Beach path and access road shown in the brochure are common property

What happened

A developer built a project with a hotel and a condominium. The project had an access road to Phetkasem Road and a beachfront area next to the condominium.

The developer sold the units using a brochure with a model of the project. The plan showed the access road and the beachfront area as part of the condominium site.

After the project sold out, the owners set up the condominium juristic person to take over the common property. The developer then told the juristic person that the two plots of land, the access road and the path to the beach, were not common property. The juristic person sued.

What the Supreme Court decided

In decision No. 5351/2562, the Supreme Court found that:

• The brochure was advertising. It led buyers to understand that both plots would be used by all the owners as the condominium's common property.
• The developer may not have intended to give the land as common property, and may not have meant to deceive anyone. Even so, it was bound by what it advertised, because the advertising formed part of the sale contracts under section 11 of the Consumer Case Procedure Act.
• It made no difference whether the plots were registered as common property in the condominium documents, or whether the developer agreed to give them. By operation of law, both plots became common property of the condominium.

The developer was ordered to register the transfer of both plots to the condominium as common property, free of any encumbrance.

What this means for buyers and committees

• What a developer shows as part of the project in its sales material can bind it, even if the registration documents say otherwise.
• The condominium juristic person can bring the claim on behalf of all owners.
• Keep a copy of every brochure and sales plan in the building's records. New committees often find that nobody kept them.