SantiSuk

Whoever is asking for the translation should be asked to specify whether they want a certified translation or a notarised one if it is not obvious in the documentation of their request.

Kroo Ooh's certified translations have been sufficient for my several purposes in recent years.

1 hour ago, wensiensheng said:

Very true. Talking a first world game and providing a 3rd world experience is par for the course.

 

Udon Thani got approx 1.5% of the vaccine supply it needed. Dismal indeed.

It was obvious 2-3 weeks ago when Prayut summarily announced via Twitter, that priority would now be given to high risk areas and to those at work, that low risk regions and provinces such as Isaan and the North would kiss goodby to the state-operated programme for a large chunk of this year.

Isaan with nigh on 30% of the Thai population has 2% of the nation's infections. The North has similar relativities. Time to release the restrictions on low risk areas and man the borders between these low risk regions and the higher risk central provinces to prevent imported infections. We can then tolerate a slower vaccination rollout.

"While bars are closed and restaurants prohibited from serving alcohol due to COVID-19".

Oh yeah? Not IME; local plod have been around tipping off bars for several weeks now about how to carry on selling in a discrete way. TIT - the police force act totally independent from government directives.
 

Buddhist holidays are a different matter - the cops don't want bad karma, so there is greater compliance

On 5/18/2021 at 2:02 PM, Banana7 said:

The results of sinovac all over the map. See here:

 

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-55642648

 

Brazil says 50.4%, Indonesia says 65%, Turkey said 91.25%.

 

 

 

That clip says it's a BBC report dated 13th January! Events/experiences/medical surveys have moved on fellah.

So according to the article 7.4 million older and afflicted persons have registered for vaccination. AFAIK it's intended that these two categories be given the Astra Zeneca vaccine. So how many doses of AZ does the government have to hand and how many will be delivered within the next couple of months? Is the local AZ production facility in production yet? Anyone seen any info? Has any journo asked the obvious questions*?

*the cynic in me thinks: probably yes to that last question, but told to shut up or not be invited to briefings again????

The U-turn opens the gate for a money-making opportunity from foreigners (expats living here plus vaccine-tourists from elsewhere).

I reckon they will eventually find some way of exploiting that! Maybe not June, but well before the year end

A headline that said "two* provinces have imposed tougher measures" would be a fairer representation of the apparent truth, but attract less clicks. Journalism today eh?

* I'm not counting Yala's 'tougher measures' - nothing new in emphasising the personal measures folk should take!

17 minutes ago, ThailandRyan said:

Many people in Thailand do not die in a hospital nor are they seen by doctors or nurses.  They die at home with family around them.  Then 3 days later or so they are cremated. No autopsy no medical examiner.  I had 3 family members die this way last year in February.  Only notification was to a police officer who took the info down and that was it. They all had some type of respiratory ailment. Never diagnosed just given meds at the local clinic in the village and a few days  to a week later they passed on.  I dont expect you to understand as you seem to think all see doctors or nurses or go to the hospital.

I do understand and I agree that in the early days of Covid there will be some deaths that have been unrecorded as Covid with those characteristics. I think that is an outdated view of how people have been dying over the last year though. In my experience in the villages (being rural dweller) I do not agree that people have been dying quietly at home with no doctor or nurse intervention. Around my part of rural Isaan the health volunteers and local clinics are all over the cases of sickness arising in the villages and boondocks. Families do not allow their old to quietly slip away in the way you describe.

Sisaket had 22 infections in this Jan-April wave as of last night - all in the last week. Before this wave it had less than a handful of infections since Jan 20. Of the 22 infections half are in the 20-29 age bracket. As best I can tell from their profiles none of them are government ministers and most of them went partying (mostly outside this province) and then returned to/came to this province just before or during Songkran.

So I agree with the observations of the CDC guys in this instance. Have your fun with the lampoons of ministerial attendance at hi-so girly bars but as far as I can see it is the ordinary young joes going about their natural inclinations to party that are mostly causing this distressing scenario around the country. How distressing will depend on whether the inexplicably and remarkably low death rate continues or not.

