Who runs a Koh Phangan housing estate once the developer sells out: the juristic entity buyers must form

Once a developer has sold most of the plots in a licensed housing estate (a จัดสรรที่ดิน / housing allotment) on Koh Phangan, who is legally responsible for the shared roads, drainage and common facilities? Thailand's Land Development Act B.E. 2543 (2000) answers this directly, in Sections 44 through 53: once purchasers hold not less than half of the project's licensed sub-lots, they can pass a resolution to establish a developed-estate juristic entity (นิติบุคคลหมู่บ้านจัดสรร) — a separate legal person, governed by the buyers themselves, that takes over from the developer. This sits one layer above the Land Allocation Act's 10-plot licensing trigger already covered on this site: that guide explains when a project needs a licence at all; this one covers who actually runs it once it's licensed and majority-sold.

How the entity gets formed

• The trigger — buyers of not less than one-half of the sub-lots shown on the project's registered layout must pass a resolution to establish the entity and appoint a representative to register it.
• Automatic membership — once registered, every plot buyer becomes a member by law, with no separate opt-in. Any sub-lots the developer hasn't sold yet keep the developer itself as a member for those plots.
• Governance — an elected executive committee runs the entity, represents it in dealings with outsiders, calls general meetings, and can act on a complaint brought by ten or more members.
• Powers — setting rules for using the common roads and facilities, levying and collecting maintenance fees, and providing the services the shared infrastructure needs.

What discharges the developer's own maintenance duty

Before an entity exists, the Act puts maintenance of shared infrastructure on the developer by default. That duty ends only when one of three things happens: buyers form the juristic entity (a process the Act allows a minimum of 180 days for), the Land Allocation Committee approves an alternative arrangement, or the common-facility land is transferred to a local government body instead. Until one of these actually happens, the developer nominally remains on the hook — but an estate that never crosses the 50%-sold threshold, or whose buyers never organise, is left in a real gap: no juristic entity exists to enforce standards, act on the estate's behalf, or hold anyone accountable if a developer quietly stops maintaining a road.

Maintenance fees have real teeth

Fees are set per plot, usually scaled by land-use type or area, and approved by a resolution of the members (or, failing that, by the committee). The developer pays the fee for any lots it hasn't sold yet. Arrears aren't a purely internal matter: after three months unpaid, the entity can suspend the owner's access to shared services; after six months, it can ask the Land Office to suspend registration of any transaction on that title — meaning a delinquent owner may not be able to sell, transfer or mortgage the plot until the arrears are cleared.

The tax angle

When the developer eventually transfers the roads, drainage and other common-facility land to the juristic entity, that transfer — along with the maintenance fees the entity collects — is exempt from registration fees, taxes and duties under a Royal Decree issued for this purpose. It's one of the few points in Thai property law where the state actively subsidises a buyer-run governance structure.

What this means for a buyer on Koh Phangan

• Ask directly whether the project is a licensed จัดสรรที่ดิน, and if so, whether a juristic entity has actually been formed — see the licensing question in Subdivided land and the Land Development Act.
• If under half the plots are sold, there's likely no entity yet — shared costs and standards are running on informal, verbal arrangements with the developer, not a legal person you could hold accountable.
• If a majority is sold and there's still no entity, ask why — owners may simply never have organised, or the developer may prefer the informal arrangement because it avoids handing over control (and the common-facility land) to the buyers.
• Request the entity's latest fee statement and any arrears on the specific plot before buying — six months' arrears can block your own registration later if you inherit an unpaid balance.

Most standalone villa developments on Phangan are small and informal enough that this framework is rarely invoked in practice — but for anyone buying into a larger, formally licensed estate, whether this entity exists, and whether it's solvent, is a due-diligence question in its own right, not a formality. See also the due diligence checklist for buying on Koh Phangan.