Our Lease Part 2

Appointment 3 was made, solicitor was under no illusions that we would not be leaving without a 30 year lease. We also spoke to the big boss in the area about if there were any shortcuts in the process? A couple of calls later, he told us to go to ‘desk 5′ and speak to Ms. Xyz (sorry I forget the name),’ slip her 1000 AED and all would be sorted out. Hmmm hmm …OK… Let’s see. We followed the instructions and all seemed to be going to plan when….

… We were all (me too) called to see the senior Officer in connection with the lease request. The same comments were passed about cutting down on leases, credit to PJ she was fighting the cause, the solicitor was useless TBH. We were then asked to wait outside while she consulted… (Lord knows who)

I started to get that feeling… You know the one, where you just know what’s about to happen….After 10 minutes, solicitor and PJ were called, almost immediately they came back and said, it could be made to happen if a small err… ‘Payment’ was made to y’know…help things along.

How much? Says I

5000 THB came the reply.

That’s where I made my biiiiiig mistake.

No…I did not argue. I did not refuse. I said yes ok… But… I said it too quickly!

Back they went with the good news. Oops back they came, in 60 seconds, it was not 5000, now it was… 30,000!

Damn! But… I had to have it, so I had to agree.

30k for 30 years… Still not too bad but there it was… My first experience of back-handing a deal through.

Money was paid, and lease was then duly acknowledged and added to the Chanote. We also got the chief officer to agree to assist us in the future, should we need it. More on that later.

So, one bri… Payment made, one lease secured.

Onward, ever onward…

Our Lease Part 1

Property ownership and Leasehold

So…after we had concluded the land purchase, I needed to get a lease in place, which would give me control (well, as much control as Thai law allows) over what we were going to do with the land.

I hear some saying ‘oooh – how romantic’’ and I in turn can point to rose-tinted specs on men who thought love would last for ever only to discover later that it doesn’t.

So…a lease was needed, and not just any lease. Specifically, the 30-year lease. This of course involved drafting up the lease itself, getting it translated and submitting it into records at the land office.

To be fair, my Wife (bless her), was on-board with the lease concept. Of course I was. We (I) drafted what I wanted, and we got it translated. Out next port of call was the land office near to Chachenseao. We employed the services of a solicitor to do the deed, thus having someone of legal standing on hand in case there were any last-minute questions, and also allowing me to stay ‘ in the shadows’ and not draw attention to myself too much.

Thus it was that the lease was submitted to the front desk.

Immediately …there was an issue.

The land office wanted to know where she had got the money to purchase all this land. Of course we had rehearsed that question but they needed evidence, some we had some we did not. End result was… No lease just a follow-up appointment.

Some scrabbling round back home came up with enough funding evidence to show it had been possible to buy the land.

So back we went for trip 2 complete with solicitor (again) and enough money to pay for whatever it took. Again, I kept out of the way. Some discussions took place, lengthy discussions, and after, they came to tell me the (bad) news…. Such leases were not available! The military jun…. The prime minister had decreed that such leases gave ‘’too much power to Farangs’’. Of course I pushed them to renegotiate. In the end, it was the solicitor only, and finally, he came out with papers to sign with witnesses, and “all was ok”

We had been on this mission nearly all day, I was tired so it was not until we were driving back to BKK that I looked at that ‘lease’.

Man, I blew up immediately. The lease was not 30 years. It was a 3 year local lease, no real worth, did not even need the solicitor, the land office, etc. and certainly not what I wanted. I told him clearly he would not be getting paid for this…excuse and it was a long drive back to Bangkok in silence. I was fuming.

Later, PJ discussed what had happened. There WAS pressure in the land office to deter long leases for foreigners, but it was not impossible. He had thought something better than nothing so had not been forceful AND he thought he was helping the Thai (PJ) not sign away too much to the farang! Hmmmmmm, you can guess how she took to all that.

The people who are important to your build

People

Your wife (or husband)

She’s going to put up with a lot. Your temper tantrums, maybe. Your haggling – because she would not do it. The crazy Farang, in general. The builder’s comments in Thai. Her role in smoothing things over. Her role in managing the build in your absence. Negotiating for those ‘extras’ that cropped up. And most importantly…. Being a strong and untied team with you. Together, you can achieve almost anything. If she’s not on-board, in effect…you are on your own.

