My experience buying land with lawyers assistance

[recom273]

I’m sitting at Khon Kaen land office, twiddling thumbs, awaiting chanote - hopefully my experience can help people who are indecisive about hiring a lawyer or going it alone when buying land.

 

Our journey started a month ago, an “agent” approached us with some land outside Khon Kaen. The price was a little high, there was some “tooting and froing” and we came to a price with the agent of 550K - the lawyer was dealing with the agent and the agent with the land owner.

 

Eventually, the “agent” who was just some woman with a mom’n’pop store, gave up the number of the land owner, a loan shark who took the land as a collateral. She denied all knowledge of the “agent” along with the offer we made via the agent and said the land was 600K but she could discount to 560K. I don’t know if the woman has some mental issue but she couldn’t stop talking, like incessantly.

 

The lawyer said, he was under the impression the price had been agreed and because of that we wouldn’t pay any more. The seller didn’t budge for 2 weeks, in that time she was baiting my wife with silly messages on LINE and telling her that she would keep the land until the wife KK. Finally after 2 weeks, the woman relented and called the lawyer to accept the offer. 

 

The layer asked for 5K to supervise the transaction, after that he visited site and agreed that the land was the land on chanote, he said he would survey the local area, for things like pig farms, dodgy characters, etc. In fact, he only got out of his truck and took 2 pictures of the land that confused us even more. I was just expecting a visit to land office to do some search, but he said not necessary.

 

We gathered the documents the lawyer advised and flew up from Hat Yai. Rented a bike and visited the land alone and decided it was good. The next day we met with the seller. We didn’t talk about the price, we asked for a discount and none was forthcoming, infact they started to get in their car at the suggestion. Again this woman wouldn’t stop talking, eventually I lost my rag with her  and her husband told her to sit in the car. A strange couple, he was obviously ex-government, in his 70’s.

 

We arranged to meet the next day at the land office - the seller also said we needed tabian Baan of our current abode - the lawyer didn’t tell us this - the lawyer told us the wedding certificate wasn’t necessary. It was.

 

We had a mad scramble to get a photo of the house book and got to the land office at 8.30 am, first to arrive. Followed by the seller and the lawyer.

 

In that time we worked out that my passport would be required and my name would be noted somewhere, but not on deeds. Something I had heard before but when I spoke to the lawyer, he said I wouldn’t be involved. No problem, I was buying the land for the wife anyway and was more than happy to sit outside.

 

The wife was called to the front and the process begun, the clerk asked her how much she was to pay 550K .. the seller started screaming 230k! 230K!! 

 

The wife finished her bit and the old woman stayed to sweet talk the clerk, no doubt that she was trying to avoid paying so much tax. Not too sure if a gift was given.

 

At this time I was thinking this lawyer was a waste of money.

 

Soon after I was told everything was concluding, we both needed to give her the cash infront of the clerk, our lawyer was there and her daughter who also works for the government appeared as a witness.

 

They counted the cash and all hell broke lose - the woman said it was 5K short .. my wife was trying to understand the crazy woman, I was telling my wife to pick the money and put it back in the envelope, we were leaving. Eventually we worked out she was expecting more, The lawyer jumped in and said huh? We agreed 550K on the phone now you change your mind .. she was adamant it was 555K. In the end the lawyer and the daughter calmed the seller down and told her to accept it. She still didn’t stop moaning she was losing profit.

 

The money was piled in front of the clerk who wrote down 230K and a photo taken .. this country and it’s corrupt management is beyond belief.  We were all finished at 10.30 - easy.

 

Anyway, was the lawyer worth it? No, he was close to useless .. but he was peanuts to hire and he came into his own when the woman tried to change the price. 

It was quite difficult to get all communications to go via the lawyer - wife, seller along with the agent we’re always chatting rubbish over LINE. Luckily the price negotiation was all via the lawyer so we held all the cards. If you are in this situation, you might want to stop this from the start. 

[2 is 1]

They never put amount on land office papers what you actualy pay for it! You can even go to watch land deals what have made before in that area. And amount's are really small! What is my knowledge, that is not unleagal.

But if somebody know better let us know.

[sanuk711]

Who paid the and tax ? Did you go half each ?

[recom273]

1 hour ago, sanuk711 said:

Who paid the and tax ? Did you go half each ?

No way - it’s not my tax to pay, I didn’t receive the money. Lol.

 

With some deals that didn’t happen, I did offer to pay the transfer to fee as a sweetener. 

[recom273]

The lawyer called asked for a copy of the chanote, to be fair he wasn’t a bad guy and he did try, and he didn’t cost the earth.

 

If anyone needs an English speaking lawyer I can pass on his number. 

