Crackdown on foreign nominees: Luxury villas raided on Koh Samui - foreigner arrested

[BigFun]

5 minutes ago, Peterw42 said:

Or, you could not try and bend the rules to own land, accumulate lots of fully legal assets, apartments, cars, etc, and relax.

Nobody has ever had a legally acquired, and owned, property taken off them, ever !

Thats buying land, not a house. 

[geoffbezoz]

1 hour ago, watcharacters said:

 

I.E.    "go back to where you came from"?    ????

Absolutely agree with you. If you can not live in compliance with the laws here, then go back to a country where the laws are in line with your needs.

[DaRoadrunner]

My point is that Thais can buy property in our countries but we are considered only good enough to buy a condo here. They can stuff their condo!

[AlexRich]

9 hours ago, jvs said:

I predict 999 plus pages of people saying'never buy just rent,

told you so,we will all be kicked out of Thailand,they will take all your money and deport you,companies are illegal,latesr nail in the coffin'and a whole lot more .

It has all been said before and some people just love to try to put fear in the expats living here.

Read the op,what it is exactly about and what the main issue is.

I might just read the whole thing,it is too hot to work outside anyways.

Have fun everybody,

Never buy, just rent.

[Peterw42]

12 minutes ago, DaRoadrunner said:

My point is that Thais can buy property in our countries but we are considered only good enough to buy a condo here. They can stuff their condo!

Lots of western countries have restrictions on the type of property that foreigners can buy. Australia as an example, a foreigner can only buy pre-approved foreign investment properties, usually apartments. A foreigner without residency or certain Visa's cannot buy land unless approved by the foreign investment review board.

 

[NCC1701A]

there is not enough paranoia in the comments on this topic, i'm going back to:

 

Big Joke: Promises easier, faster and more "watertight" Immigration rules

[RJRS1301]

7 hours ago, Peterw42 said:

Lots of western countries have restrictions on the type of property that foreigners can buy. Australia as an example, a foreigner can only buy pre-approved foreign investment properties, usually apartments. A foreigner without residency or certain Visa's cannot buy land unless approved by the foreign investment review board.

 

Who rarely say no. Most of the large waterfront properties on Sydney harbour are Chinese owned , many of the most productive farms in Oz are now foreigner as well.

[Tropicalevo]

21 hours ago, Jonathan Fairfield said:

was operating with a foreign nominee. 

 

[likewise]

Thais are corrupt clowns, will never change. One day (Tarin) will give the ok just for the year later when some other clown is in charge to retract on everything former ministers had agreed on.

22 years here, have seen plenty of farang getting shafted all sorts of ways. We are leaving this summer time, before I leave I will get a loan from my Thai  "friend" just to teach them a lesson how it feels. 

 

[huberthammer]

12 hours ago, DaRoadrunner said:

My point is that Thais can buy property in our countries but we are considered only good enough to buy a condo here. They can stuff their condo!

That is rubbish - many countries in the west have (or start to implement them) about foreign ownership of land. Similar to the crying about immigration laws, just because it is inconvenient for us to have them here does not mean back home foreigners have it easier. 

[huberthammer]

5 hours ago, RJRS1301 said:

Who rarely say no. Most of the large waterfront properties on Sydney harbour are Chinese owned , many of the most productive farms in Oz are now foreigner as well.

yes because Australia was very slow in realising that Chinese buyers kept propping up property prices and acted very slowly...

[Prairieboy]

22 hours ago, sammieuk1 said:

Expendable foreigners will be purged from this land and assets seized in a never ending crusade ????

That appears to be the trend.

[ThaiBunny]

11 minutes ago, huberthammer said:

yes because Australia was very slow in realising that Chinese buyers kept propping up property prices and acted very slowly...

Thirty years ago it was the wicked Japanese alleged to be taking over Surfers Paradise. I wonder who'll be next

[Pravda]

12 hours ago, NCC1701A said:

there is not enough paranoia in the comments on this topic, i'm going back to:

 

Big Joke: Promises easier, faster and more "watertight" Immigration rules

 

Paranoia will destroya

[xylophone]

13 hours ago, Peterw42 said:

Your prediction was very accurate however you didnt mention the statements that the Thai Government is, in fact, confiscating foreign owned property as we type/read the thread.

