Luca Brasi

The lender finally accepted a settlement after we passed him the lawyer notice and a couple of days of negotiation.

What I understood from the lawyer is very often the lender is not alone and he's usually part of a syndicate ( couple of people join their funds together and start lending to other people at exorbitant interest rates).

So basically we paid a "face saving" fee so the lender could not lose face with his associates (my wife's sister paid 100,000 THB and I paid 50,000 THB) and avoided the hassle of going to court and potential retaliation to us.

Including the laywer fee (15,000 THB), the damage is "reasonable" compared to the potential outcome of getting the loan shark syndicate in trouble with desire of revenge.

At least, we've now got the chanote back and it's in a safe place out of reach from my wife. Case closed.

12 hours ago, Mansell said:

Some of these loans are at 20 percent.......not a year.....but a month. Do the math, you will never pay it off at these interest rates.

My wife's father borrowed two different loans against the house and land......never paid one dime......total selfish idiot expecting his children to bail him out. I loaned them the money, 550,000 baht. Four children will pay me 30,000 a month.....we will see how that works out.....but they seem to be genuinely appreciative.....so far. My wife is the smartest one in their family and she seems to be on top of them all in this situation. She talked with the two different lenders and agreed final amounts. When they got pushy and greedy she said fine, take the house and land......they backed off quickly because the land etc wasn't worth much 70 kilos outside Nakhon Sawan and nobody would want to buy it. She made her father stop working, sign over the land and house to her so he cannot borrow anymore money. Hopefully this will be the end of it all. Sadly this isn't an unusual situation in this country. Good luck to the guy and his family......talk to the loan sharks and negotiate a deal.

That's the plan I have in mind: 

    - Get the advise of the lawyer next week whom probably will offer to arrange a settlement. 

    - Get wife to sell whatever valuables she has (gold, motorbike) to pay part of the settlement, so she feels it.

    - As soon as  the chanote is returned, go to the land office and get her to transfer ownership exclusively to the children. 

4 minutes ago, Rally123 said:

He didn't but the chances are likely to be very high. Regarding what you say above it's your Statements that are incorrect. Whether the laws may be correct 100 years ago, as you state, nothing has legally changed. It is the law still to this day. "You cannot obtain a loan on 'Kings Land' or sell it." Yes it happens but....................... Would would buy 'Kings Land' and build a 5 million Baht house on it knowing the 'King' can repossess it next day without paying compensation?

And it's futile thinking your Sor Por Kor land is going to be changed to Chanote within your life time. That's always told when Sor Por Kor land is sold. "Yeah we had people come around last year marking up the land so it can be upgraded soon". BS

Just to be clear, the property is a semi-detached house in Bangkok with a regular chanote attached to it. 

I've asked her 3 times if she signed anything at the Land Office and she said no. She said the same to the lawyer whom we talked to over the phone. So for now, I'm just left with meeting the lawyer on Tuesday and sort it out without too much damage for myself and the kids. 

One point I forgot to mention is our oldest kid is marked as a co-owner on the chanote and I understand only a court order can allow sale / ownership transfer until the child is 18 ?

4 minutes ago, seajae said:

seems the op is not going to let us know what the 300,000 was for originally, sorry but the fact she has lied and deceived you is pretty bad especially when it sounds as if you could have loaned her the money in the first place so tell us op, what was the money for, her extended family, her kids from previous relationships, gambling debts, if she never told you it cant be too good. Good on you for standing with her but why has she done this in the first place, you need to know you can trust her, at the moment she cant be trusted at all

 

The 300,000 THB were for paying parents medical, rent, daily expenses and buy them a medical insurance, as well as pay for her nephew funerals.

Completely agree, I could have loaned her the 300,000 THB myself...

38 minutes ago, baansgr said:

You said you only found out today, yet now say you were transferring the money every month...??? 

I transfer 20-25k every month since we have kids together for general living expenses as I often travel overseas for work. I just found out today that 15k was going to the loan sharks...

