Mother In Law Has Loan On 16 Rai

[jm49er1]

My wifes mother took out a loan of 109,000 baht for 16 rai of land near Ban Dung about 10 years ago - she has not kept up with the interest payments for several years. She is willing to give the property to my Thai wife if we pay off the loan. We checked with the bank earlier this week and the payoff is now 160,000 baht - the original 109,000 loan amount and 51,000 baht in interest - i think the interest rate is around 5%. Does anyone have any experience of negotiating down the amount of the interest to a more reasonable figure? It would seem that the bank would jump at the chance to recover money from a non performing loan but "This is Thailand" Also would be curious as to how to estimate the value of the 16 rai - its land used for rice farming - not on a main road but accessable from a dirt road. The wifes sister owns the land on one side and her uncle owns the land on the other side- all of it is undeveloped.

Edited January 15, 2007 by jm49er1

[backflip]

"It would seem that the bank would jump at the chance to recover money from a non performing loan but "This is Thailand"

Indeed this is Thailand. Where else can someone who has defaulted on a loan for several years expect the bank to give a discount. You and your family is very lucky that the bank didn't take the land back.

[jm49er1]

"It would seem that the bank would jump at the chance to recover money from a non performing loan but "This is Thailand"

Indeed this is Thailand. Where else can someone who has defaulted on a loan for several years expect the bank to give a discount. You and your family is very lucky that the bank didn't take the land back.

No doubt you are correct in that the family is lucky the bank did not foreclose - however this does not answer my original question - Has anyone had any experience with negotiating the accumulated interest down on a non-performing loan?