Work permit not required to rent out condos, confirms Phuket labour chief

PHUKET: — The Chief of the Phuket Employment Office has confirmed that his office will not be investigating any foreigners who collect income from renting out their privately owned condos.

“It is a personal arrangement between the person renting out the condo and the person renting it – it does not concern the Employment Department,” Phuket Employment Office Chief Pitool Dumsakorn told The Phuket News this week.

The news follows owners of units at the Phuket Palace condominium development, at the southern end of Patong Beach, last week receiving a warning that they must be issued work permits in order to legally rent out their units.

In the warning, delivered by a notice posted inside the Patong Palace condominium building, management at the Phuket Palace Condominium said that their lawyers had confirmed with the Ministry of Labour “that the owner must have a work permit because there is money in exchange for rentals and proper taxation must be paid to Patong municipality too.”

“There were questions that the foreign unit owners have a contract with an estate agent, to my personal knowledge the unit owner still have to apply for a work permit but no documentation from Government departments have been sent to our Juristic Person office although we know for sure that the work permit is needed, it is up to foreign unit owners to decide,” the notice continued.

However, Mr Pitoon this week plainly said that work permits were not required – at least in Phuket.

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