Company in order to buy a house

[khunPer]

4 hours ago, Henryford said:

6 hours ago, catman20 said:

prostitution is illegal in Thailand isn't it ?  

Yes but i don't spend 5 million baht on a prostitute.

However some do – and sometimes even more than that...?

[khunPer]

6 hours ago, catman20 said:

prostitution is illegal in Thailand isn't it ?  

Yes, and I just read in the Thai Visa News – several times over the last year, to be true – that the World class tourist destination Pattaya, according to the authorities, is now totally cleaned from that kind of illegal activity...?

[Tony125]

Read what happened to two smart farangs that bought homes with their company

 

https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-34346620

 

 

[huawei]

1 hour ago, Tofer said:

Marry a Thai lady and put it in her name. All legal and above board......

It’s called a gift...which some will also incorrectly call an investment.

[AsiaHand]

7 hours ago, catman20 said:

rubbish, traveling in the bed of a pick up is illegal also and nothing is done about that either. ive been doing this for 18 years yes its illegal and so are many other things here, thats over looked you will get scare mongers all the time that prefer to put their house in the wife's name LOL mugs, go to a law firm they will do it all for you. cost 25/30,000 baht. accounts every year range from 9/15,000 baht taxs 1/3,000 baht a year. easy as that. id rather trust the law than some thai bird .

I hope they catch your dumb AXX

[transam]

If it were OK I think TVF would have a pinned topic to get us all sorted...?

[catman20]

43 minutes ago, AsiaHand said:

I hope they catch your dumb AXX

along with all the other millions of farangs that have been doing it this way for the past 25/30 years or longer.

i suppose you put your house in your wife's name thats assuming you can afford one, i hope she cleans your dumb AXX out. opps i forgot shes different  

[catman20]

2 hours ago, khunPer said:

However some do – and sometimes even more than that...?

yes i agree with you 

[catman20]

2 hours ago, Sprigger said:

Even more rubbish, the authorities started a week or two ago in Phuket taking action against this illegal practice. Thrust me the big clamp down and snatch back is coming, think about it, way to get properties for free from pesky foreigners. Thai man win win

all this news has hit the head line 3 or 4 times to my knowledge over the last 18 years then it all goes quite again for another 5 years or so.

[catman20]

6 hours ago, garzhe said:

Are you confident that future governments wont enforce this law regarding property ownership. Now we dont have a democratic government in Thailand, who knows what the future holds. As stated there are many laws that are not enforced here but they will choose what to enforce as and when it suits them.

yes i am very confident as, as some of my neighbors own some of the most expensive real estate in Thailand in company names.

[BestB]

24 minutes ago, catman20 said:

yes i am very confident as, as some of my neighbors own some of the most expensive real estate in Thailand in company names.

Catman, I agree with all your posts about putting houses in wife’s name and how each crack down passes and even agree that your neighbors own super expansive properties in company name HOWEVER what you failing to acknowledge is that they do not need to raid all , only raid one which happens to be you ( not you personally ) and all you think you own is gone .

 

again, look at hotel/ guesthouse situation, it’s been ignored for decades, then an occasional raid and now over 2000 raided in the past 6 months and all either operating illegally or closing as no options available.

 

ok for a Thai owner , he/she just gets fined. Foreigner easily can get deported for breaking thai law .

 

this never happened before and no one could possibly foresee government going after thousands of businesses but they did.

[GroveHillWanderer]

I've heard of something called a 'usufruct' being used as a way to guarantee that you can live on and have use of a property during your lifetime. Does anyone have any info and/or thoughts about this way of handling the property conundrum?

[xylophone]

4 hours ago, newnative said:

      A lot of scaremongering in these posts.  The workaround of buying a house in company name has been in place for years.  Whether it's entirely legal, illegal, or falls into a gray area is debatable.  But, what's not debatable, is it's been normal, standard practice.   Thousands and thousands of properties have been bought in this manner by foreigners, with the help of Thai nationals and the tacit acceptance by Thai government agencies.  

      Foreign home owners are from all the major tourism countries.  Now, we have many Chinese joining them and also buying houses in company name.  Does anybody really think the Thai government is going to start throwing all these foreigners out of their homes and confiscating them?  When Thailand allowed this practice to go on for years?   

     Thailand is bending over backwards right now desperately trying to placate the angry Chinese, having, once again, underestimated the power of social media.   I sincerely doubt they would make the same mistake by tossing Chinese home buyers out of their homes, not to mention all the home owners from all the other countries.  It would be a legal, not to mention social network, nightmare.  Worse case?  A legal accommodation is put in place to handle these types of property sales and allow them to continue, to the benefit of everyone.