On 4/3/2021 at 7:13 PM, DrJack54 said:

Hour or two would hardly cover one way trip for some. Myself included. 

Jomtien and all the crackpot imm offices made up this return "rule".

Mind you in total total is very few offices. Perhaps 5or6 out of 75+ imm offices. 

Ridiculous. 

By 'return rule' do you mean that Jomtien require you to return on a day different to your next 90 Day report and show evidence that the 400k/800k is still in the account?

Sisaket Province IMO put a sticker in your passport at the extension visit saying your next 90 day report is on x-x-xxxx please bring your pass book showing evidence that the money is still there. I thought that was the national norm, but not much is a national norm it seems.

Just now, SantiSuk said:

Global House used to have it in 20kg carboys in the two branches within driving distance of me (Ubon Ratchathani and Kantharalak) at about 280 baht, but they both seem not to have restocked in recent months. Haven't yet asked if that is intentional or just a short term supply issue.

Prior to Global House, when the largest of the watsadus (DIY sheds) in Ubon had stopped stocking it 8 years ago, I could not find carboys elsewhere in the other national chain watsadus or builders merchants locally 'for love nor money'* - despite those pool guys in Bangkok and Pattaya on pool threads annoyingly saying it's available at all builders merchants! My guess is that many retailers find handling such a potentially dangerous chemical (you have to be carefull of spillage from insecure caps when transporting yourself) a pain in the proverbial!

I found myself back then 6-8 years ago having to collect it in bulk (ie 5 or more carboys at a time) from a builders merchant in Roi Et - a friend living there had alerted me to it - or Buriram (well-known watsadu just north of the ring road). Then Global opened locally. Now I'm back to square one and will have to troll round the local watsadus again when I get nearer to running out.

 

 

*Some had smaller bottles but not at a very economic price. I'm recalling 3 litres for 80 baht kind of price)

Global House used to have it in 20kg carboys in the two branches within driving distance of me (Ubon Ratchathani and Kantharalak) at about 280 baht, but they both seem not to have restocked in recent months. Haven't yet asked if that is intentional or just a short term supply issue.

Prior to Global House, when the largest of the watsadus (DIY sheds) in Ubon had stopped stocking it 8 years ago I could not find carboys elsewhere in the other national chain watsadus or builders merchants locally 'for love nor money'* - despite those pool guys in Bangkok and Pattaya on pool threads annoyingly saying it's available at all builders merchants! My guess is that many retailers find handling such a dangerous chemical a pain in the proverbial!

I found myself back then 6-8 years ago having to collect it in bulk (ie 5 or more carboys at a time) from a builders merchant in Roi Et (a friend living there had alerted me to it) or Buriram (well-known watsadu just north of the ring road). Then Global opened locally. Now I'm back to square one and will have to troll round the local watsadus again when I get nearer to running out.

*Some had smaller bottles but not at a very economic price. I'm recalling3 litres for 100baht kind of price)

My 4.5m x 15m pool, exposed to full sun and containing 90,000 litres (including reserve/overflow tank) loses about 7cm of water in the reserve tank each day during hot season (say March to August). This equates to 0.5% (one 200th) of the pool+reserve volume. During cooler climes this drops to about 4cm. Pumping is on 6.5 to 7 hours a day.

Typical centralist media coverage - assuming that the whole of Thailand is closed down for bars and restricted for restaurants. We are increasingly seeing Bangkok residents "taking cover" in the nether (largely Covid-free) regions of Isaan.

On 7/8/2020 at 3:45 PM, khastan said:

My number one recommendation for any type of legal issue is Isaan Lawers. If it was not for Sebastian's very wise advice and help many years ago I would have been thrown out of the house I live in now.  Since 2007 he has helped me with numerous issues and can always help no matter what. I cannot recommend both him and his company enough.

This post comments from my experience on a number of angles covered by various posters in this thread.

