A legal question about Sor Por Gor land.

My gf’s grandfather had loads of land but on his death it was divided up and shared between many children and grandchildren. One of them sold 12 Rai to another farmer who now has a Sor Por Gor 4 Paper in her name.

She wants to sell it to my gf at a reasonable price and as it is located next to my gf’s farm she is keen to take it.

My questions:

• I understood that Sor Por Gor 4 land couldn’t be sold so how is it now in the name of this other farmer?

• Can the Sor Por Gor 4 be passed back to my gf or her family.

Thanks for any advice

Cheers

I suggest you visit the Land Office and ask them. They would know.

Getting someone to ask at the Land registry is a great idea.

My two pennies worth is this: The existing land title is in effect only a recognition of the right to use the land. Thailand had a large and relatively successful land titling project in, I think, the 1970s. These types of land title were produced largely by gaining the consensus opinion of the local community about who has a history of using the land. The title needs to be upgraded before a person is taken by the law to actually own it, in terms of its being saleable.

An ex-girlfriend in the south explained the situation with her family's land. This land had the same title as your GF. The extended family basically owned all the land in an area, the neighbouring areas were owned in a similar way by different extended family groups. Of course, over time younger generations moved away from farming and did different jobs. When various family patriarchs died land got divided between the children, some of the children sold their land to these other extended family groups in other neighbouring areas. These sales never got registered. In this situation nobody was ever concerned about the paperwork because they all understood and respected each others rights over the land. The land registry would just have charged people money and provided them nothing more in return than they already had.

This kind of sounds like something which is going to happen in a uniquely Thai way. You may have to accept that this type pf property transaction won't be backed up by the paperwork.

Sor Por Gor cant be sold, but is widely traded anyway. The trade is just a handshake, nothing is registered. As long as everyone remain friends there is no problem.

The problems begin when its time to upgrade the land to Nor Sor Saam or similar. Then the upgrade goes to the original owner, no matter who actually holds the title papers. Now he feels he owns something valuable and need compensation, or even his land back.