The builder

You need to get to know him. Of course you do your research. You check his background. Look at previous builds. If possible check with those owners – did it go smoothly? Any issues? You gauge his resolve when you ask for changes or features. Does he listen? Or is it ‘no problem’ for everything. Is he interested in just winning the job, or completing the job?

His crew

You need to have faith in the builder you choose, but a quick assessment of the gang coming to do the work is important. Here you are getting a feel not just for ability but personality, the likelihood of causing trouble, theft, etc. It’s the builder’s job to make sure they are working, but you need to get a handle on those people building your dream.

The neighbours

If you are lucky, like we were, there will be no neighbours when you are building. But of course, in a lot of cases, those neighbours are there. You need to get them on side early. You are going to disrupt their lives for at least some of the time. Dust, noise, increased traffic, maybe damaged road or verge, you might need them for temporary water or electric supply. A happy neighbour will help you, a disgruntled neighbour will obstruct you. Simple really.

The land office

If you need to register the land ownership (you do) on the Chanote, or you need to register the lease (you do) on that Chanote…you need this Office. Obstacles can be put in your way here. Costs, leases that are suddenly not available, ‘government policy’, evidence of ability to pay for the land in the first place, etc. etc. Use your diplomacy, use whatever it takes to get the document and the lease in place.

The OrBorTor

As the head of the district office covering amongst other things planning, the OrBorTor wields a lot of power, has a lot of connections and is one person you definitely want on your side. If you develop a good relationship with him it can help to get your build up and running. He controls the Engineer’s office for the district, and ultimately he issues the building permit to allow you to start work.

The OrBorTor Engineer

Within the OrBorTor Office, the Engineer will go over your plans, check your calculations and advise on issuing the building permit. The Engineer’s office may well offer a plans service a lot cheaper than the architect – assuming they have time to draw up those plans. Additionally the Engineer might be employed to keep an eye on your builder and work progress, and to carry out the snagging assessment at the end of the build.

The architect

Depends on how you went about getting your idea to the stage where the OrBorTor office can assess and pass the plans and issue the building permit. Off the shelf plans don’t need the architect – just present them for approval and away you go. But if you are ‘building your dream’, your idea will have to be translated from your sketches, or your photos, or even your detailed home drawn plans – into architectural plans with calculations ready for presentation.

The architect is a powerful position and can really take you for a big fee… or he could work with you. You will be shopping around for one , assuming you need one, so get an idea of his price early on –and also, what is and isn’t included. You can get caught out if he says he can do it…’’apart from the plumbing’. Also…will he personally go to the OrBorTor office to present and discuss? Will he included required changes in the fee?

The PEA

The Provincial Electricity Authority – you are going to need them, sooner or later. A temporary supply. A permanent supply. It’s not just a case of hooking up an extension and a 13A socket. These are professionals – you will need to have a clear idea what temporary supply is required. 15/45 single phase? 300/100 3-phase? Yes…they can supply it, at a cost. A meter will be installed and a bill will be raised. Who’s paying? That’s something you need to agree with the builder before he starts.

Later when it comes to the full time supply for the finished house, you need loads, equipment details, timings, maximum draw, etc. etc. The PEA can work it out but you need to provide detail. If you make a mistake with this one, expect outages or worse – fire.

The Water supplier

This might be the supply through the OrBorTor office, or a local supply. You might by-pass it all for a self-sunk well, though this water might need a lot of ‘processing’ to be useable. All the water supplied via pipe is not really drinkable and will need purification and filtering if you intent to use it for consumption. All the DIY outlets sell water purification systems, and reverse osmosis systems are also available, if you do not want to have to keep buying bottled water.

But you need a water supply for toilets, washing machines, garden watering, showers and baths.do your research for what I available in the area you want to build. It can get real expensive real quick if any length of pipe is needed to bring the supply to the land.

You will need a water supply for the build too so get that agreed with the builder before signing the contract.

House registration

May seem trivial but until your new house is in the system, you cannot get water or electric connections. You cannot request services at the property. You need a house number. You need the blue book or the yellow book. Again there is scope to be held to ransom for this. Diplomacy and resolve and possibly cold hard cash should see you though!

