Ask here about the pleasures and pitfalls of buying, selling or renting property and real estate in Hua Hin. Building, design and construction topics welcome. Commercial or promotional posts for real estate companies or private properties are forbidden.
Got notice three days ago that my chanote was now ready for transfer.
I plan to come to HH after Xmas to see it through but I have also heard that signing any document to do with your company is "work" and illegal without a work permit.
Does anyone know anything or have experience with this?
I understand an agent can be used to facilitate things (children's education fund etc.). Is there a typical agent's fee for this sort of thing?
Any comment based on personal experience is much appreciated.
Whenever I did this I always had a Thai person with me and I happened to have work permit at the time but not for managing a company. All my dealings were in Cha Am. Each time I did a transaction my company paperwork had to be updated at an office in Petchaburi first.
But honestly I don't know the law on this.
I was so horny when I woke up this morning the crack of dawn looked good!
This is (in my opinion), yet another new scam / opportunity drummed up by the land office officials to frighten and obtain money from Ferangs who are buying land using a company loophole route. As most people who live here are fully aware, in most cases, foreigners can not own land in Thailand and can also not own a company. Creating a Thai-owned company for the sole purpose of buying land, then pretending to have a meeting so that the Ferang minor shareholder has more than 50% voting rights, thereby (supposedly) effectively owning the company, is a loophole devised by lawyers a few years back to enable land sales to foreigners. Government officials at Prachuabkirikhan are now clamping down on this loophole, by using various methods, such as this example or requesting to interview all the Thai shareholders in the company- unless they are bribed of course! The argument from the Thai officials point of view is that if you are a director of a company then you need to have a work permit in order to function in the role, and if you don't have one, they can question your right to be able to sign on behalf of your company. They may actually threaten you with imprisonment, a big fine and/or deportation from the country. This happened to me. I was threatened, but so far touch wood nothing has happened and to date I have heard of no-one who has signed as a director of a company and because they have no work permit, are punished in this way, but I know this is a new angle the authorities are taking, and the underlining message is very clear, the authorities want to nip the buying of land using a company route in the bud. I was applying for a work permit and was pulled up and threatened by an official for signing on behalf of my company last year as a director when the company was first formed - before I had a work permit! You would think the fact your company is in all probability not trading would over-rule the necessity for a work permit - how can you have a work permit for a non trading company? There again, it could be argued the buying of the land is indeed trading! Logic in this country, however, particularly when opportunities for brown envelopes are concerned, is a scarce commodity. I wish you the best of luck and hope you have a wonderful hassle-free time in your new home. To try to alleviate your fears think of this - you are in the same boat as thousands of others - let's hope that boat is not the titanic!
Last edited by Jockey on Thu Nov 29, 2007 3:25 am, edited 2 times in total.
To date I have heard of no-one who has signed as a director of a company and because they have no work permit, are punished in this way, but I know this is a new angle the authorities are taking, and the underlining message is very clear, the authorities want to nip the buying of land using a company route in the bud.
I don't unnastan how you know it then.
I am not worried about this as I know many people who have done it very recently. I simply wondered about the mechanics of the actual process.
My company is set up in compliance with the law as it is written, it trades actively and submits fully-audited tax returns. I also sign my documents outside of Thailand. "That which is not explicitly forbidden is permitted"
When my company was first set up, I signed as a director and at that time did not have a work permit because the company was not yet trading. When my company started trading and I applied for a work permit, I was told by office officials I could expect a letter at my home asking me to come in to be interviewed to answer why I signed as a director last year when I didn't have a work permit. They said doing this was punishable by imprisonment, a fine or deportation.To date, I've never received any such letter so I hopefully assume it was an idle threat.
JW wrote:I have just bought a place and move in the next few days i am taking a lease, 100% legal, no yearly costs - hassle free.
Today..........
That is what to do. If an agent says go company just don't buy lunch fopr that bloke!
J.W. is certainly spot on with his lease and mine WILL be written such taht if the law changes the owner of the lease MUST transfer to what ever I want at no cost.
HHHound aka Tripple H, shortened to 3H!
There may be a Mrs Hound but I'm leashless!
Jockey wrote:This is (in my opinion), yet another new scam / opportunity drummed up by the land office officials to frighten and obtain money from Ferangs who are buying land using a company loophole route.
".. buying land using a company.." is not a "loophole". It is illegal. Organizing a company for the purpose of circumventing a law is illegal.
Government officials at Prachuabkirikhan are now clamping down on this loophole, by using various methods, such as this example or requesting to interview all the Thai shareholders in the company
<snipped supposition>
The argument from the Thai officials point of view is that if you are a director of a company then you need to have a work permit in order to function in the role, and if you don't have one, they can question your right to be able to sign on behalf of your company. They may actually threaten you with imprisonment, a big fine and/or deportation from the country.
So they are enforcing the law.
This happened to me. I was threatened, but so far touch wood nothing has happened and to date I have heard of no-one who has signed as a director of a company and because they have no work permit, are punished in this way, but I know this is a new angle the authorities are taking, and the underlining message is very clear, the authorities want to nip the buying of land using a company route in the bud.
I have read in some places in Bangkok that it will be very difficult for the foreigner to try to use niminees and be a director for buying land from the beginning of April. I am not surte how true, just in a magazine I think...
Further to my original post asking about the process...
I did my transfer in February, it took about 90 minutes at the Land Office.
I was dinged about 20K baht more than I expected apparently because they have moved to an assessment-based scale according to the size of your plot rather than simply accepting the figure given by the applicant...mai bin lai.
Everything went smoothly, no doubt oiled by the 3K baht in an envelope slid through the cashier's wicket.
Proper receipts were given, duly signed and stamped (not for the 3K though ).
).
