Title Deed - Validity

[ArranP]

I've heard of people being sold land with Chanote or Nor Sor 3, only to find later the title deed was obtained via "under the table" means.

 

How is one to establish the validity of land title deeds, or if the land office has upgraded title deed from Or Bor To 5 via "under the table" method.

[drtreelove]

Not my area of expertise, but my wife is a real estate agent and I've seen how she works.  Theoretically, you go to the Provincial Land Office  with chanote in hand and make an enquiry. But depending on how busy that department is, and if your agent is a regular or not, you may be in for a long wait, unless you have a connection inside. So you often need an "expediter".

 

For serious deals in the works she has an associate who is an attorney for a major bank main office, property financing department, who gives her bank repo properties to list for sale. He moonlights and helps her with legal and financial issues for other deals. He's on her side and gets the chanote cleared before they do much of anything. I don't know exactly his process on that. I think he's on speed dial with someone on the inside.

 

But when she is just deciding whether to accept a listing or not and needs to check on a chanote and legit ownership and encumberances, and she needs it right away, she doesn't always use her bank attorney friend.  She usually doesn't want to take me along for this, she says it will cost her more, but I've been a couple of times.  There is a side street next to the local land office with a row of food stalls. There will usually be one or two shady looking lawyers/fixers sitting there drinking/eating/ talking. Or if not, she rings one to meet her there and they show up within a half hour or so.  She chats them up, hands them the documents and I think a brown note or two in an envelope. He goes around the corner into the office and comes back out in about 20 minutes with the info.

[ThomasThBKK]

It doesn't take time to get the info if a proper lawyer goes there, they'll just copy him the chanote andnall other files in the map and then he's doing research....which also includes neighboring chanotes andnfhe whole area history. 

 

There is no 100 perc judgment on a thai chanote on a due diligence report. He gives u all red and yellow flags and u make the judgment... No title insurance in thailand also sucks.