coolthaihouse.com blog

A good while ago we were in the process of buying and subdividing some land and had some need for a legal consultation + help in doing the transfer. Today would not go the lawyer route. At that time I stopped by a recommended Thai lawyer who was in the area, just to ask some basic questions. The land was already under contract and was scheduled to close in about 1 week. At the time before engaging the said lawyer (who was recommended by some acquaintances doing a large project + others on various other forums) I asked what the costs would be for the envisioned services….. the response ‘not much, don’t worry, not expensive’. (more…)

Our Thai friend has been looking for an affordable house for a while. While I thought something fairly close to Pattaya was cheap if it was around 1 million baht, I have learned there is a whole lot of houses cheaper than that around. However, you must be careful when looking at something that seems like it would cost more to build than the asking price. (more…)

I had previously written about land that wasn’t the same size as stated in the chanote previous short chanote writeup. A couple of things have happened since then. One is that I definitively accept the explanation of my lawyer friend as to why it is this way. Working example: You buy a chanote which states there is 6 rai of land for 1 million per rai, 2500 per tarang wah, total price is 6m baht. The sales agreement states you are buying that plot of land for 6m baht. Later you find out there is really only 5 rai of land there. Why is it you aren’t entitled to a refund? Because just as likely there may have been 7 rai of land there, in which case you’re not obligated to pay more either. (more…)

prev article on short land. Since the previous article I’ve heard from a number of people who have had the same problem. One neighbor (thai/farang) lost about 1/2 rai out of 3 rai. Near the new land a thai couple lost 2 rai out of 10. (more…)

from Philip W To follow on from your section on owning property and the problems with a company owning land:

The reason that the legality of a company owning land can be challenged and in the worst case, the land made forfeit is that a company that is set up to merely own land is illegal as it has been set up with the purpose of circumventing the Thai land ownership laws . (more…)

from John Have a question, I wish to purchase land and put this into my two Thai daughters names. How old do they have to be to do this? One is six and the other 5weeks, this means that I can have land and when I die it goes to my family. Thanks (more…)

I finally heard of a case of a company which was ‘invalidated’ by the tax authorities. Here are the specifics of the story (as it was told to me). The limited Thai company was formed primarily to hold one piece of real estate complete with a house. The foreign shareholder lived in the house. He had the company for many years. Often he was delinquent in filing taxes on time. In addition, this particular gentleman had made some enemies who were either of ‘influence’ or otherwise interested enough in getting him out of the neighborhood that they would pony up some funds to get the ball rolling. (more…)

from Peter Just a short note. My house was purchased as an NPL through Thai Farmers bank (or their NPL branch known as Progress Management LTD). As some of you might know, when you buy an NDL from the bank there is a usually protocol that states that you the buyer assumes all transfer taxes. After we’d signed the contract and met at the land transfer office to do the deal, the final bill was not 98,000 as I had expected but 240,000! When I asked why, they said there was now a 3.5 per cent sellers tax for houses sold within five years. I explained that I was the “Buyer” not the “seller”. But the bank person explained that I had signed a contract which stated all transfer fees. I went through the roof and lodged a formal complaint with the bank. (more…)

from Jeff K
thanks the info on buying houses via a company was most interesting, Ithink i ll stay with my condo for the time being.

editor: One thing this reminded me of was the fact that now not all condos can be owned by foreigners. There has been a law on the books for a long period of time which states that all condominium units must have 51% Thai ownership (of the finished units). (more…)

If you’ve been following along here, you’ll notice that I generally stay away from farang professionals working here, since there are a lot of shady characters and those that aren’t are much more expensive than their Thai counterparts. However, on the subject of lawyers I am willing to throw in the towel and admit defeat. (more…)

There was a French man and a Thai wife in my lawyer’s office doing a land transfer. The purchase: land and house in a subdivision. The lawyer went to them to transfer property at the land office. The French man was surprised (at the last minute) that the deed wasn’t in the name of the subdivision company or any of the people he had dealt with before. (more…)

My friend and I keep having this conversation about land ownership. It goes something like this: him: Do you think you’ll ever be able to own land here? me: Well, that depends on your definition of own. him: Simply, can you own it? me: I suppose not, but you can control it with a lease or a company. him: So you’re telling me that someone has advised you that you can actually own land? me: No, not in so many words, but……

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I did meet with the farang business consultant in Bangkok, in reference to this issue: setting up a company with ordinary and preference shares. The ordinary shares have more votes than the preference shares, so a minority shareholder can essentially ‘control’ a Thai limited company. (more…)

more from Robby – Krabi Dream House builder
Just finished reading your comments. Don’t know where I put my password, etc., to respond……..I’ll look it up tomorrow. By the way, I paid 1.1M Baht for the 3 rai. That’s a lot of territory. I was thinking about waiting until the land price went up in value and selling 1 rai. I could use the money for building a wall and gate for our property. The land is registered in my son’s name. He is a Thai national. (more…)

The laws and regulations here aren’t that straightforward as far as everyone is concerned, Thais and foreigners alike. This week I continued looking for a lawyer and interviewed another one on Theppasit road. (more…)

Lawyers and real estate. At one point I had a pretty good Thai lawyer, but now she is so busy, on the last transaction I was left dealing with the staff — who are paralegals. They finally got the job done, but it was a painful experience. After that I decided, the next go round it is on to a new lawyer. (more…)

Just got back from a dinner with friends. The age old subject of land ownership came up again. I find an inordinate amount of ‘not that rich’ falang who are really dependent on their house have done a really lazy and sloppy job of setting up the ownership issue. (more…)

Why in the world would a foreigner want to buy land in Thailand? After all, Thailand generally prohibits land ownership for foreigners or foreign owned companies. Normally the answer is quite simple, they like living in Thailand and want a place to live. Renting can get old after a while. Not only is it expensive (renting), but it also restrictive, you can’t really fix it up the way you want without wasting a lot of money. So, finally it comes time to buy a house (or build) in the land of smiles. (more…)

This is a follow up on last week’s article: Worst case scenario – a true story in Pattaya. After talking to the construction workers and getting the full scoop, one thing became clear — this was a setup from the beginning. The owner of the property had bought the land in good faith. When he bought it there was a public access road which came up to the border of what the seller said was a ‘common road’. (more…)

This story is about a farang Mr. A and his Thai wife, B. A and B looked around a found a perfect piece of land near a lake outside Pattaya. There was only one problem with the land, the government road only ran to within 4 meters of the land. Indeed on the deed itself the parcel did not show road access. But the sellers (Mr X and wife Y) showed A and B where they would grant access. As A and B could see where the access would be, they felt there was no problem. (more…)

From a forum piece….

FORUM: I have a question concerning ownership. The coolthaihouse website recommended setting up a Thai limited company with 70% preferred shares (thai owned) and 30% common shares with 10 votes per share (farang owned). Although this arrangement follows the letter of the law, it violates the spirit. It is essentially a company whose purpose is to allow a foreigner to have control over the land. (more…)

feedback from Rob C

Surprised you went the company ownership route to ownership given the legal expenses and on-going auditing costs. Can you let me know how much you spent and are spending with this route? (more…)