House ownership transfer in doubt without EIA

House ownership transfer in doubt without EIA
The transfer of ownership from developers to home-owners will be problematic without the mandatory environmental impact assessment (EIA) carried out before the end of a project's construction, a senior official said yesterday.

Published on December 19, 2007

Office of Natural Resources and Environmental Policy and Planning (Onep) secretary-general Kasemsant Jinnawaso said all eight Ua Athorn government housing projects had been completed without an EIA, which will lead to a large number of legal disputes after buyers pay the money but will not be allowed to acquire the homes.

Kasemsant said his agency had accepted applications for Onep-conducted EIA inspections from more than 100 developers of condominium projects in Bangkok.

However, with no database of registered land developers in hand, it has no way of knowing precisely which projects have failed to do what is required under the law. He urged home-buyers to query project owners themselves, to find out whether they have sought EIA inspections for their projects, otherwise the ownership problem could backfire against them after the projects have been completed or when they pay the money for units they have bought.

He said many developers of condo projects had exploited a legal loophole in that only those with more than 80 units require EIA inspections.

They initially designated fewer than this in their written requests for construction permission, but later built more than 80 units in the final project phases.

Janjira Pongrai

The Nation