Why condos are different
In a condo, your ceiling is someone else’s floor, and the pipes in your walls may serve the whole building. A stain on your bathroom ceiling might be your own pipework, the shower in the unit above, or a shared riser. Until the source is found, it is impossible to say whether the fix belongs to the developer, the juristic person that manages the building, or a neighbour.
Where condo damp usually starts
- Balconies: thresholds detailed without an upstand, so wind-driven rain runs straight under the sliding door
- Bathrooms: shower floors without enough fall to the drain, and silicone where tanking should be
- Air-conditioning condensate: pipes laid without fall inside the ceiling void, often above bedrooms
- The unit above: a leaking shower, washing machine or balcony in the unit overhead
- Shared risers and drainage stacks running through your unit
- Window frames on high, exposed floors that take the full force of the monsoon
Your unit or the one above?
Position and timing are the clues. Damp in the middle of a ceiling under the neighbour’s bathroom that worsens in the evening suggests their shower; damp at the edge of a ceiling near the external wall that appears after storms suggests the building envelope; damp that tracks your own air conditioner points to your own condensate line.
Wherever damp is suspected, we take moisture-meter readings across the surrounding walls, floors at thresholds and ceilings, and record exactly where readings are high. That pattern, photographed and located in the report, is what lets the developer or the juristic person accept responsibility instead of passing the problem around.
Who is responsible?
In general, defects in your unit that exist at handover are the developer’s to fix under the warranty; problems in common parts of the building are usually managed by the juristic person; and damage caused by a neighbour’s fittings is normally their responsibility. Your purchase contract and the building’s regulations decide the details, so ask your lawyer if it is disputed.
Whatever the answer, a documented, dated record of the condition at handover makes it far easier to show the problem was not something you caused. Our guide to the defects-liability period explains how that record protects you.
What to check before handover
Run every shower and basin together and watch the drains clear. Pour water at the balcony threshold and see where it goes. Run each air conditioner for twenty minutes and check nothing drips inside. Look closely at ceilings below bathrooms and along external walls. Our condo handover checklist walks through it step by step, and the free blank inspection sheets let you record what you find.
Getting it done properly
A professional pre-handover inspection takes three to six hours on site, depending on the property, and checks every wet area, with moisture readings wherever damp is suspected, with a photographed report within 48 hours. Condo inspections start from 15,000 THB; see fees. If you’re buying in a large development, our page on Bang Tao and Laguna covers the issues we see most there.
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