I have a potential buyer for my Jomtien condo and might not be able to physically be there for the closing.  My real estate agent recommended a lawyer they use who could draw up Power of Attorney papers to represent me for closing for THB20,000.  Is that a reasonable fee for such a service?

 

I'd especially like to hear from anybody in the Pattaya area who has done the P.O.A. thing within the past few years to hear how easy/smooth the process is and, of course, how much you paid.

 

(Mods:  Can you please keep this in the Pattaya section and not move it to the Real Estate section?  I only want to hear about Pattaya/Jomtien, not Chiang Rai, Hat Yai or Bangkok...)

Allowing a Thai real estate agent to select a lawyer and to give that person a POA and handle the sales proceeds sounds like very very very high risk to me. I personally know of one person who allowed a Thai lawyer to act on his behalf and after nine years discovered the property he had purchased through the lawyer, was registered in the lawyers name. 

 if you so chose not to use a lawyer, Power of attorney forms are available at land offices. A competent real estate agent should know.

I recently got POA from my Thai daughter who lives in the UK to buy a condo unit as the foreign quota was full. The guy doing the conveyancing was an English speaking smart Thai with an office in Jomtien, but not an attorney. He charged me 6,000 THB all in. Once I got the signed documents back from her, which he had previously prepared, with accompanying Thai ID photocopy, I just sat downstairs in the land office in Pattaya whilst he and the seller went upstairs. 30 minutes later he handed me the chanote with my daughter's name on it, all lip loy, receipts, payments and everything. Can pm you his details if you wish.

21 hours ago, wpcoe said:

Is that a reasonable fee for such a service?

Just FYI: You can buy a standard power-of-attorney Thai-form in a paper shop for a few baht (under 50 baht). Get it filled in – preferably in Thai language – together with signed photocopies of all parties' identification papers (i.e., ID-card and/or passport), which might also include a witness or two. The land office will normally accept that – it's been used in some of my property deals at two different local land offices.

My case was similar but different, hired a Chiang Mai (where I live) lawyer to write a POA for an agent in Phuket to sell a condo we had there. So I can't really comment on your specifics, but I find that 20k is outrageous. I seem to remember I paid 500B (plus Kerry to send the POA).

About being swindled, I don't know. Our document clearly stated who was selling to whom and for what price, the agent couldn't sell to any other person for another price.

200k sounds extremely expensive, unless they are the listing/selling agent.   I wrote my own, FREE.

 

Only advise, from experience, is have 3 POAs signed and witnesses/notarized for you.  2 of which, being 'blank', and hope you trust the agent.

 

I sold house at Udon Thani w/POA, but.... Land office officer didn't like the wording and refused it.   We asked, 'what do you want it to state?' ... walked outside, filled in one of my signed blanks, the ex-wife signed months before, and submitted that one.   All good, and strangely, he didn't even question it.   Not that he could, as signed & witnessed, so official.

 

My RE agent was impressed with my foresight