Happened to a friend of mine here a couple or more years ago.............bought through a Thai nominee route, and his villa was eventually taken from him after some shady dealings with his Thai lawyer.

 

[Kieran00001]

17 hours ago, sammieuk1 said:

One mans encroachment may well be another mans jealousy ie who ever dobbed them in????  

 

Someone being jealous and reporting them doesn't stop it being encroachment, it is merely how they were caught.

[Kieran00001]

13 hours ago, DaRoadrunner said:

My point is that Thais can buy property in our countries but we are considered only good enough to buy a condo here. They can stuff their condo!

 

Try to consider someone other than yourself for a moment, this law has nothing to do with expats who want to live in Thailand, its about stopping massively rich Malaysian, Singaporean and Chinese investors from buying up the land and out-pricing Thai's in their own country.

[Lucius verus]

How does the old proverb go...

A farang is worth more dead than he is alive...don't buy property in Thailand.

I remember way back in 2002 a CNN segment on buying property in Phuket. The farang snake oil salesman (estate agent) was spouting off about owning a villa in paradise.  The CNN  guy just casually suggested there were hurdles involving legal ownership for foreigners  but not the case in other countries. The snake oil salesman said nothing and the interview abruptly finished.LOL.

[Peterw42]

46 minutes ago, xylophone said:

Happened to a friend of mine here a couple or more years ago.............bought through a Thai nominee route, and his villa was eventually taken from him after some shady dealings with his Thai lawyer.

 

Yes, that happens but I am yet to hear of a legally acquired and legally owned property being taken away. Its usually the very rules that were bent or broken that lead to the loss.

[Kieran00001]

29 minutes ago, Lucius verus said:

How does the old proverb go...

A farang is worth more dead than he is alive...don't buy property in Thailand.

I remember way back in 2002 a CNN segment on buying property in Phuket. The farang snake oil salesman (estate agent) was spouting off about owning a villa in paradise.  The CNN  guy just casually suggested there were hurdles involving legal ownership for foreigners  but not the case in other countries. The snake oil salesman said nothing and the interview abruptly finished.LOL.

 

It is true than in other countries there are no restrictions, however it is also the case than in other countries there are greater restrictions.  Below, the light blue counties have stricter property laws than Thailand while the dark blue ones have more lenient property laws.

[impulse]

9 hours ago, Peterw42 said:

10 hours ago, xylophone said:

Happened to a friend of mine here a couple or more years ago.............bought through a Thai nominee route, and his villa was eventually taken from him after some shady dealings with his Thai lawyer.

Yes, that happens but I am yet to hear of a legally acquired and legally owned property being taken away. Its usually the very rules that were bent or broken that lead to the loss.

 

The OP represents the tip of an iceberg that calls into question any confidence in the legal system.  Focusing on its effect on foreigners misses a bigger point, that there are few protections for locals as well. 

 

How about the guy whose golf caddie ended up with $$ millions of dollars of his shares just before he died mysteriously in his SUV?  Or the guys going to the land office with redundant deeds for the same slice of rice  paddie?  Or any one of a thousand horror stories I read while living in BKK for 7 years.

 

Not a week (day?) goes by without hearing about someone whose wife/partner/accountant/attorney forged some documents to expropriate land or companies or bank accounts.  Sometimes it's a foreigner.  But it's usually local on local- with the assistance of a dodgy legal system and lawyers holding out services that would have them disbarred if they advertised the same in a more developed legal system. 

 

Add dodgy lawyers and crooked officials and the scary part isn't that the land is confiscated.  It's that the deals ever went through in the first place.  Because some percentage of the victims were well meaning folks thinking they were doing something perfectly legal.  Assured by the lawyers and the officials that they were.

 

On another note...  Kieran00001 nailed it.  If we had to compete with the dirty money coming out of some of the Asian countries, it would be a moot point.  They can drive up the prices so an ordinary western retiree couldn't afford a home anyway.  The policies are in place to protect the locals from hot money moving around the world to hide it.  Not from evil westerners.

 

[xylophone]

13 hours ago, impulse said:

Not a week (day?) goes by without hearing about someone whose wife/partner/accountant/attorney forged some documents to expropriate land or companies or bank accounts.  Sometimes it's a foreigner.  But it's usually local on local- with the assistance of a dodgy legal system and lawyers holding out services that would have them disbarred if they advertised the same in a more developed legal system. 

