The Bangkok Post Spectrum section ran a story about how two Americans said they were abused by Thailand legal system and a dodgy landlord.
I can not write the whole story here but basically it comes down to bad lawyers, bad translators, no interest from the US Embassy, corrupt system and bad luck.
I do not know if they burned down their house themselves or the electric did it. But they should instead of just pay pay pay gone down to Phuket to find out what really happen with the house.
Most of the time when you rent a house the house owner avoids tax and dodge the whole contract. They never take insurance and leave it to the person who rents the house to do it. If you bring this up in court you will see the owner backing down. The problem is when the owner see the couple locked up and in weak state he use it and people around him see a chance to make some money, lawyers included.
I have no idea why they agreed to pay him the money they should just take it to civil court and left the country if they felt they been swindled.
I can not answer if they police wanted extra money but I can tell you at least 10 people that I know in persons that had to pay extra money to the police and I am sure everyone does when they have been living in Thailand for a while.
The American couple have started a donation site to try to get back some of the money they lost and if you want to support them or read the full story you do that here.
http://landoftrials.wordpress.com/
I am so sad for your story. I have so many friends had the same problem as you. Even when you use lawyers it is no 100 % solution. Lawyers are same crocks as the rest of them in Thailand. Did you ever get any money back?
Forgive me for this longish account but our case got more complicated as it went on.
About 18 months ago we agreed to buy a long lease on a deserted 2 rai resort on the island of Koh Sukorn in Trang province. The Thai woman, Gop (married for 7 years to a comfortably off Canadian) owned the adjacent property. She and her Canadian husband Mike were planning to develop a total of about 8 rai. We had planned to either convert one of the bungalows on the resort to live in or employ Gop to build a house. We had a derelict restaurant on our land and the plan was to convert it into a school to teach English Language. We are both TEFL trained English teachers. Gop agreed to issue a 30 year lease in return for 2.7 million baht. We agreed and transferred the money to her account. Unfortunately the land office was closed and she and Mike were returning to Canada for a few months so Gop gave us a 3 year lease with a written agreement to issue a 30 year lease on her return.
Now it all goes wrong! Gop returns to the island without Mike (the have split up). We try to get Gop to register our lease but she always makes excuses and we are starting to fall out over it. Eventually we demand that she go to the land office. Then our bungalow is broken into and Gops new boyfriend threatens us with a gun. We go to the police to report the break-in (which, with hindsight, we realize was Gop’s work).
Now things go even more wrong! The chairman of Chiang Mai Expats club tells us that Tom (the Thai legal adviser to the expats club) can sort out the problem by paying Gop 100,000 baht to agree to transfer the land into Toms name. Tom tells us that its then quite okay for him to issue a lease to us. This we eventually do this. At Palian the Land Office (in Trang) Tom transfers the land into his name but then tells us he has to register our lease in Chiang Mai. Tom returns to Chiang Mai and we start working on the land. The people on the island ,the village heads , the major resorts are in very much looking forward to the derelict restaurant being converted to an English language school. We go ahead with water and electricity supplies and the conversion. When we return to Chiang Mai Tom tells us it may be 6 months or more before our lease is registered. The paperwork has to go to Bangkok etc. etc. WE return to Koh Sukorn and teach English for about 4 months to a total of about 100 students. Again we return to Chiang Mai. We are now told that the Trang Police want 500,000 baht to “allow” our lease to be registered. The Chiang Mai Expat club legal adviser, we now find out, has several properties in his name and we are told by our Chiang Mai lawyer that Tom has to contact the police to sort things out.
Tom and his boss Alan Hall, chairman of the Chiang Mai Expats club, now refuse to sort out the mess they have made and tell us we are liable for a 2 year prison sentence and deportation unless we pay his lawyer 500,000 baht to deal with the charges against us. At this point the British Embassy contact Palian land office and confirm there are no charges against us. The person with a problem is Tom.
We refuse to pay the Chiang Mai Expat club lawyer 500,000 baht. We refuse to pay Trang police or the Land Office 500,000 baht. Unfortunately the Small Sea School is now abandoned and derelict. The residents of Koh Sukorn have lost their chance of a free school that would have helped them develop the much needed tourism to this small island in the South of Thailand.
Greed and corruption in Thailand
Can you tell us more about it
I have read this case of blatent intimidation and abuse involving the Thai Police. This American couple should immediately receive an apology from the Thai Government together with compensation.
We have ourselves suffered exstortion by Trang Police and Trang Land Office and know what its like.