Let say farango me and thai wifey decide to buy a property here in Bangkok, not a condo or BOI thing so no foreigner quota, thus the bank mortgage, transfer and all paperwork in her name solely - a simple mortgage all in her name.

 

Bank life insurance linked to the mortgage has farang me as the primary beneficiary in the event of wife's death within X years. My name doesn't appear anywhere else.

 

1 - Presume bank life insurance settled the remaining mortgage fully (one of the products on offer) - is it still the case the farang gets 1 year to sell it as farango can't own it? What happens at the 12 month mark if a firesale hasn't been achieved?

 

2 - If we take a mortgage insurance product that doesn't fully track the outstanding capital - either shorter duration or 80% of remaining value - what happens here? I need to continue servicing the mortgage somehow? do I still get one year? 

 

Forgive the hint of repetition, although I can find plenty of questions regarding property and death via search,  many are years old and suspect out of date, and very few mention how an outstanding mortgage complicated things.  And of course, I will take legal advice for wills etc.. once I have an idea of what the landscape is..

 

 

 

 

 

 

Q:  is it still the case the farang gets 1 year to sell it as farango can't own it? What happens at the 12 month mark if a firesale hasn't been achieved?

 

A: Yes, the executor has 12 months to sell the property, assuming you are the beneficiary and your wife hasn't left the property to someone else.

 

If a sale is not achieved then in practice nothing happens. The Land Office doesn't actively seek out such cases to enforce them. 

 

Q: If we take a mortgage insurance product that doesn't fully track the outstanding capital - either shorter duration or 80% of remaining value - what happens here? I need to continue servicing the mortgage somehow? do I still get one year?

 

A: If the bank are aware of the death then strictly the mortgage becomes immediately repayable in full. The bank will often work with the estate though until the mortgage is fully redeemed.

 

Normally redemption would happen on the day of the sale, whereby the buyer would prepare one cheque payable to the bank holding the mortgage and a second cheque to the estate for the remaining balance of the sale.