Nice try at deflection, but the practice of setting up a company purely to own land is illegal...……..no matter how you try and couch it.

[LeoTex]

What I have read about it being illegal to set up a company just for the purpose of buying a house it would be safer to do the following.

 

Find you a Thai girl friend and pay for and put the house in her name.

 

You many end up without a house , but you wouldn't need to worry if its legal or not.

 

LeoTex 

[xylophone]

3 hours ago, Tony125 said:

Read what happened to two smart farangs that bought homes with their company

 

https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-34346620

 

 

And in a recent post I outlined the case of a friend who lost his villa here because of a corrupt lawyer who sold it from under him and my friend had no recourse because the court ruled that as it had been bought through an illegal company set up in the first place, then it was null and void.

 

Now just 30 minutes ago I stopped off to talk to a friend who has been trying to sell his house here for some time and he bought through the company route, and this is perhaps something which others haven't thought about – – – he does not hold the title to the house, the company and the lawyer do and it would appear that there has been some chicanery going on, possibly money borrowed against the house, because he cannot get a straight answer from the lawyer or the associate as to what is going on and this has been the case for a few months now.

 

So as others have mentioned, it is not necessarily the government or whomsoever probing into the affairs of these companies, that can result in financial ruin/loss, all it needs is a crooked lawyer, a crooked shareholder, someone with a grudge or axe to grind, or someone with inside knowledge of this and the proverbial hits the fan.

 

It does happen and has in the case of two friends I know.

 

Really, why take the risk?

 

Edited August 24, 2018 by xylophone

[The Deerhunter]

Don't do it.  Buy the land in your own county.  No matter what you think, you will never own land here, no matter what your (maximum of) 49% of the company vote, thinks.  

[duanebigsby]

3 hours ago, catman20 said:

along with all the other millions of farangs that have been doing it this way for the past 25/30 years or longer.

i suppose you put your house in your wife's name thats assuming you can afford one, i hope she cleans your dumb AXX out. opps i forgot shes different  

I highly doubt there are even a million farang expats living here let alone millions having formed companies to buy houses 30 years ago.

[duanebigsby]

I commented on a similar thread a couple months ago. I questioned why the mods, who won't let us talk about illegal activity, didn't shut it down.

 

People said it's been going on for years and the mods thought it was ok.

It was funny as the thread had people talking about the price to hire accountants to produce fake receipts and fake books for their fake companies.If that's not illegal, it's definitely shady.

 

Suggesting it's ok because prostitution, riding in an open pickup, not wearing motorcycle helmet are illegal and people still do it is idiocy and bite you on the butt.

 

They're really starting to clamp down on the TM30 address reporting.

 

They'll find their way to the bogus property buying companies.

[a10ams]

I bought a house using a company in Jan 2007. Had I taken the 'rent it' advice and rented the (exact same) house next door at 40k a month I would now have paid rent to the tune of 5.6m on a 6.2m house. So I'm 15 months away from break even point. Buy it if you're here for the long run.

[kevin612]

only thai people can own a house

[NCC1701A]

On 8/23/2018 at 10:40 PM, alon95 said:

I saw in a few posts that it is illegal, but the government won't do anything against it since there are tons of ppl that bought a land/house in a company name and that it will destroy some of the thai economy.

Is it not true?

so the solution is buy a condo or don't buy at all?

all this information is unclear

 

 

op remember you are not in Kansas anymore. there is no rule of law FOR YOU. you can't trust the lawyers, they just want your business.

you can't trust the real estate agents, they know what you are going is illegal. just ask them and they all say "i will show you a way".

really?

 

[heybuz]

11 hours ago, GroveHillWanderer said:

I've heard of something called a 'usufruct' being used as a way to guarantee that you can live on and have use of a property during your lifetime. Does anyone have any info and/or thoughts about this way of handling the property conundrum?

i had one with ex missus, when the crap hit the fan and i did a runner i sued her in the thai court civil action, which i won. i got back the cost of the house not the land nor any improvements i made on the land.i bought the house before married.

