MangoKorat

I very much doubt that they were actually arrested and there is no need for any brown envelopes. Have you ever wondered why the Thai police use old fashioned duplicate books with carbon paper for fines rather than the more modern self carbonating books? Next time you get stopped and 'fined' take a look and see if there's a piece of carbon paper in place - I've never seen one. It would be interesting to look at one of those books later and see if the amounts on the receipts you are issued is the same as the amount in the book. As far as I know, they don't even bother with receipts when stopping Thai's at the frequent helmet wearing checks. "No helmet, 50 baht sir", "can I have a receipt please" "certainly sir, 100 baht"

No and the photo seems to be of construction workers - unless tour guides have taken to wearing hard hats.

Houses/land in Thailand can literally take years to sell - its nothing like the European market. Much of that is because Thai's often have big ideas on how much their land is worth and also because they have an aversion to buying secondhand houses. A single plot next to me has been on the market @ 2 million baht (totally unrealistic) for almost a year. A similar sized plot opposite was sold quickly for 900,000 - I expected that to bring 1.2 to 1.4 million but the owner clearly didn't want to mess around. Land/houses can sell quickly but it is not uncommon for it to take years. Therefore, a realistic price is most likely to enable a fast sale - just as it is anywhere else.

Well no, most people obtain a Usufruct to protect them from being evicted in the event of a marriage breakdown. I've had a Usufruct on my property for over 9 years. The house is registered to a trusted Thai friend and my name is registered on the rear of the chanotte in the entry recording the Usufruct. I was single when I took control of the house then married - now divorced. The one (and only) good point about the Thai Land Law is that in the event of a divorce, if your wife is not the registered owner, she has no claim whatsoever on the house........................................house? What house? I don't own any house. The Usufruct has no value to anyone else except the Usufructuary.

Now I know what happened to 'Loadsamoney' - he's in a gym in Bangkok! https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=harry+enfield+loads+of+money+sketch&sca_esv=d1ba00635c671747&sxsrf=ACQVn08Mb6WYj0OVBJGG_Jrawk2rzRUhAg%3A1711364324587&source=hp&ei=5FgBZrnlIcqqhbIPsra1uAQ&iflsig=ANes7DEAAAAAZgFm9JPIsNiiVl4W1mf1dJiVWLiAo2Po&oq=Loads+of+money+harr&gs_lp=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_OAQ&sclient=gws-wiz#fpstate=ive&vld=cid:13caa9c1,vid:8PFAEcHbgHY,st:0

Why are school kids riding bikes in the first place? Stand on Old Mitraphap (the main road through Korat) on any school morning and you will see bikes ridden by 12 year olds, 3 up and without helmets - right in front of the police controling the traffic.

That is already the law but why do you only refer to tourists? Surely anyone, including Thai's, hiring any vehicle, should hold a licence to do so? The problem as usual is............little or no enforcement.

I don't agree - that would discriminate against the majority of bikers who don't ride stupidly. You do not of course, hear about people who don't have accidents. One thing that would help would be strict checks to ensure that foreigners hold the correct licence for whatever they are hiring. Before I owned a bike in Thailand I would often hire a big bike when I visited Pattaya. I was never required to have a licence - my passport was good enough.

While I agree with you that the police should be doing their jobs, I think you will find that overall, they target Thai's far more than foreigners.

Yes, the rules are quite clear on that. Although a foreigner can inherit a property through the death of their spouse, it cannot be registered in their name. There may be some form of legal status for that but I would expect its just left in limbo until sold. Technically a new owner would have to accept any Usufruct that was in place on that property but that would almost certainly render the property unsaleable. I have no idea if a law is in place to deal with that situation but I would think that in practice, the foreign spouse would probably allow the property to be transferred to a member of his former spouse's family. If the couple have kids that are too young to own land, there may be the possibility of it being held in trust until they are old enough. However, I have no idea if trusts even exist in Thailand. This illustrates the absurd nature of the Thai land laws. When thinking of death and inheritance, we normally think it involves people of advanced age. Consider the position of say a 40 year old man married to a Thai woman and living in Thailand with their 2 children in a house on land registered to his wife. The wife dies, let's say in a car crash and the husband inherits the property. Having already gone through the trauma of losing his wife, he now has to find a way to house his family because under the law, he has to sell the house. My suggestion is that any foreigner who currently lives in a property registered in their spouses name that they may inherit - sees a lawyer and deals with the matter now rather than trying to do so after the death of the Thai partner. As far as I know, and I'm not 100% on this - if a Thai citizen who is married to a foreigner dies intestate, any land is automatically left to their spouse along with any other property under matrimonial law, regardless of that spouse's nationality. I don't think there has to be an actual will.