Very true what you say, and I've been in hospital for five days so haven't been following this too closely (too sick) however something very similar has been happening in the small block of apartments in which I live.

 

A Thai house owner next to the land on which this block of apartments is built has been trying to claim part of the land for himself, even though the owners of the apartment block have all of the details and original plans. However that did not stop the Thai house owner from going to the land office and speaking to an official there, who came to inspect the apartment land.

 

He and a couple of his cohorts milled around the place for a while then had a quiet conversation with the apartment block owner (Thai with farang husband) and suggested that if he was paid xxxx baht, then he would ensure that the other claim failed! This incensed the Thai owner here and she basically told him that this was her land and she had no need to pay a bribe.

 

Imagine her surprise when this person turned up a month or so later with a newly drawn map supposedly supporting the Thai homeowners claim to her land, so she decided to look outside of Patong for a new lawyer and also contacted senior official in the land office to get this sorted, and it appears it has been now, not only with the claim of the Thai house owner being brought into question, but also his acquisition of other land nearby.

 

If it hadn't been for the strength of mind and purpose of the lady apartment block owner, then she would have been steamrolled into parting with money and/or possibly part of her land, but they severely underestimated this little lady!

 

Just goes to show that Thais will try it on with Thais and if original plans and documentation can be forged/recreated then anyone can be rorted in the land of smiles! 

[JustAnotherHun]

Thai law clearly states that foreigners cannot own land.

All these "owners" with their "companies" trying to bypass thai law will once be kicked out of "their" properties. No sympathy to them.

 

I'm from a country that allows foreigners to own land without restrictions. The effect is that wealthy arabs and chinese drive the prices to a level that local people often cannot afford anymore.

 

You want to live in Thailand? Rent a home or buy a condo. That's it.

[owl sees all]

58 minutes ago, xylophone said:

Very true what you say, and I've been in hospital for five days so haven't been following this too closely (too sick) however something very similar has been happening in the small block of apartments in which I live.
 
A Thai house owner next to the land on which this block of apartments is built has been trying to claim part of the land for himself, even though the owners of the apartment block have all of the details and original plans. However that did not stop the Thai house owner from going to the land office and speaking to an official there, who came to inspect the apartment land.
 
He and a couple of his cohorts milled around the place for a while then had a quiet conversation with the apartment block owner (Thai with farang husband) and suggested that if he was paid xxxx baht, then he would ensure that the other claim failed! This incensed the Thai owner here and she basically told him that this was her land and she had no need to pay a bribe.
 
Imagine her surprise when this person turned up a month or so later with a newly drawn map supposedly supporting the Thai homeowners claim to her land, so she decided to look outside of Patong for a new lawyer and also contacted senior official in the land office to get this sorted, and it appears it has been now, not only with the claim of the Thai house owner being brought into question, but also his acquisition of other land nearby.
 
If it hadn't been for the strength of mind and purpose of the lady apartment block owner, then she would have been steamrolled into parting with money and/or possibly part of her land, but they severely underestimated this little lady!
 
Just goes to show that Thais will try it on with Thais and if original plans and documentation can be forged/recreated then anyone can be rorted in the land of smiles! 

Glad you are well enough to do a great post as this.

 

Not on such a scale but similar happened to us (wife and I). I built a 300 metre road around the land. After it as all done and being used, the owner of the farm next to us turned up unexpectedly with a land office guy and said that the road had cut a cross part of his land.

 

Fortunately I had taken pics before the road was put in and it clearly showed a tree on the border that was still there. It turned out that some concrete markers had been moved by him to exaggerate his case.

[xylophone]

40 minutes ago, owl sees all said:

Glad you are well enough to do a great post as this.

 

Not on such a scale but similar happened to us (wife and I). I built a 300 metre road around the land. After it as all done and being used, the owner of the farm next to us turned up unexpectedly with a land office guy and said that the road had cut a cross part of his land.

 

Fortunately I had taken pics before the road was put in and it clearly showed a tree on the border that was still there. It turned out that some concrete markers had been moved by him to exaggerate his case.

Great idea to take the "before" pics to compare with the finished road and pleased it came out in your favour.......good result!

[ChipButty]

They would have a field day in Phuket the amount of dodgy deals that have been done

[ChipButty]

What happens to the nominee in such cases,