[1FinickyOne]

We have purchased plenty of farmland and as long as there is a chanote, no problems... don't need a lawyer - a sane seller is good but my wife would probably have backed out after the first bits of insanity... 

[sometimewoodworker]

We bought land twice, no lawyers involved or needed, the prices declared to the land office were well under the prices paid, probably a little bit over market rates at the time but the location is great for the area.

[recom273]

1 hour ago, kenk24 said:

We have purchased plenty of farmland and as long as there is a chanote, no problems... don't need a lawyer - a sane seller is good but my wife would probably have backed out after the first bits of insanity... 

Yeah, sure .. there are plenty of posts here repeating this. I would have been quite happy to proceed without a lawyer, but being 1500km away, I paid the lawyer 5K to help me out before we made the trek from the Deep South. He did all the legwork before I laid out for flights.
 

I don’t think there is a right way or a wrong way, just saying, up to the last 5 mins the lawyer was of little use, then when she suddenly flipped at the last gate, he earned his money and I’m glad I did use him.
 

[GreasyFingers]

We were negotiating with an old women, not crazy like you described, and the price kept changing. We walked away and the old woman still has not sold the land 4 years later. The SIL was not happy as she was on commission.

[Bender Rodriguez]

2 hours ago, recom273 said:

Yeah, sure .. there are plenty of posts here repeating this. I would have been quite happy to proceed without a lawyer, but being 1500km away, I paid the lawyer 5K to help me out before we made the trek from the Deep South. He did all the legwork before I laid out for flights.
 

I don’t think there is a right way or a wrong way, just saying, up to the last 5 mins the lawyer was of little use, then when she suddenly flipped at the last gate, he earned his money and I’m glad I did use him.
 

5k for help, that is cheap

 

I once ask several offices, to go to land department to get a copy of a chanote

 

7500 baht + TAX (and up)

[recom273]

2 hours ago, GreasyFingers said:

We were negotiating with an old women, not crazy like you described, and the price kept changing. We walked away and the old woman still has not sold the land 4 years later. The SIL was not happy as she was on commission.

We have been plagued by “agents” and locals searching for their commission all the way along, they bring nothing to the table.

 

i am suppressed at the lack of negotiation, people would rather walk away than negotiate - like this nutter wouldn’t drop 10K at the beginning even tho I offered to jump on the next plane and pay her, and then 2 weeks later agreed. Some land in the south was waaay overpriced. 1M/ngaan which no one in their right mind would pay.  It seems a lot of people don’t care if they sell or not, which is the best way, but guess.

[BritManToo]

6 minutes ago, recom273 said:

We have been plagued by “agents” and locals searching for their commission all the way along, they bring nothing to the table.

 

i am suppressed at the lack of negotiation, people would rather walk away than negotiate - like this nutter wouldn’t drop 10K at the beginning even tho I offered to jump on the next plane and pay her, and then 2 weeks later agreed. Some land in the south was waaay overpriced. 1M/ngaan which no one in their right mind would pay.  It seems a lot of people don’t care if they sell or not, which is the best way, but guess.

Did you ever specify the size of the land?

I couldn't find it.

[Jenkins9039]

Not bad legal fees, paid 150k when buying our most recent abode to the lawyer, but then again he is a professional.... 

One thing of note, is a couple of years ago, we were looking to buy some land to put a industrial complex on for my company, we were shown some land by the wife of a 'friend' (then) anyway, we liked it, agreed price, on the day of transfer the wife (his wife) at the land office, informed me not to proceed, i asked why, she said there's an outstanding debt on it (loan shark), weird she did not tell us before lol.

 

Her husband then started rumour mongering, and i reached out to him and asked why, and informed him what his wife said just as we were about to hand over the wedge at the land office.

 

Either he was aware (longtime expat) and ok with such, whilst his wife recognised that our legal would go after her for being complicit in such, or he was in the shade.

At that point anyway, we stopped associating with them (we'd spend about 600k in their enterprise yearly), and naturally stepped away from that deal.

It was an eye opener, at how corrupt and money driven some thai's and for that matter expats are.

[1FinickyOne]

8 hours ago, recom273 said:

Yeah, sure .. there are plenty of posts here repeating this. I would have been quite happy to proceed without a lawyer, but being 1500km away, I paid the lawyer 5K to help me out before we made the trek from the Deep South. He did all the legwork before I laid out for flights.
 

I don’t think there is a right way or a wrong way, just saying, up to the last 5 mins the lawyer was of little use, then when she suddenly flipped at the last gate, he earned his money and I’m glad I did use him.
 

ok - so good then...

 

enjoy your time in Dixie...