I haven't heard a bad word said about Isaan Lawyers (on ThaiVisa or Google reviews). Quite the contrary. Go to their website to get a good view of their range of services (quite broad) and capabilities. They will advise on property transactions.

I enquired about drafting a Thai will 2 years ago when I had heart problems and I received a package to complete from Isaan Lawyers which would have cost me 5,000 baht (hope my memory serves me right) for them to prepare and discuss the will with me based on the returned package of info. Never got round to completing the package as my heart bypass operation came up rather quickly. Must do so now!

Am about to hire Isaan Lawyers to help the UK executor of a deceased friend ensure that the assets in Thailand are collected. Sebastian Brousseau was  impresssive in a 45 minute telephone consultation to sell his firm's capabilities and outline the processes involved.  In this case we may have to use the Scottish will and take it through the local Thai probate Court as there is no Thai will. I soon found out that local Thai lawyers had no experience of using a foreign will at Thai probate courts by interviewing a couple of them and the clerk to the local probate court ("we don't get a lot of foreign wills here - get a lawyer from Bangkok' was the clerk's recommendation) - I am confident that would cost twice as much as Isaan Lawyers, since the big law firms are close to western nation rates IME).

If you have assets in Thailand that are non-trivial it is clear to me that you need a Thai will. Using your home country will is more involved and more costly to your estate. Equally important if you value your Thai partner and wish her/him to have an easy ride in the distress period after a death then please tell them before you peg it what to expect, where to find all necessary documents and correspondence, where is the will(s) and who can help with pursuing the collection of assets and distribution of the estate. Leave written instructions. Make sure someone can access your computer and phone (unless of course you fear what might be found!)

You can avoid a Thai Court process if you only have bank balance(s) and they are trivial (less than say 20,000 baht and/or you have a good relationship with the Thai bank manager). Larger balances will require a Court Order to instruct the bank to accept the withdrawal and to give notice of transfer of title of eg vehicles, property, securities  to the relevant government/financial authorities.

Those above who claim that it is outside the law for a bank manager to allow bank balances to be claimed are wrong (I believe, or at the very least are way over-egging the risk). Amphur staff, Thai lawyers and even the clerk to a Court will tell you to try it out for smaller amounts as it is custom and practice for bank managers to do so on production of valid wills and death certificates.

2 hours ago, NancyL said:

 

You're right, this isn't a rare occurrence. A foreign Will is valid in Thailand, but you're going to have to hire a Thai lawyer to have the Will probated and declared valid in a Thai court.  Maybe sympathetic bank managers would have accepted the UK Final Will without probate if they knew the couple well and the account was of low value, but there is no way to sell the car and motorcycle without a Thai judge declaring it valid.  

 

I've been involved in multiple cases.

 

Many thanks. Good to have confirmation of a view I was reaching based on recent review of (marketing materials, masquerading as?) guidance/information notes by Thai and UK lawyers.

So the title of this thread is "What happens to a foreigner's assets in Thailand upon death"?

Lots of advice to get a Thai will written, but no advice about what happens when the foreigner has died already with assets in Thailand and no Thai will.

How are assets treated then? In the case of my deceased expat (UK) friend a Thai bank account plus car and motorcycle. There is a UK will with a UK executor. What can he do to recover the assets to distribute to beneficiaries (including the Thai widow who he will take care of appropriately if he can)? Do the Thai rules on intestacy and the procedures for processing an intestate will in Thailand have any part to play here - whatever those procedures are? [I can read the intestacy rules but can't find English language guidance on the process of collection and distribution.]

Any experience to offer? Surely it can't be a rare occurence? Any help that might avoid the default answer "go and hire a Thai lawyer" would be welcome - unless some have tried all avenues and come to that conclusion. Thai lawyers would probably absorb at least one-third of the assets' value.

No tips on dodgy ways of grabbing the assets by the Thai widow please - we (the deceased's executor and I as the friendly local expat adviser to the widow) want to do this properly.