The Contract –part 2

Pre-start Documentation

Theft

Theft can occur in any country and building sites are a rich source of steal’able materials and equipment. If your builder loses all the roof tiles overnight, what happens? Similarly, if someone ‘borrows’ his power tools or his JCB, again who is responsible. It is vital to clarify this in the contract. HE is responsible for materials and equipment, not you. If anything is stolen, he has to replace the items. This will probably encourage him to keep some or all of the building team on site day and night which is a good thing from a security viewpoint.

Are we being hard on the builder? No…not really. Some builders who are not under a clause in the contract making them responsible may well ‘sell’ equipment or materials and you have to replace them. Often those same materials come back after a payment for new has been made. I’m not saying all builders can do this but, again, by specifying clearly in the contract, this can be avoided

Site clean up

This is very often forgotten, but can be a massive cost if the responsibility is not clarified in the contract. Make the builder responsible and there will be less waste and also an ongoing clean-up as the work progresses.

Snagging list

Every build has some issues along the way. Things might not turn out as you planned. The builder may try to cut a corner. There might be a finishing issues with paint or stain. Remember…once you have made the final payment you are in a much weaker position to get things rectified. The builder has had all his money – his focus is on the next contract.

If you retain a portion of the contract value that is only released once all the snagging issues are fixed the builder is much more likely to sort out his mistakes. Ideally that snagging list retention payment is quite large – possibly the bulk of his profit. It is in his interest to fix everything in order to get all his money. Include this snagging list payment in the contract.

Following the contract

It may seem obvious but, especially where it is important, it needs to be stated for clarity that the contract must be followed. For example, the Thai way with electrical installation is to put one or two outlet sockets on the wall and then add more using plug-in gang sockets. If you have carefully illustrated 7 or 8 double wall sockets in your kitchen, I’m guessing you would be less than pleased if the builder thought it was too many and instead fitted 3 single sockets and assumed the shortfall would come from plug in extensions. Enforce the specification. Ensure the clarification. Build to your satisfaction.

The builder needs to understand he is bound to the contract and any changes must be discussed and agreed in writing.

Penalty clauses

Some people want to add this in but I did not for our build. It can put unnecessary pressure onto the builder, who might cut a corner to achieve the deadline. If you start fining the builder he might lose interest or walk off the job. You want the builder to do the best job possible. I see the penalty clause as counter-productive if you have got a good builder and a good relationship with him. Mostly, the build time will be what it will be and both sides should be flexible – within reason of course.

Negotiating and agreeing the contract.

Remember, the contract comes AFTER the builder has given you his construction price. You use that as the basis for working out the stage payments. Firstly, you try to break the contract down into stages, and get agreement for them. Then discuss a realistic timescale in days to complete each stage. Then agree the cash that will be paid. Always pay the stage after it is completed. This encourages completion! It’s not a penalty clause but it does focus the builders mind! Then, discuss and agree the commencement date on site.

Write all those discussions up and, importantly have the contract in both Thai and English. Let the builder read it through. If there are any last-minute changes, come to an agreement and then write them in. and that’s it.

Print up both Thai and English copies of the contract, 2 copies of each. Both you and the builder signs each copy with witness if possible. We used our wives as the witnesses. Each party has a copy of the Thai and English contracts all signed up. The only thing then is to get the build started.

In closing…

Remember, the contract you finalise needs to be fair. Both you and the builder will eventually put your names to it. Take your time. Consider and include elements to get out of it what you need. Make it achievable. Make sure the builder understands what it stands for. Time spent at the start, sorting out this important document will ensure the build goes smoothly once the work commences.

The Contract – part 1

Pre-start Documentation

The contract may seem to be just a formality, just another ‘bit of paper’…but it is in fact a most important document.

In it, you lay out how you want the build project to progress. It contains key elements, to clarify what you expect from your builder and in turn the builder has a recognition of progress, and of course… a reference for payment.

The contract should not be rushed. It should be considered. Call upon personal knowledge, previous documents (if you have been involved in the building of a house before), external references such as the internet, contract books, etc. when drawing up the contract to make sure you include everything.

Firstly…here is what NOT to do. Do not let the builder ‘help you’ by drafting or producing the contract. This will be the most one-sided document in history! Something like ‘pay me at the start of the stage’ or ‘split the cost into 3 or 4 and pay in advance’, or ‘pay me the contract value up front and in return I will deliver the house build at some point (undefined)’!

