On Wednesday, the front of a building near Pracha Niwet Market 1, in Chatuchak, fell off leaving many residents with apartments that now only have three walls instead of four.
Despite being exposed to the elements and being ordered by the building’s owner, Bangkok Market Office (BMO), to move out, some tenants are insisting they will stay!
In fact, the tenants of 19 buildings in the area were ordered to evacuate their properties as soon as possible. In those buildings are a total of 117 apartments built in 1982 on 10 rai of land. They are all in bad condition.
Amazingly, there were no injuries in Wednesday’s incident, but eight motorcycles parked under the building were damaged, reported Bangkok Post.
Even before Wednesday’s accident, BMO director Chaiyanut Jetiyanuwat said that the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration (BMA) had investigated whether this group of buildings should be knocked down and had established that the buildings were unsafe and should be demolished, he said.
The BMA was seeking a firm to knock down the buildings and had already decided they wouldn’t renew tenants’ leases but some of the tenants were refusing to leave.
Officials had already had negotiations with the remaining tenants and told them they needed to destroy the buildings but some tenants really didn’t want to go.
Chaiyanut invited the tenants still living in the building to a meeting yesterday to again discuss moving out. He noted that the BMO filed complaints against the occupants who won’t leave. Experts will review the leases held by occupants, and those documents will be used in police proceedings against the apartment dwellers.
Chaowarit Songnawarat, chief of Chatuchak district office, urged remaining occupants whose apartments were damaged to register with authorities to receive compensation of THB3,000 each.
Thursday, at an inspection of the damaged building site, Chaowarit said the findings were that there was structural damages and the concrete walls were not stable.
Siriwat Chaichana, of the Engineering Institute of Thailand, blamed the incident on rainwater accumulating on the awnings and putting weight pressure on the building.
The BMO is currently preparing demolition documents.
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