[gaff]

You can do it legally if you create a real business, even small:

https://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/1053684-opening-a-restaurant-legally-and-buying-a-land-in-company-name-at-the-same-time/

 

 

 

 

[catman20]

13 hours ago, duanebigsby said:

I highly doubt there are even a million farang expats living here let alone millions having formed companies to buy houses 30 years ago.

i mean in the last 30 years

[jackdd]

9 hours ago, a10ams said:

I bought a house using a company in Jan 2007. Had I taken the 'rent it' advice and rented the (exact same) house next door at 40k a month I would now have paid rent to the tune of 5.6m on a 6.2m house. So I'm 15 months away from break even point. Buy it if you're here for the long run.

40k rent is too much for a 6.2m property in Thailand, the rent should be somewhere in the region of 30k.

If you had invested the same money in property in your home country, had rented it out, and used this rental income to rent a house in Thailand you would have spent the same money, had the same value, but would have a property which is 100% yours. Or you could have bought a condo in Thailand with this money, rent this out, use the money to rent a house.

Edited August 25, 2018 by jackdd

[catman20]

16 hours ago, BestB said:

Catman, I agree with all your posts about putting houses in wife’s name and how each crack down passes and even agree that your neighbors own super expansive properties in company name HOWEVER what you failing to acknowledge is that they do not need to raid all , only raid one which happens to be you ( not you personally ) and all you think you own is gone .

 

again, look at hotel/ guesthouse situation, it’s been ignored for decades, then an occasional raid and now over 2000 raided in the past 6 months and all either operating illegally or closing as no options available.

 

ok for a Thai owner , he/she just gets fined. Foreigner easily can get deported for breaking thai law .

 

this never happened before and no one could possibly foresee government going after thousands of businesses but they did.

i also agree with many things you are saying but if we all aired on the side of caution none of us would ever become rich or successful  in life and we would all be the same. he who dares wins ?

 

p.s have you listened to the news recently ? all the  hotel/ guesthouses they are now saying its all OK to do daily rents. ive seen all this stuff over the years only for it to blow up and 10 minutes later all back to normal.

Edited August 25, 2018 by catman20

[Crash999]

18 hours ago, newnative said:

      A lot of scaremongering in these posts.  The workaround of buying a house in company name has been in place for years.  Whether it's entirely legal, illegal, or falls into a gray area is debatable.  But, what's not debatable, is it's been normal, standard practice.   Thousands and thousands of properties have been bought in this manner by foreigners, with the help of Thai nationals and the tacit acceptance by Thai government agencies.  

There’s no debate about the legality of nominee shareholder structures. It is clearly illegal if the Thai shareholders are nominees and not actively participating in the management of the property investment business. 

 

Most law firms use a series of Thai IDs for all the companies that they set up. Won’t take a deep investigation to show that the lawyer’s maid and her relatives don’t have the ability to run dozens of real estate investment firms. 

 

As for what what will happen, I don’t think there would be widespread outright confiscation of property but there could be escalating punishment for all involved including lawyers, nominees, and foreigners involved including fines and potential jail time. 

 

If the government starts enforcing the law it will mean many panicked foreigners trying to sell their properties to Thais quickly, or transferring the name to “trusted” Thai friends and relatives.  

 

Not the kind of thing a retired guy in Chiang Rai in his 70s wants to be dealing with. 

[Artful Dodger]

2 hours ago, Crash999 said:

There’s no debate about the legality of nominee shareholder structures. It is clearly illegal if the Thai shareholders are nominees and not actively participating in the management of the property investment business. 

I was not clear why people are saying it is not legal for a Thai company to own a Thai property.

 

Is the reason just that they are assuming the company will be a sham then?

[transam]

1 minute ago, Artful Dodger said:

I was not clear why people are saying it is not legal for a Thai company to own a Thai property.

 

Is the reason just that they are assuming the company will be a sham then?

Well yes....Farangs are using a lawyer to set up a dodgy company so they can buy land and house. If a farang is a member of a genuine company that can show his involvement in that company regarding "books" and tax payments then perhaps no ploblems, but if there is no movement in the business then even LOS gov law folk could spot that...

[Artful Dodger]

I just don't understand why the fact that all the company does is own a house makes it dodgy. There's nothing dodgy about an English company that just owns a house in England, and no need to make out that it is actually doing something else. It could be different here, for sure, but I am not seeing why it would be. I think it's correct that foreigners can't own freehold land in Thailand and can't have a majority shareholding in a Thai company, but there is no need to break either of those rules in order to set up and control a company that owns land.

 

If anyone knows where these rules are actually laid down in law, it might be worth looking at them. Maybe there's more to it than not being able to own freehold land or a majority shareholding.