Firsty, the discussion never went anything like that and secondly, as a totally uninformed person, I very much doubt that the pound to the baht will go down to 35 at any time - other than through temporary blips. However, as we have gone way off topic, admittedly due to my post on this subject, I don't intend to continue this line.

Confusing, the Bangkok to Korat section is well underway and was forecast to be completed by 2025. I believe that target includes several already experienced delays. In the light of the above statements, It would be interesting to learn if that forecast has now been extended. Or could it be simply bad reporting..........................again!

Doubtful, the line would be a pretty easy target.

If the Usufruct is correctly constructed and registered on the title, any new owner has to accept the rights granted by it. A change of ownership does not affect the rights of the Usufructuary. A Usufruct ends on the death of the Usufructuary or when they wish to end it, I have never seen one that has any stated duration - 30 years or otherwise.

I have no knowledge of forex trading or any form or currency trading. All I know is that when the pound dropped to 38/39 against the baht, a discussion was held on here regarding the future of the pound against the baht. In that discussion some of our resident 'experts' were predicting the pound would continue to fall against the baht, some saying the mid 20's were likely, as they said, the pound was doomed. Shortly after that the rate went back up to 40/41 and the trending rate has continued to rise. I believe that intitially that was more to do with the weakness of the baht but more recently, I believe the pound is strengthening. As I say, I'm no expert but at the time I said it would never happen and was met with pages of detailed examinations from the 'experts' - giving their reasons why it would. It didn't. So, I will repeat its 'Nice to see the exchange rate nudging 46 after all the 'experts' on here were predicting the £ would fall to the mid 20's a few months back.

Care to explain? I haven't mentioned the dollar.

Sorry, a quote not necessariy a rule. Where is it from?

There are all sorts of reasons being given for the air pollution the North is experiencing. However, those I know who live in the area place the blame squarely at the feet of the farmers who burn Sugar Beet. Seeing this going on a different area with less dangerous but significant effects, I tend to believe that explanation. So, as usual the Thai government is doing a lot of talking about how to deal with the air pollution when it seems that simple enforcement of the law would fix the problem. Just like tha annual 'Road Safety' 'announcements' which are almost due with Songkran just around the corner - there is no point in any 'discussions' or 'directives' - just bloody enforce the law! Why are these two items - road safety and air pollution the subject of these talks every year? By May it will all be forgotten about for another year but nothing will have changed on either matter.

Nice to see the exchange rate nudging 46 after all the 'experts' on here were predicting the £ would fall to the mid 20's a few months back.

That's not what I'm refering to. Before they updated their website, when I made a transfer the system was automatically set to 'Pay By Bank Transfer' - I presume that was because I'd always paid that way. After the update the default setting changed to 'Debit Card'. As can be seen in the screenshots below, it is very easy to change that but I didn't notice it because I'd previously just clicked through that step - I'd never had to change it before. Fortunately, as they don't have my debit card details recorded in my file, I was asked to provide them and that's when I realised the change. As you can see in the screenshots - there is a £4.18 charge for using a debit card on a £1000 transaction.

As you've seen in the post immediately after yours, I'm not the only one that's heard that more time may be given. Can you supply a link to the 'rule' you've posted please?

Guys, the OP is not asking how to try and get out without getting fined. He's asking if he'll have a problem with his embassy when he applies for a new passport.

I doubt most Thai's have any knowledge of that law. I also read somewhere that if the property proves difficult to sell and you can show that you are genuinely trying to sell the land, you can apply for further time. I would expect that in that case, you would have to be asking a fair price - not just asking way over the odds in order to stay longer.

Unfortunately, from what I'm told they don't require the regsitered owner to be present provided the person claiming to have bought the property has the Chanotte. Copies of ID card and Tabien Baan are normally accepted but I suspect that they will also want some form of Power of Atorney. They want that to transfer a car without the owner present so it would a bit strange if they didn't want one for land. Ultimately it is entirely possible for land to be transfered without the owner present (possibly brown envelopes involved) - as I've read of several fraudulent transfers done that way. There was a famous case where a Thai woman married to an American who's company owned a lot of property, forged her husband's signature and had it confirmed as true by a lawyer she was in league with. The pair transferred some of the American's property and sold it. Famous because Jonathan Head, the BBC's S.E. Asia correspondent reported on the story and was sued by the lawyer for defamation. Both the lawyer and the woman had been convicted of the crime but as you probably know - Thailand has some very odd defamation laws. I'm told that they sometimes want the phone number of the registered owner and call them - that wouldn't be too difficult to fake.

Not to mention that you could have killed someone eh?