Obviously, that is not good

Before you start

You need to decide a few things before even drafting a contract. Is it a full contract? Or build only – will you purchase materials and the builder supply labour and expertise only? Will you organise specialist trades, such as plumbers or AC engineers, at set points?

The structure of the contract should include some basic elements

Timescale

Include both stages and overall timescale. There needs to be a check at each stage of the build to make sure work is completed before moving on. This is a key element of the contract – it prevents the builder fulfilling parts of different works and then justifying a payment even though no stage has been completed. Complete each stage to get paid.

Payments

Linked to those timescale stage are the associated payments. Payments should NEVER be in advance. If the builder says he can only do the job if he has large amounts of cash up front you have to question the builder’s ability to deliver the project at all. Is he really that hand-to-mouth? What happens to your cash if he has a crisis at home? Of course, your cash will sort out his problem…but then he is again short for your project.

Also, beware of potential builders wanting huge up-front payments – some up-front costs can maybe be justified, but some builders may just build nothing and do a runner with your money.

Inclusions in the contract other than the build

What about the conduct of your builder and his crew? If a situation develops, say with a neighbour – who is responsible if a cost is incurred? This is important – this must be the builder’s responsibility – he is responsible for how his building team behave. That needs to be in the contract.

What about accidents? Can your builder come to you with a massive claim if his roofer falls and breaks his back on your property? Again – needs to be clarified.

Material specifications

Here is where your careful research into the finishes you want in the build are detailed. Yes, really. If you want an XYZ tile in bathroom 1 and an ABC tile in the kitchen – specify it. Tile. Reference number. Colour if relevant. Supplier. This again avoids the builder just sticking plain white budget tiles everywhere. He is building it but you will live in it. You need to be happy with the finishes and he needs to provide them. Be clear and specify everything to avoid doubt.

Changes to the contract

After thinking the contract through, agreeing it and signing it, that’s it right? It could be, but we all know that in the real world, things can ‘come up’ along the way – a change of specification, a solution to an unforeseen problem, a different way of doing something and there needs to be a mechanism in the contract to consider this.

As a start, it should be specified that notice and agreement must be in place before any contract variation takes place. This stops the builder agreeing everything and then cutting corners with materials of labour quality to save money. Notice of change must be given and agreed, not just given. This obviously favours the owner as his change is likely to be adopted as long as any additional cost is paid.

And, changes to contract that make savings should also be detailed. What happens to those savings? Who gets the benefit? It is important to write this into the contract.

Raising the land

Land Preparation

Thailand has a close association with water– there is a lot of it everywhere. It rains a lot during the monsoon season, a lot of the land is low-lying. It is often said that Bangkok is built over water and certainly you see a lot of it everywhere. Rivers, ditches, flooded land, standing water on the roads.

The plot we settled on was not particularly low lying. According to the locals it had never flooded, but good advice dictated that we should future-proof the development. This was going to be our long-term home. Who knows what adjacent development might happen down the line and how that might affect us?

No… to be sure (as we could be) we needed to raise up the land. This would need the import of soils from elsewhere and then a ‘settling’ period for the new levels to consolidate. The plot sloped very gently from left to right as you stood on the road looking into it. Behind the road, the palm oil plantation was lower again, meaning that flooding on the plot was unlikely.

We decided to raise up the land, on average by 1m, and to level it at the same time, meaning more material was to be placed to the right as one looked from the road.

Once that had settled, the house footprint would be raised up another 60cm. So… a minimum increase of about 1.3m over and above the surrounding land, and with the surrounding land falling away from the plot.

It is recommended that land raising should stand for at least 1 rainy season to compact naturally. We were placing the soils just before the rainy season so if we were successful in completing in in time, we might only have to wait 6 months if the season was short.

A deal was done to supply soils to raise up the plot. We worked out it would take 112 loads at 8m3 / load to raise the land to the desired level and so one morning, about a week before the rainy season was due to start, those soils started arriving.

Day one

The land-raising operation was supervised by the supply company with an on-site supervisor, who ran 4 trucks to and from their soil source and a tractor fitted with a blade to spread and lightly compact the soils as they arrived. We were also on hand to ensure that there were no ‘mistakes’ with the delivery truck-count as we were paying per load.

