Putting A House In Baby's Name

[cowman1]

Hi,

I've been searching through this forum, and I can't really find an answer to my question. Basically, I am looking into buying a house in thailand wih my wife (with cash borrowed mostly through UOB, with my funds). Now, I understand I cannot own the house outright. But is it possibe to out it into my baby's name? He is only 2 years old, but is this still possible? I have read elsewhere about getting a usefestruct (or something) and will look into this, just in case all goes wrong (heaven forbid) but if I could simly put it in my child's name, would he then be the rightful owner? I'm just a little concerned, if something happened to my wife, I would have no rights to the house that I had paid for.

Thanks in advance for any help!

[Brigante7]

Hi,

I've been searching through this forum, and I can't really find an answer to my question. Basically, I am looking into buying a house in thailand wih my wife (with cash borrowed mostly through UOB, with my funds). Now, I understand I cannot own the house outright. But is it possibe to out it into my baby's name? He is only 2 years old, but is this still possible? I have read elsewhere about getting a usefestruct (or something) and will look into this, just in case all goes wrong (heaven forbid) but if I could simly put it in my child's name, would he then be the rightful owner? I'm just a little concerned, if something happened to my wife, I would have no rights to the house that I had paid for.

Thanks in advance for any help!

Hi Cowman1, I'm in the same boat as you, I have a 1 year old son with UK/Thai passports and I want to put our land in his name when we buy next year. I trust my wife 100% but not her family. I want to make sure that if my wife dies then everything doesn't go to her family and my son is catered for.

I asked this question before but I never got a definite answer.

[traderDM]

I am in a similar situation and saw a post on a Phuket website where they asked a government official about this. His answer was that technically you can put it in the child's name, but if you do there are serious restricitons on what you can do with the land. If you think you may sell before the child turns 21 the officials advice was to go a different route. If you need to do anything you need to go court and get documentation proving that as the legal guardian of the assets what you are doing with the land is in the best interest of the child and it may be difficult to get done in reality.

Maybe someone has had some experience with this and can shed some light?

I need to decide how to take title of the land I paid for in the next month or so, and the most common advice seems to be to put it in the wife's name and get a 30 year lease back. The more I research the issue of land ownership it seems the less clear things get.

[donx]

This question has been asked many times on here before. Unfortunately, I find the search feature of this forum practically worthless, so I won't even suggest you use it. You could try to keep going back through the threads because I know there have been some of these threads started this year.

In any case, here are my suggestions based upon what I can remember about the past posts. It is my understanding that you can put property in the name of a child. I don't know if the child needs to sign anything, but I assume that even a 1 year old can be the registered owner of land. As traderDM states, once the property is in the name of the child, then that property will not be able to be sold until the child is of legal age and then it is the child's decision as to what to do with the land. So as long as you are absolutely sure you will not want or need to sell before that time (18 or 21 years from now) then I would avoid placing land in the child's name.

Whether your wife or your child is the owner of the property, you as a farang can still register a usufruct on the property which will give you the legal right to use the property for as long as you live. This protects you in case your wife dies or in case your 21 year old decides to sell the property. Even when the property is owned by someone else, your usufruct is still in effect.

[traderDM]

Thanks Don,

I normally don't like to ask questions on forums but I have been having trouble with the search function on this forum as well, good to know it isn't just me.

I know I won't want to sell my land ever, however I plan to try and grow over the next 15-20 years a small villa business for reitrement or the kids to have something to do if they would like to manage properties. I would like to use some level of leverage and figure that if I put the land in one of my kid's names I won't be able to borrow against the property.

I have sometime to figure it out but in general the long term lease ideas don't sit well with me. Thanks again.

[Spaniel]

I'm not positive but I think a person has to be at least 18 to own property.

[cowman1]

Hi,

Hmm that's interesting. Thanks for all the advice. I thought Regarding this, the Usufruct (and also I've read elsewhere on the forums about a life partnership agreement - where the house would be sold and assets split 50/50 if anything happened) does this all need to be done before the house is bought, through a lawyer, or can I buy the house first and then sort out the usufruct later?

Also, can anyone advice a good lawyer for this kind of thing, based around bangkok?

Thanks again for your help.

[bruceboy]

I thought 18 was the legal age.

[geordie]

I bought some land about 1 year ago which went into the wifes name. We had a contract drawn up which basically said that if we divorced the land would go solely into my daughters name and any buildings that where put on it. We never did put anything on the land. I divorced her 2 weeks ago and the contract had to be honoured in the divorce agreement, before the divorce agreement was issued we had to go to the land office and my wife had to put the land into my daughters name. My daugter is only 5 so she could not sign so her finger prints where used as her signature.

[donx]

I bought some land about 1 year ago which went into the wifes name. We had a contract drawn up which basically said that if we divorced the land would go solely into my daughters name and any buildings that where put on it. We never did put anything on the land. I divorced her 2 weeks ago and the contract had to be honoured in the divorce agreement, before the divorce agreement was issued we had to go to the land office and my wife had to put the land into my daughters name. My daugter is only 5 so she could not sign so her finger prints where used as her signature.

I'm sorry about your situation. However, this is a very valuable post. I forgot about the finger printing of children. This is how they get around the need for an infant to sign the document. I now remember having to do the same thing for all of my kids when they received their Thai passports. For their US passport I just signed them as "For XXXX XXXX", but they didn't allow this at the Thai embassy.

This is also the first time I have heard of anyone creating such a contract in the case of a divorce. I am also surprised that it was actually carried out. Mostly I hear about putting the child's name on the title from the beginning in case something happens in the future. The beauty of what you did and how it was executed is that if you didn't divorce but wanted to sell the land and buy something else, having it in your wife's name makes this all possible. One question I have though - how did you keep your wife from selling the land for her own benefit before you got divorced?

[geordie]

I bought the land for my daughter, so i kept the title deed in a safe place. The day i decided enough was enough i gave the contract to my lawyer, he was not the one i used to draw up the contract.

I had no problem at all at the land office, my daughter is dual nationality.

[Gravelrash]

I bought a house in my 10 yo child's name, no problem, used a lawyer to make sure. Restriction is that it cannot be sold until they come of age, but I just see it as inheritance any way.

Also I am divorced from the mother but have sole legal custody (yes this can be done if done properly), so the mother can do nothing to get her hands on it even indirectly. Bear in mind in a divorce situation if the mother gets custody, as is usual, she will control the property via her custody.