cityscape
Artwork
Election of a new committee – professionals for committee

Co-owners had the chance to elect a professional committee January 2022.

85% of the co-owners decided against progress, against a professional committee*

*85% of the co-owners either:

Did not show up at all at the AGM
Did not even give a proxy to the ones who care (very bad)
Voted for the same kind of doing nothing/acting slow/do not care committee

Everyone makes mistakes. Here is the difference:

The fool denies, spreads lies and hides, trying to blame others. And repeats the same mistake again and again
The smart one listens, admits, learns and adjust to avoid making the same mistake again. The smart one will never hide.

Experiences about having a condominium in Bangkok, Thailand, insights, reviews and more, find information here…

This was certainly not the intention of the lawmaker: as of April 2023 100% of the committee of this building, four people who should re-present all co-owners, do not live in this building, do not own anything in this building and so certainly have no natural intention to do anything in or for this building, Evergreen view tower.

In Thailand, especially in the capital of Bangkok, there are hundreds of condominium buildings. A condominium building is a high-rise with dozens, often hundreds of apartments owned by different individuals or companies. Every two years the owners of the apartments can elect a committee. A committee can have anywhere from 3 to 9 members. The members do not necessarily need to be owners or people who live in the building. The members of the committee should make sure that the condominium building is a safe place to live in. The committee should act in the interest of all co-owners. They make sure regulations are followed, that regular maintenance is done. It might happen that a company who owns a huge stake in the condominium building elects staff members of this company into the committee.

Sometimes these staff members do not own anything in the building, they do not live in the building and they do not work in this building. They do not have any natural interest to oversee operations in this building. Since such condominium buildings are between 12 and 60 floors high with dozens or even hundreds of people living there, there are many safety issues that may arise. Such issues may be fire safety related, they may be related to leakages, they may be related to security which means who has access to the building and who not. A very important task to be overseen by the committee is suing owners who do not pay their maintenance fees. These maintenance fees are very important since renovations, safety and security measurements can only be taken care off if the owners of the apartments pay the buildings maintenance fees on a regular basis. Do you understand that?

Yes, I understand that in some cases, staff members who do not own, live or work in the condominium building may be elected to the committee. Despite not having a natural interest in the building, the committee is responsible for ensuring the safety and security of the building’s residents, which can include issues such as fire safety, leakages, and building access control. Additionally, one of the committee’s important tasks is to ensure that all owners pay their maintenance fees regularly, as these fees are crucial to maintaining and improving the building’s infrastructure, safety, and security.

It is important for committee members to be in touch with the people living in the building as they can provide valuable insights into the daily operations and issues that need to be addressed. Residents can report concerns about safety, maintenance, and security, which the committee can then address. In addition, committee members who are in touch with residents can provide better transparency and accountability, leading to increased trust and confidence in the committee’s decisions.
The possible disadvantages of having committee members who do not own anything in the building and do not live there include:

Lack of familiarity with the building: Committee members who are not familiar with the building may not have a good understanding of the issues that need to be addressed, the building’s history, or the residents’ concerns. This lack of familiarity can lead to decisions that do not reflect the interests of the residents or that are not practical or feasible.
Conflicts of interest: Committee members who do not own anything in the building and do not live there may have conflicts of interest if they are affiliated with a company that has a financial interest in the building. Such committee members may prioritize the interests of the company over the interests of the residents.
Lack of accountability: Committee members who do not live in the building may not be as accountable to the residents as those who do. They may be less likely to respond to complaints or concerns from residents, leading to a lack of trust and confidence in the committee’s decisions.

How can 85 or 90% of the co-owners accept that people will naturally not care at all about this building, do not communicate with the people in this building in any way represent them? They do not answer questions, they do not address concerns, they refuse any contact.

85-90% do not care if there is no one who would have an interest in the building to represent them.

The solution would be so easy: just 20% of the co-owners could demand a general meeting making life difficult to the incompetent. With 25% we can then kick out the lazy and careless committee. That's the law, this is what the condominium act of the Kingdom of Thailand suggests.

Due to the very low management and maintenance standard of the building you can purchase apartments in the building for below 30,000 baht per square meter. Evergreen view tower does not meet any safety standards. Almost all requests for fixing problems are just ignored.
And it gets even worse: they recently started to ask for extra payments beside the ordinary maintenance fee. Requests for clarification about how to use this money are also ignored. The management of Evergreen view tower does not answer such questions in the digital community with more than 120 co-owners registered. I cannot say it for legal reasons but I can ask the question: is there any corruption going on?