Usufruct Faq

[Thailand Tiger]

I've read a lot about the establishment of a Usufruct to protect ones interest in real estate. I think it might be of great benefit to have a FAQ that be be added to as new questions or answers arise. This is a topic where I'm sure the more knowledgeable members could be of great assistance in ensuring we have the facts rather than the myths surrounding Usufructs.

I think the first logical question is: What types of land title is this contract suitable for?

Some titles don't allow for the assigning of rights, so I assume it's not suitable for all circumstances.

There are many other questions of course, many of them already answered elsewhere. I'll leave it to others to decide what they feel are important questions and answers to include here.

[crewcut]

I have just recently arranged an usufruct, check my previous posts for full details.

1) Usufruct contracts are available from every land registration office.

2) In my experience they would only do an usufruct for land with a house already built on it, (I tried to get one for just land).

[Khun Jean]

A FAQ on anything useful for owning land in Thailand is not possible.

Try to get it pinned so that all the people can find the information easily.

Anyhting else can be FAQ'ed and pinned, not this subject as it generates too much income.

[ThaiLawOnline]

The problem with a forum, is that you can't trust all information. But sometimes, you find quickly some REALLY nice information.

On the first reply, someone wrote that you can't do a usufruct only on LAND. That's false.

You must make a difference between usufruct and superficies. Anyway...

After, when you use a form at the land department, do you understand what is it written?

Can you read Thai? Does it have clauses that says if you build or ameliorate the land, all constructions will be yours? Because the foreigner can own the buildings!! There is also a theory called UNDUE ENRICHMENT in civil law that can be used. But every case is different, depending on your age, if you have children or not, if you are married or not, the money you want to invest, your future plans, etc. Using a form is, to me, fast food. And when you make a major investment, like building a house, it WORTHS it to double check with law firms. Prices of law firms in Thailand are cheap if you compare to western countries.

Remember one thing: Contracts are agreements between people and they can have everything inside, except what is illegal. Some contracts needs a special procedure to be valid. Using a form could be OK in some circumstances... be careful. 2 clients this week came to me after losing more than 2 million baht on houses. Love is blind. We all know these stories...

[geoffphuket]

A FAQ on anything useful for owning land in Thailand is not possible.

Try to get it pinned so that all the people can find the information easily.

Anyhting else can be FAQ'ed and pinned, not this subject as it generates too much income.

I'd agree, this is a topic worthy of being pinned. Threads come and go

[crewcut]

The problem with a forum, is that you can't trust all information. But sometimes, you find quickly some REALLY nice information.

On the first reply, someone wrote that you can't do a usufruct only on LAND. That's false.

You must make a difference between usufruct and superficies. Anyway...

After, when you use a form at the land department, do you understand what is it written?

Can you read Thai? Does it have clauses that says if you build or ameliorate the land, all constructions will be yours? Because the foreigner can own the buildings!! There is also a theory called UNDUE ENRICHMENT in civil law that can be used. But every case is different, depending on your age, if you have children or not, if you are married or not, the money you want to invest, your future plans, etc. Using a form is, to me, fast food. And when you make a major investment, like building a house, it WORTHS it to double check with law firms. Prices of law firms in Thailand are cheap if you compare to western countries.

Remember one thing: Contracts are agreements between people and they can have everything inside, except what is illegal. Some contracts needs a special procedure to be valid. Using a form could be OK in some circumstances... be careful. 2 clients this week came to me after losing more than 2 million baht on houses. Love is blind. We all know these stories...

I think I fall into the category "using a form could be OK in some circumstances". But I'm no expert!

I appreciate that lawyers charge for consultations (in most cases) but since you have joined the OP's post discusion could you help him/us and put forward a senario of when it would be OK to go ahead and by-pass the services of (in a lot of cases) rather expensive (even compared to western lawyers) lawyers and use the land office's standard form. Also the variables you mentioned; being married, having children etc, could you clarify what you would do differently in each case?

Are you implying that the 2 clients who lost their investments recently were using the standard 'fast food' forms? Or was the problem in those cases the fact that they had no protection at all?

Has an usufruct case ever made it to court and if it did, in your opinion as a lawyer, what loop holes/clauses would you use to discredit it (supposing that you were hired by the land owner and not the farang usufruct holder)?

CC.