The trucks soon started piling up the soils and the tractor was flat out spreading the material. He also periodically cleaned the road of the spillages and tracked material where the trucks exited the plot. The guy never stopped

By the end of day one, 80 loads had been delivered and placed – a good start. We now did a quick re-check on the estimated truck loads needed. Was still pretty much on track except for some of the first truck loads were well under weight. That was noted and it was agreed that a reckoning would take place at the end.

Of more concern was the impending weather. Cloud had been building up towards the end of the day and it did not look too good. With crossed fingers we set off to the accommodation and hoped for the best for the following day

Day two

This picked up from the previous day and now the race was on to get the other 60 loads or so (extra loads due to the underweight deliveries at the start). The trucks started rolling in at 0800, and soon the operation was running as before. The road would be a disaster if the rain came – think mud everywhere, but we were saved by 2 things – the road itself is very lightly trafficked, with the ‘rush hour’’ consisting of a couple of pick-ups, a car and about 4 motorbikes and secondly, the excellent work carried out by the tractor driver.

The cloud built up as the soil placing progressed but the rain held off until we had placed the last load. The soil boss was straight round to check we were happy – he had sent extra loads to make up for the small truck loads. The job satisfactorily completed and the money paid, the road cleaned up, the trucks departed, and all parties went their separate ways

The rain came overnight.

Day three

Next morning we headed straight back to see the land. The rain had puddled across the plot and there was, what looked like a lot of run-off unto the road.

But in the main, the land-raising looked good. Now we had to wait…. at least until the end of the rainy season.

It’s OK though – there was plenty still to be done!

Land

Land Preparation

As any would-be builder knows, finding and acquiring land is a big part of any self-build project. The perfect location or as near to it as possible, the cost restrictions, the planning restrictions, the availability of services etc. etc. In the West, these considerations can be prohibitive – they certainly were for me, anyway. No matter how hard I tried to find a plot and fulfil the dream, it was always just out of reach.

In Thailand, these issues are a LOT less! I mean, literally there is help along the way to smooth the passage of turning your land plot into a building plot complete with any permissions. I am told that in the north of Thailand one can almost buy the plot and then just build the house!

We did not want a plot too near to other family members. No…not because we were ‘not speaking’, but more because we wanted to be somewhere ‘new’. New start together, new life, new location. It seemed to make sense. Of course, we wanted to be within striking distance of that family should any emergency arise, so moving up to Chiang Mai, Isaan or the Mekong areas was out. Similarly, too far South was also off the table, for the same reason.

We wanted peace and quiet, clean air, low to no noise, nothing too built-up, so that ruled out large towns and cities. I am a country boy at heart despite living in the capitals of the Middle East for over 12 years.

Initially we were looking at a plot near to Ayutthaya. The problem there – 1. Cost. Because the area was a massive tourist destination, plots were pricy and small, and 2. A lot of the land flooded during the wet season. This phenomenon happens over a lot of Thailand, by the way and is a factor you need to take into account when choosing where to live.

After that, we looked at coastal locations but again, the idea of 1000’s of tourists descending into the area every holiday season (and it’s a long season in Thailand!) put us off. Land is also costly –you pay a premium for the sea view or the smell of sea air just about everywhere!

But we did want coastal access. So any plot we would consider should be within 90 minutes’ drive of that coast. In fact, that’s a good compromise – you can have a day on the beach if you fancy it, or if friends have come to visit, but then in the evening, you can either stay a night in a hotel or…jump in the car and say ‘good bye’ , and be back home in 1 ½ hours or less.

So… reasonable access to family (they are in the Bangkok suburbs and Rayong). Within a short drive of the coast. Not a big conurbation but access to one, with the shops and services when needed. Not a big tourist destination. Quiet, clean and a reasonable price for land.

Also – flood potential. Check the surrounding properties and even speak to the OrBorTor’s office. Then…will there be a new highway driven past your potential plot? What about other planned development? A new housing estate or worse… a new industrial estate? Are there plans to ‘up-rate’ the road past your front gate? Perhaps there is a new 7-Eleven planned for your street – maybe you would like that, (maybe not !). Also you need to check the availability of services into your chosen location. Electricity and water are pretty much available everywhere but the internet may not be.

One cannot stop time and nothing will stay the same for ever but by taking reasonable precautions, you can minimise adverse impact for the longest time.

