Hi everyone,

I'm an Australian guy happily married to an inteligent and considerate Thai lady. We currently live in Australia but recently travelled to Thailand to spend time with my wifes ill father and attend his funeral. While he was still alive he told us about a loan he had which was still outstanding. The original loan was for about 150000 baht (8 years ago) but is now almost 300000 baht due to accumulated interest that was not paid. The loan is through a privately owned finance company (small company based in Northern Thailand) and is secured with a small block of land (one rai) located in a small village in Phayao province. The finance company has the land registration papers which state my father-in-law as the sole owner (we have a copy of the papers). The current value of the land is probably less that 200000 baht. We decided to conveniently forget about it hoping that the finance company would consider it a bad debt and keep the land.

Now that my father-in-law has died, is this the end of the loan and can the finance company simply take proof of death and the loan papers to the land office and claim the land for themselves? Or will they persue the family (mother-in-law, wife) eventhough they are not signatories to the loan? Should we go to finance company with death certificate (not me personally but mother-in-law)?

The owner of the finance company has resently been jailed due to Thaksins crackdown on illigal activities, although the company is still active.

Any advice or comments will be greatly appreciated

Thai law states that any land secured with a loan is claimable by the finance company should the loan default.

As the finance company hold the land deeds and a signed agreement by your father in law they should have no problem transferring it to their name, but as the value is less than the outstanding debt they may wish to persue through the courts for the balance which believe me and you would take about 10 years and a lawyers fee of twice the amount outstanding , so I would not worry too much about the claim.

Intimadation could be a problem but from my experience people in villages stick together when there is a problem within the village so I guess you won't have a problem there.

Lastly inform your local land registry office of the situation and agree to forefit the land as a final end to the matter.

Good luck

Sev

:cool: