Domestic / cross cultural issues - Thai / Foreigner concerns

foreigners have got no rights?

By majoy, Created on: 24/03/2010, Last updated on: 12/04/2010

» We moved to this new house six months ago and everything is fine except for the noisy dogs next door. I spoke to the owner and asked if they could make their dogs quiet and she said it's not their dogs fault but the dog opposite who always stand outside their gate and make their dogs bark...how ridiculous!...

• llegion commented : I lived in Thailand for 16 years. I had same kind of problems, well maybe not with dogs, but with people having parties until very late hours. First, it's true you should inspect very well the area before moving in. Second, if you like peaceful living, then you might have to take it "Thai way", But I don't really care about "Thai culture", there is no such thing anymore, just look at what they're doing with their political issues, they are all but peaceful. Police likes to mention "Thai culture" as a way of avoiding a problem. I personally care more about not to be a victim, so I often sued these people, including police, using competent authorities, usually I had justice 90% of the times but with some cost. If you have money and will enough to go thru with it, I can guarantee that it will not be you "not to be happy anymore" but them. It will not be easy or pretty, and you have to document everything, maybe even install security cameras to gather evidence. There are several laws that protect you against noise. Police usually don't want to enforce them, especially in rural areas, but you easily bypass local police and file a complaint to headquarter in Bangkok. Is it worthy? Well, I wouldn't suggest it to anyone, if you are particularly strong and you can afford a good lawyer fee, if you have time to spend in courts, authorities offices and so on, then do it; but make sure you have FULL support of your family first. It's not any different than a country like USA, where you must be wealthy and motivated to have justice done. And is not against foreigners only, even tho usually Thai police assist a foreigner less in these matters. Near my office there were so many quarrels between Thai: about noise, dogs, cats, etc... sometime ending up in shooting or other acts of violence. But I also want to say: it's not really possible to order a dog to stay quiet. It's in the nature of dogs to bark to each other and to unknown people. So in this case, try to understand that might be not easy to control an animal. Now that doesn't justify a tiny bit the bully attitude of the dogs' owner. But I can't suggest what is the right choice, especially if you are in a rural area, in a village or a close community, they can make your life very hard, as a matter of facts, of all foreigner friends I know living in Thailand, just a couple of them, plus myself, had the guts to fight back (and win). Yeah i used the word "fight" because that's what you will end up doing. Whatever you decide to do, I wish you good luck! And ignore all the "stories" about Thai culture...

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