Hi everyone

My Thai wife and I are considering buying a house in Chiang Mai. This may seem a bit morbid, but should my wife die before I do, what happens to the property? Also if we have a child and my wife and I die, does the house automatically become property of our child, if the child was born in Australia?

Any thoughts?

Regards

Howard & Nanthiphak

Engage a lawyer to have a will done up by your wife, incorporating terms you both mutually agree to.

Then register the will with the local district office.

The land is the issue here, not the house. If the land is in joint names and your Thai wife dies, ownership cannot pass to you because foreigners cannot own land. The law gives you a period of time (I think it's one year) to sell the land. If you are unable to do so it will pass to her family. A will cannot get around this.

However I believe there is a way around this. A lawyer once explained to me that if you are made the executor of your wife's estate there was a loophole that allowed you to never execute it and therefore circumvent the fixed time period to dispose of the property. A ship on the ocean never coming into port. I don't know if that loophole is still active. As always check with a lawyer. There is the company route but that's not so easy now given the scrutiny that Thai nominees are now subjected to.

The land is the issue here, not the house. If the land is in joint names and your Thai wife dies, ownership cannot pass to you because foreigners cannot own land. The law gives you a period of time (I think it's one year) to sell the land. If you are unable to do so it will pass to her family. A will cannot get around this.

However I believe there is a way around this. A lawyer once explained to me that if you are made the executor of your wife's estate there was a loophole that allowed you to never execute it and therefore circumvent the fixed time period to dispose of the property. A ship on the ocean never coming into port. I don't know if that loophole is still active. As always check with a lawyer. There is the company route but that's not so easy now given the scrutiny that Thai nominees are now subjected to.

That's what the will is for. If childless, the land and house will be passed on to the foreigner husband and he has 1 year to sell it and keep the cash. If with child (or children), the land and house can be passed on to the child or children with the father as the executor of the will. The property cannot be sold until the youngest child turns 20.

Hi everyone

My Thai wife and I are considering buying a house in Chiang Mai. This may seem a bit morbid, but should my wife die before I do, what happens to the property? Also if we have a child and my wife and I die, does the house automatically become property of our child, if the child was born in Australia?

Any thoughts?

Regards

Howard & Nanthiphak

Howard. Many previous threads in thaivisa on making of Wills and estate planning - try the forum search facility. Also many good papers available for free in the web sites of various thai law firms - find these using google/yahoo with search words "making a thai will" or similar.

To answer your questions:

1. Depends on whether there is a Will or not. Depends on whether your wife has family or not.

2. The house can be left to the child in the Will, and if the child has thai citizenship may be retained by the child. there are also various threads in thaivisa concerning (initially) putting the house in the child's name

With current economic conditions there are many excellent houses available for rental her ein Chiang Mai at very low cost - Seriously, I would by-pass all the legal stuff (at least for the first year or so) and just rent.