I would be VERY wary indeed I suspect the owner is selling in a hurry- hence the advised drop in price potential before yo uhave even started to "hard bargain" I have been speaking to one of the many companies now advertising on Tik Tok/Instagram etc that they can sort out the nominee problem for foreign owners of property in Thailand I should mention here I have a lot of experience in UK law regarding shell companies, SPVs etc The scheme they suggested to me, for a fee overall of circa 1,000,000 baht was clearly never going to stand up to close scrutiny Remember if, heaven forbid, your ownership credentials are under close scrutiny your business relationship with your nominee or any company that you hold a significant interest in, will be scrutinised very carefully I have subsequently spoken to a very well respected Thai lawyer- and she said to me if the authorities are after you then you are going to have to have a VERY good and watertight case to avoid bad consequences She said the consequences will be a criminal prosecution as well as civil proceedings leading to the confiscation and subsequent auction sale of your property I agree- sooner or later the authorities will smell the money to be made by in effect confiscating foreign owned nominee company related properties. I have engaged in correspondence with one of the many companies that are now advertising on to Tik Tok/Instagram and son asking foreign owners to contact them in relation to their nominee shareholding related companies. The schemes that they are putting forward to try to get round the 49/51 nominee shareholder problem are in my humble opinion transparent and doomed to failure. As I understand it the whole problem with a nominee shareholder is that so far as the authorities are concerned unless you can show there is a bona fide business relationship between you, the 49% owner and the 51% nominee shareholder, your scheme will be deemed to be simply a ruse to try to get round the law so far as ownership of land by a foreigner is concerned. I have a lot of experience in dealing with nominee shareholders of SPV’s, and unless there is proven to be a bona fide business relationship between all parties partaking in the SPV, the nominees will be simply regarded as in effect an extension of the foreign which under Thai law will mean a breach of the Thai law. I have spoken with a lawyer who I am instructing in relation to my own new home build. She is a very good lawyer who also speaks perfect English. She said to me she thinks the attacks on the nominee shareholders ownership schemes will widen as the authorities realise they can get a lot of money quite easily. The attack initially will probably be by way of a criminal prosecution and she thinks that then probably “deals will be done” whereby the criminal prosecution is dropped in return for the property being sold at an auction. I asked in the event of an auction sale would the foreigner get 49% of the sale proceeds She said to me she doubted it. She thought from that 49% sale proceeds would be deducted a substantial amount to in effect represent the “fine” and costs that would otherwise have been imposed if the criminal prosecution had been pursued. I had a general discussion where I said that the proposed crackdown will not help the Thai economy but as she said, with Thailand hoping to attract next year in the region of 30 million tourists losing a few foreigners because they can no longer owned property in Thailand will have a minimal impact on the economy in Thailand. My own view is I would steer very clear of any form purchasing any condo/property at the moment until we can all see the proven approach of the authorities in actually pursuing foreign owners generally
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