What To Expect At Condo Annual General Meeting In Bangkok
It was my first time attending a condo Annual General Meeting (AGM) in Bangkok. Predominantly locals at the meeting. No surprise given that it was conducted in Thai. I was clueless most parts of the meeting. If you are a foreigner-owner, you will need must get a translator.
Due to space limitation, our car park was temporarily converted into a ‘meeting hall’ for the meeting.
Attendance this year was substantially more, compared to past years, bf told me. Why? One word. Money. One of the AGM’s resolution was a proposal of common fee increase by 33%, from 30 baht psqm to 40 baht psqm!
In the past, minimum attendance requirement used to be 1/3. Now, it’s only 25%. This magic number is according to The Condominium Act, whereby a minimum of 25% vote is required for approval.
The 2015 AGM started with 26.67% attendance. But residents slowly trickling in during the meeting. Many faces that we have never seen before – that’s the setback of staying in a condo.
Indicative start time of the meeting at 10am, but it started at 10.30am. The first half an hour started with registration, and food-before meeting. Food. How can there be no food, right? People need to be fed.
Altogether, there were 9 agendas, needing unit owner approval;
- to elect new board of committee
- to elect a new Juristic person
- to appoint an auditor and approval of audit fee
- to approve consideration of adjustment for common area management fee
- etc, etc
As I’ve never stayed in a condo before, I learned a lot from the meeting. Example: the Juristic committee must consist of not less than three but not exceeding nine members. And they can only serve for 2 years, according to Thai regulations. There were 3 new committee members, and they introduced themselves. One said, “I have lived here for 3 years, and it’s a home to me. I want to contribute to make this place better.”
Not only that, we found that there were common problems faced by some units, such as low water pressure (after blackout). And we also heard about issues that were unheard previously. One owner told us, that previous tenants are still using our condo’s swimming pool, even after they have moved out. Too friendly security guards, that’s why. These to me, are not petty issues. I heard that some AGM turned into “complaint” session, but I think ours went rather well.
I was quite impressed with the whole event. “Speak up and be heard,” that’s the mantra. Residents’ voice were heard, though, it was always the same few voices. Bf said there were more active participation this year, and the meeting also took longer than usual. All-in-all, the meeting including waiting period, took 1 hour and 45 minutes.
I wonder if the condo AGM in Malaysia is also the same? Anyone with experience to share with me?