For our eventual location, 100Km south east of Bangkok and about 90Km east of Chon Buri, we managed to tick just about all of the boxes.

The other factor, for us anyway, was the assistance and encouragement we got from officialdom to get the land and house purchased, approved and constructed. The Engineer, the architect, the planning / land office – everyone wanted to help you to achieve the goal in as little time as possible.

Lol – imagine that concept in the United Kingdom!

The Lease

Property ownership and Leasehold

To maintain control of land that is not yours, you need to get a leasehold arrangement. This is not some informal document (well, it can be but it’s worthless in the eyes of a Thai court if things go wrong) but a formal recognition of the leaseholder actually noted officially on the land documents. The lease is of 2 types, relevant to property.

You can form a lease of maximum 3 years very easily, but who would want to? 3 years – just enough to build ‘your’ house and then when it comes to the lease renewal after 36 months, you are at the mercy of the land owner. He might renew it, at the same rate for another 3 years, or he might put the lease up 10 fold. Or he might refuse to renew. All your hard work sat on someone else’s land. A very difficult and avoidable situation.

No… the lease you want is the one that lasts 30 years. This needs to be approved at the land office and assuming your lease is approved, you details are added onto to land ownership document, in our case – the Chanote.

The lease itself has to be ‘believable’ in order to be approved – what do I mean by that? Commercially reasonable. All the elements in place. This is to stop foreign buyers using a Thai ‘proxy’ to ‘buy’ the land with on the face of it no benefit to the nominal Thai owner. So a 30-year lease application where to owner gets 1000THB / year and there is no clear details for who the lease is being taken up by is likely to be rejected. In our case, my wife will get 1,800,000 THB rental over the life of the lease. My details were clear and supported by documents proving who I am. The wording of the lease, e.g. what to do if the house is to be sold later on, etc. has to be fair and reasonable. Even with what we thought was everything in place, the land office did not approve it until the second day, but approve it they did.

In no way related to the previous paragraph…

A word about ‘tea money’, back-handers, something to help the process, speed up the process…call it what you will. I am not saying anything like that happened to us but… this is one situation where it is ‘possible’ that such a suggestion might be made ‘if you want this lease to get approved’’. Is it right? Not really. Does it happen? Yup… at least…it can. Be aware of this in your budgeting!!

Why is land ownership restricted to Thai nationals?

Property ownership and Leasehold

One of the things that needs to be considered when building a house in Thailand is the subject of ownership. A foreigner can own a car, a condominium or apartment… a house even. What he cannot own is the land underneath it. That has to be owned by a Thai national or a company.

This might be a very important situation for some considering a house build project in Thailand. There are ways to mitigate for this and I will expand on this below.

The situation may seem ‘unfair’ but it is necessary, and not just in Thailand. With differing economies, lifestyles, salaries and wealth between nations, if the restriction was not in place a situation could arise where another country or even a number of individuals, could come in and literally ‘buy’ Thailand. Such a situation could be disastrous for the country, with land prices rocketed out of reach of the Thai people, vast areas of the country under foreign control, animosity and conflict leading to unrest.

By limiting ownership to nationals only, all of the downside is removed, apart from, of course, the foreign purchaser not actually owning the land.

In our case the solution was simple – my wife bought the land, and I put the house on it. It was lucky she had family money to make the purchase, or else I might have been forced to help her out with that purchase, if you know what I mean…

There are ways to ‘own’ the land though. One way is to form a ‘limited company’ to hold the land. 51% of the company must owned by Thai nationals, but silent Thai partners who pass back their voting rights get round the laws of Thailand. Note: ‘’get round’’. This is a fix to circumvent the law. Sooner or later this loophole will be closed so probably best to not rely on this way long term.

Another way is to invest. Invest a minimum 20 million Baht to be accurate, as of 2020. Do that and the investor can purchase 1 rai of land and own it.

Land Measurements

Property ownership and Leasehold

Thailand uses its own set of measurements of area and here is a table of those areas, with the equivalent metric measurements for comparison:

1 Talang Wah	1 square Wah	4m2
1 Ngan	100 Talang Wah	400m2
1 Rai	4 Ngan	1600m2

1 acre is approximately 2.5 Rai

In the picture above, the red outlined plot near the road is approximately 1 Rai, and the larger outlined plot below is over 2.5 Rai. The 1 Rai plot is where the Thai House will be built.