YES you can win in Thai courts

[sargeant]

Just before my new wife and I got together my wife purchased 9.5 Rai of land
My only advice to her (as it was HER money not mine and we were not together as such at the time) was check the chanote.
She came home with the document and to be honest it looked like a chanote to me.
Being busy getting together and then moving and setting up home together here in Pranburi City it sort of went on the back burner
After a couple of months we went to check the marker stones with new posts purchased to put in.
We found only one stump of a marker post.
The person who sold her the land was called and we met to get her to show us the boundary markers (there were a few red flags flying at this time as well).
She showed us, and the area she was adamant was the land, only measured 6 rai a huge red flag.
I told the woman she must give my now wife her money back she refused and said sue me "it will cost you a lot of money and you wont get anything back"
She arranged a meeting a week later with the pooh yai for the area it was obvious to me the two were operating a scam within minutes so i packed my wife and i of and left.
The following day i sent my wife to the Thai legal centre in Hua Hin (there was a small hiccup) however the Lawyer arranged a meeting at the land office Pranburi with us and the seller.
At this meeting it was made clear by the land office they could NOT transfer the chanote to my wife as it was a "NOR SOR SAM" and it was a worthless document.
Our lawyer informed the seller the contract had not been completed and therefore my wife was entitled to canx the contract and the seller should refund my wifes money she was even offered a settlement of 450k 70K lower than the 520k my wife had paid and she still refused and quoted again sue me "it will cost you a lot of money and you wont get anything back"

Everybody in particular her family (except me) told my wife to forget it you lost your money and throwing more money at it was stupid.

I said we go to court and employed the lawyer to persue the case i would pay
Legal mongering was carried out and some months later we went to Prachuap Kiri Khan to attend a mediation meeting with the judge.
Needless to say the seller never showed up

Another 3 months past and we were then summoned for a full court hearing at this hearing the judge asked the seller to settle she offered 5k a month the judge asked my wife if that was ok my lovely wife replied to the judge it will take 9 years to pay back do you think that is fair.
The judges demeanor noticably changed as he realised he had been made to look silly by the seller.
He told the seller she was to pay back all 520k plus 1k court fee plus 7% interest.
He told her not to move her assets or she would be jailed and failure to pay would mean her assets would be siezed and sold at auction.

I then told the lawyer a good sum of money would be paid to whoever could find her assets when my wife got her money back

When we were up Petchabun way buying 6 Rai of land we got a phone call from our lawyer could we come to his office and sign some documents as he had found 6 chanotes in the sellers name and he was in the process of getting the court to order their seizure for auction
This was done it took about three weeks and we were in Petchabun for a monk party when we started getting phone call after phone call from the seller she wanted to settle.
I let her stew for 9 days before we answered.
My wife her sister and my brother in law in full captains uniform went to Prachuap Kiri Khan and the exchange of cash and Nor Sor Sam was completed in full to the last satang

bearing in mind we would have taken a 70k hit if she had agreed to the 450k it actually ended up costing a little over 50 k

so yes you can win just be determined and keep going we were told so many times by so many people drop it you cannot win
I will say also the lawyer was fair and dead straight with me and i recommend him highly

[MrPlum]

Well done, sarge.

[Bristolian]

Congratulations. It's always a good story when the suposed underdog comes out on top. Well Done

[sargeant]

Thanks Mr P but its my wife who deserves the handclap for having the faith in my advice and sticking to her guns in the face of a barrage of detractors.

My reward is knowing my wife thinks i am brilliant and luvs me all the more

A humorous aside was the brass necked brazen arrogance of the seller who at the exchange had the audacity to ask my wife for a discount
Luckily my wife has picked up a few choice words from me and gave the arrogant bitch a full broadside of all of them and then was prepared to walk out and go to auction over 25 satang
My wife says the look on the bitches face was worth every baht of the 50k

[JimmyGreaves]

Would that of been the outcome if it was a farang who had been scammed? I somehow doubt it!

[traveller2]

Well done Sarge and congratulations to Mrs S. Its always good to hear positive outcomes to stuations experienced.



T2

[MrPlum]

Thanks Mr P but its my wife who deserves the handclap for having the faith in my advice and sticking to her guns in the face of a barrage of detractors.

That may be so but she's not on the forum and you are.

[sargeant]

Jimmy a lot of the detractors told my wife to drop it BECAUSE of me being a farang

I was at all meetings with the judges and the court system and was questioned I was HIGHLY VISIBLE and vocal. I would be absolutely staggered if the judges etc did not think i was paying for the land the same way every body else does
in other words it WAS Farang against thai

the point of me posting this was to advise people to IGNORE the detractors UNLESS they have a legal point to make (which you dont)

Just detracting for its own sake just plays into the myth which seems to me to be just what you have just done

It is up to the individual and the strength of his/hers case but giving up for a misplaced myth strikes me as a silly way to go and empowers the fraudsters and thieves even more

My experience was the system does work my wifes money back in her bank is proof

[usual suspect]

The seller you have been talking about here is probably now organising even MORE scams to recoup her 'losses'!
Well done to the BOTH of you..

[JimmyGreaves]

Sarge, your thai wife was going to be the loser and I would expect her to get the full backing of the law behind her. As I say if it was a farang then maybe the 5000 baht a month would have been accepted by the judge as we all know farangs are loaded and could wait 9 years for the payment. Just think that your wife had good luck on this occasion and many do but majority of falangs don't. Example I want a visa to support my thai daughter, it's legal but immigration don't want to do it. I got a thai lawyer who went to immigration with me and he pointed out that's it's legal so they say yes I can get it, however the thai lawyer says I still have to give them a back hander, when I said to him that it's legal why the tip he laughed. Go figure.

Ps - I know farangs that have won via the courts also some that have been slaughtered with costs. You can never tell as TIT but good to hear that your wife was on the end of a good result.

[hhfarang]

I also know foreigners who have gone to court for years and finally been awarded a settlement from the judge, but there is no enforcement. I know of one court case where a person was awarded 4 million baht by the judge three years ago but the money has not been paid yet as the court just said the money was owed but there was no enforcement of the payment. Thai courts are worthless in most cases.

[Lung Per]

Shouldn't the full name and address of the guilty party be exposed so others may be warned?

[Big Boy]

If you need to know, please use the PM system.

[Don East Stand]

Firstly, well done sarge! Good to hear good news.

Secondly, there does appear to be a lot of negative feelings regarding the Thai courts, and particularly when Farangs are involved. I don't know if everyone is talking from first hand experience, or if a lot of it is "I heard it in the pub, so it must be true"

My own experience, i.e. Farang man and Farang wife, went to court against a Thai woman and we won! I would have to say that we were treated very fairly, and I could not fault the Thai court system.

I appreciate that some people may have had a bad experience, maybe we were lucky, ......anyway, for anyone interested, my original post on the following thread briefly gives the background viewtopic.php?f=20&t=18119&hilit=auction

[johnnyk]

My 2 satang: the courts dont give a hoot when its a falang vs. falang dispute.