Legal Complication

[thaiwanderer]

Section 19 Civil and Commercial Code: Whenever a document is executed in two versions, one in the Thai language , the other in another language, and there are discrepancies between the two versions, and it cannot be ascertained which version was intended to govern, the document executed in the Thai language shall govern.

ChampagneSuper:

All things being equal, if both versions clearly state the English will take precedence then it will.

However in practice if a dispute arises a judge is going to place great reliance on a Thai translation prepared for the hearing of a case (distinguished from the original Thai translation) in interpreting the English version. If the clause/s in dispute differ in interpretative ways (as opposed to say something definite like a date or the amount in baht etc.) the English language precedence is then likely to be of little comfort, or use.

Also you talk of a 30 year lease, was the Thai version intended to be a (complete) translation or merely a shortform version for registration purposes?(there are potential problems with this approach).

Thaihome:

There are Thai notaries.

[thaihome]

....

Thaihome:

There are Thai notaries.

You may be right, but in dealing with commercial contracts (non-real estate) in Thailand, in English, worth hundreds or million of dollars, with more then one going into arbitration, I have never seen a Thai notary nor has the validity of the contract been disputed due to a lack of notarization.

My wife has bought and sold several properties over the years and no notary was ever used.

TH

[ChampagneSuper]

Thanks for reply ThaiWanderer, the Thai translation is a complete one, but other translations we've had done by lawyers were so far off the mark it was embarrassing.

Cheers for the info, hopefully we'll never have to find out!!

CS

[jts-khorat]

Contracts written in English are not valid.

This statement is not correct. Your English contract, signed by both parties, would have been valid.

[thaiwanderer]

....

Thaihome:

There are Thai notaries.

You may be right, but in dealing with commercial contracts (non-real estate) in Thailand, in English, worth hundreds or million of dollars, with more then one going into arbitration, I have never seen a Thai notary nor has the validity of the contract been disputed due to a lack of notarization.

My wife has bought and sold several properties over the years and no notary was ever used.

TH

Agreed. Have used them, on occasion.

[Gary A]

Contracts written in English are not valid.

This statement is not correct. Your English contract, signed by both parties, would have been valid.

Are you sure? I'm not. A for sure crooked law firm and another lawyer who was likely crooked told me that any partnership agreement written in English was not legal. If there was a dispute and you have a contract document written in English, a Thai court would not hear the case. I won't argue because it is pointless. No way in this lifetime would I ever trust a Thai lawyer again because no way would I ever have any type of business here again.

[basjke]

As anywhere in the world a contract will be only valid if written in the language used in that specific country.I assume in Thailand this is Thai.The English,or other language copy is only used as reference.If you ever go to court without a Thai contract the Thai party can claim that he didn't understand what he was signing since he has no proven knowledge of the foreign language.

Edit: if the contract is between 2 foreigners then the English language will be accepted.

Edited November 14, 2008 by basjke

[onnut]

Hello

I cannot give specific information, but can elaborate enough to get some answers.

My friend has put money into a real estate investment. The owner of the investment plan drew a contract saying that if there was no profit in some time, then he would give the money back to my friend. The time period is not yet up, but the other investors involved in the project have all withdrawn; leaving no project, just the investment plan owner and the contract.

Therefore, is it valid for my freind to get the money back?

another explanation:

1) friend put in money to investment and signed contract: stating he would recieve profit from the project

2) He signed the contract AFTER the other investors; the project existing because the other investors held a majority in the investment and that his money would be paid back after a time period if no profit was made

3) all other investors pulled out of the project, leaving no effective project

4) the time period is not yet complete, another year to go before money can come back according to the contract

Does anyone know what would happen with the money my friend paid? Nothing in the contract states anything about if the investment went bad cause all the other investors pulled out......

Contracts mean nothing in this part of the world.

[midas]

Contracts mean nothing in this part of the world.

and even with a contract in any language you'll still not get justice in this part of the world

[thaihome]

As anywhere in the world a contract will be only valid if written in the language used in that specific country.I assume in Thailand this is Thai.The English,or other language copy is only used as reference.If you ever go to court without a Thai contract the Thai party can claim that he didn't understand what he was signing since he has no proven knowledge of the foreign language.

Edit: if the contract is between 2 foreigners then the English language will be accepted.

This is so wrong....

I say this as I have on my desk at this very moment 2 contracts, in English, signed by two Thais, between 2 Thai companies with a combined worth of about 6.5 billion baht and 100 million USD 300 million USD (and they are allowed to be in multiple currencies).

In my experience, most major contracts are written in English all over the world.

TH