House Buying Method.

[Pagey]

l (farang) looking to buy a house & land. Been reading about usufructs but still need a Thai to own it. What are the other preferred options. Is the Thai limited company route still available and if so what cost and who can recommend a lawyer to do this for me.

Thanks.

[heartofmidlothian]

A word of advice to anyone looking to buy property in Thailand. Use a good lawyer and do not hand over money until you are sure that the land, or the lease, is getting registered at the land office.
I have heard of so many scams and 4 years ago I bought a house for 3 million. The owner promised the land was in the process of being registered, but 4 years later it still is not. He used my house and 12 others houses to borrow money from the bank. Now he is incapable of paying back his debt and we are going to lose our houses and he is adamant that he did nothing wrong! The sad thing is that the legal system doesn't seem willing to go after these cheats. Be very careful and get a good lawyer to work for your interests. Will be the best money you ever spend.

[Ratsima]

My wife is an attorney. A big part of her business is straightening out farang property cock-ups. You would be astounded (perhaps not) at the amazing and foolish things people do.

By all means get an attorney and insist on being told all the potential drawbacks of each and every option.

[Brit Jim]

l (farang) looking to buy a house & land. Been reading about usufructs but still need a Thai to own it. What are the other preferred options. Is the Thai limited company route still available and if so what cost and who can recommend a lawyer to do this for me.

Thanks.

Pagey you could try one of the sponsors on here who come highly recommended but will be expensive but you will have peace of mind! The first consultation used to be FREE! Chavalit & Finch

If you want CHEAP then try P & A Notary who seem OK but others will argue! Alot of people use this Co.

I think Thai companies are much more difficult to make these days and your maybe looking at 25 to 30K B maybe more!

Im sure one of our forum experts will advise you accordingly!

[bonnielass]

When we were looking at house purchase, some of the sellers were willing to sell the Thai company along with the house. But when we found out you had to submit financial returns for the company annually, we decided to go down the road of Leasehold.

Good advice from others, get a lawyer on board, before you do anything else.



BL

[Pagey]

BL : How does leasehold work ? i.e. whose name is the land and house in ?

[JW]

Pagey, as others have already said, speak to Jane Haddow at Chavalit and partners, those who seek advise about house and land ownership on forums are usually those who end up with problems, sorry if that sounds blunt but its the best advise anyone can give you.

[jimmy40]

What i done is start a company,found a reliable notery. Found a house did not pay untill i was at the land office and handed the deeds house book stamped. Handed over the money got receipt and had the notary and thai friends that could speak english with me. No problems.
[Mod Edit: Please read Forum T&Cs regarding property promotions - we offer simple, cheap and effective methods to do so ... ]

[Pagey]

OK, thanks all.

Johnny, already made an appointment with Jane for Monday, I just wanted to hear what people who had been through it had done, good or bad.


Edit : And a happy birthday Johnny, I will pop in if I am in town tonight. There's a plug for yer bday bash

[JW]

Cheers, hope to see you for a cold one! The lease and other documents that Jane prepares are the best available and all of our clients use her.. worth every penny...

[johnnyk]

Cheers, hope to see you for a cold one! The lease and other documents that Jane prepares are the best available and all of our clients use her.. worth every penny...

Quick one for JW,
I thought falangs were prohibited from practising law, can you clarify?

[traveller2]

Pagey, we went with Jane at Chavalit with our purchase recently. We found her to be very knowledgeable and helpful and we've had no problems at all.

T2

[bonnielass]

Pagey,

this is my understanding, though there are others on here with greater knowledge than me.

When you buy a Leasehold property, you own the house, but someone else owns the land (probably the builder or developer). Leasehold is often offered by a builder/developer who is building multiple properties in a development, as opposed to a stand alone house.

The lease is registered at the Land Office for a period of 30 years. I have heard people talk about 90 year leases, but as far as I know you can only register a 30 year lease.
Clauses can be included so that if you sell your house before the existing Lease expires, a new 30 year lease will be offered to your buyer at the time of purchase. Also, some of the Leasehold contracts state that if the law in Thailand ever changes to allow foreigners to buy land, that the Landowner will allow the land to be transferred to you.

If you try an internet search for Leasehold Thailand, there are quite a few legal firms who explain the intricacies.

Do your homework and get a good lawyer.
Caveat Emptor!


BL

[Nereus]

.............................Quick one for JW,
I thought falangs were prohibited from practising law, can you clarify?

Unless it has changed recently, a Farang has to be a full partner in a law firm to practice as a Lawyer. And I think that you will find the person in question is not a licenced lawyer.
You may also have noticed that they have recently changed their trading name, which does not explian anything in particular, but the Farang name WAS a partner.

[Ratsima]

I spent most of my adult life on the island of Saipan in the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands. The Commonwealth has land ownership restrictions that are very similar to those of Thailand. Of course, the lawyers dreamed up all sorts of methods by which foreigners could "purchase" land: straw men, leases with automatic renewals, "locally owned" corporations, etc. Foreign investment, mostly by Japanese, was huge. At one point rural property nowhere near the ocean was selling for over a million US dollars per hectare. People coined the therm "one point" which referred to the 1.x million dollars they got for their one hectare homestead.

And then the people who "sold" their land to foreign buyers started to sue; questioning the bona fides of the original transactions. And, they started winning. The courts voided sales that were structured in a way that was clearly designed to circumvent the intent of the land ownership laws. The "investors" lost everything. Of course, the uncertainty that these court decisions caused resulted in a severe decline in investor confidence in the local economy, which is now a mess. (My daughter still lives there and I visit now and then.)

I'm not asserting that something similar will happen here. Thailand clearly has a different sort of legal system where things are not quite as absolute as in the US. Still, caution is required if you're planning to do something that is contrary to the clear intent of the law.

For those legally inclined, here's the US Court of Appeals decision in Wabol v. Villacrusis, a long running case which established the principle by which illegal sales were voided.