7 minutes ago, thainet said:

 

BUT in your last post a few minutes ago, you said you have the receipts of giving her 15k a month to pay off the loan, so it seems as if you did know about.

Although it doesn't really matter at this stage!!!

Oh I meant to say with the money transferred every month to her account, we can prove she was paying the monthly 15K to them. But I didn't know some of the funds were used for loan sharks repayments until today...

Anyway, we'll see on Tuesday what's next.

The only thing that reassures me is that she didn't sign anything at the land office.

1 minute ago, thainet said:

 

PS..In your OP post you say that you just found out about it, but then a few sentences later you say that you could/should of reported it to the police 2 years earlier. So your story doesn't quite gel either.

 

Could let me know in which post I said I could have reported it 2 years earlier ? I truly wish I could...

1 minute ago, Odysseus123 said:

Yes.Agreed.

Pay it off and then go.

Staying is the stupid part.

 

I would not give a brass razoo to a Thai after I was disencumbered of their nonsense,

 

Remember the Golden Rule-not one brass razoo to a Thai.

Well, the debt has already been paid off IMO (540,000 THB paid for the last 36 months on a 300,000 THB loan). I've got all my bank statements to prove I was transferring money to her account so she could paid the monthly 15,000 THB the loan sharks are asking for.

She also confirmed to the lawyer that the loan was 300,000 THB and I viewed a picture of the "bogus" loan contract which shows 300,000 THB.

So that's why we'll get to see the lawyer because the interest rate is plain illegal and just for my kids I want to get the chanote back.

Just now, Rally123 said:

Loan sharking is illegal and they will not be registered.

100% confirmed they're not legally registered lenders.

I've asked my wife for any statement, receipt, proof of payment,... she said they never had one to give. The only things they have on her is the bogus loan contract she signed and her chanote.

Thanks for all the replies so far. 

We have a formal appointment with the lawyer on Tuesday, but over phone he told us the easiest & cheapest solution would probably be a private settlement with the loan sharks.

He also advised against reporting to the police for now, unless we have some proofs (Line messages, sms,...) of threats or physical aggression.

Regarding the chanote, I understood that she signed a paper stating to use the house as a collateral until the loan is fully repaid (which is already...at least under the law maximum interest rate) and handed over the chanote to them. She told me there was a police officer when she signed who is accomplice with the loan sharks, hence she's now scared to get arrested and to lose the house.

I've also asked the laywer if I could just declare a lost chanote and get a new one at the land office, he STRONGLY advised not to do it!

2 minutes ago, Pilotman said:

Only a good Thai lawyer can help you.  Good luck in finding one of those, but I wouldn't look any further than a Bangkok Firm. . 

Thanks, it seems we found a good one in Ratchada area. He already gave us possible outcomes over the phone but we'll get more details next week.

Hi,

I would like some advice or similar experience feedback from the following events (Note, I already have an appointment with a lawyer next week for legal advice):

- Wife took a 300,000 THB loan about 3 years ago from loan sharks (I didn't know about it until today). She says she signed some kind of loan contract.

- She repaid 15,000 THB per month for at least the last 36 months ( that's 540,000 THB already repaid!! ). I have my monthly bank receipt to her account to prove it.

- Here comes the crux: she gave them the house chanote as a collateral as she missed some payments and got threatened (as far as I know, she didn't go to the land office to officially do a transfer ownership). The police officer accomplice with the loan sharks told her she was plain stu*** to do that...indeed.

Now, she hasn't paid them for the last 2 months and finally told me the truth. 

So, I'm wondering the followings:

- The maximum legal interest rate in Thailand is 15%. So I guess first hand first this loan "contract" she signed is plain illegal.

- She already repaid way more than what was borrowed including the interest rate. The house is worth at least 5 million THB and we have two very young kids.  Can they really take the house ??

- Given the new law against loan sharks  promulgated ( http://englishnews.thaipbs.or.th/stiffer-anti-loan-shark-law-now-effective/ ) 2 years ago, I was also about to go to police station to bring criminal charges against the loan sharks, but was advised against doing so.

Thanks in advance.