Can Foreigners Inherit 1 Rai Of Land And Keep It Under Thai Law?

[ThaiLawOnline]

I received a private message asking me to answer the following question here:

Can a foreigner inherit some piece of land? (And become the owner).

I think there was a debate on it here but I didn't see it. Sorry. I was busy with some projects and we are actually writing articles about Wills and other subjects to upgrade our site http://www.thailawonline.com. I read so much about Last Wills in Thailand in the last month that I can't complete my articles! I am completely bored with the subject but I do understand many foreigners here are concerned so I will try my best and complete them in 2 weeks.

Anyway, I will answer this question and provide you a link to an exceptional document answering these questions (but only in Thai).

The answer is YES, IF IT'S A STATUTORY HEIR. A statutory heir is a person receiving inheritance by law, when the decease didn't have a Will. That is according to section 93 of the Land Code. However, he must receive the permission of the ministry of interior. To my knowledge, it's VERY rare. The ministry of interior normally delegates his power to the head officer of the land department and the governor of the provincial administration. It's never more than 1 rai according to section 87 of the Land Code. You must submit your application and I will show you the document below. If refuse, you have between 6 months and 1 years to dispose of the land, according to section 94 of the Land Code.

If the foreigner receiving land by inheritance is a LEGATEE, the administrator of the estate will dispose of the land and the foreigner will receive the proceeds.

This create a strange situation where according to the Thai officials, a person receiving by a Will has less rights than a person receiving from the law. There is no doubt in my mind that it is not a reason NOT to make a Will. I would strongly suggest anyone who has some assets to make a Will. It makes things just more simply and in some cases, you can get real gains by making a Will (I will write that later, not now). A Will is an important document and it's not expensive to do.

The above information comes directly from the directives given to the Land Department. It was quite confused few years ago (still is...) and they decided to prepare a booklet explaining what I just wrote. It was done about 5 years ago and it is still used. THAT DOCUMENT IS A DOCUMENT FOR THE LAND DEPARTMENT.

You will find it here: (It's a VERY LARGE DOCUMENT, in PDF, 17 pages, more or less)

http://www.thailawon...to%20aliens.pdf

(This document is for first time on Internet. I have it for a long time but I just scanned it this afternoon)

We didn't have time to translate it. You have the process and documents to apply to in order to ask the permission to be granted one year as a statutory heir. In the middle, with small squares to tick on the left, it's all the documents needed for an application. And you have different application forms at the end.

We published new videos explaining Law on http://www.thailawonline.com and will add many new articles soon.

Enjoy,

Edited August 30, 2010 by Isaanlawyers

[Thules]

Many thanks for your informative post. May I ask under what conditions must the Ministry of the Interior's delegatee refuse the legatee's inheritance.... or is this merely subjective on their behalf ?

[Mario2008]

The original discussion was here:

This is a great addition to the information I have seen so far, thanks.

[donx]

It seems to me that this is very similar to the exception provided to foreigners to buy up to 1 rai of residential real estate. In both cases the approval of some government minister is required. And in both cases you need some very specific circumstance - inherit land without the use of a will in one case and invest 40 million baht in a very specific way in the other case.

I'm going to guess that the number of times both these situations have occurred has got to be close to zero.

[Thules]

Pending OP's legal reply to my question, I suspect that given sufficient funds, you can buy yourself into any Country. Unfortunately I can't substantiate this, so this is merely in my rapidly depreciating 2 cents worth.

[ThaiLawOnline]

Sorry, I don't read often TV so I might miss questions or replies. I just enabled notifications of replies...

To answer, I can just say:

1) I never seen one case where a foreigner was allowed to own land by inheritance, but that doesn't mean it can't be done. If someone knows a case, please reply to this topic and give us more info. That could help someone.

2) The law states "MAY" (section 93 of the Land Code). That is always kind of "undefined" unless there is a regulation or a Court decision about it. I know cases in Canada where MAY becomes MUST, because the Courts decided that there was no arbitrary powers to refuse, meaning if you fill all conditions, they HAVE to give it to you. But I am no specialist of Thai administrative Law.

Section 93. The Minister may approve the acquisition by the foreigner, as a statutory heir, of the land which is devolved by succession under the condition that the total amount of land, after combining with the existing land prior to the devolution, shall not exceed the amount prescribed in the provisions of Section 87.

3) There is no mention of conditions in the Land Code (other sections). There is no mention of conditions in the document posted above, which are guidelines for the land departments. If there are some, we couldn't find them.

So, I don't know the conditions IF there are some. (There might be some in a regulation, which would require us to make a search - we never made a search on that because we never had a case like this).

If a foreigner inherits land being a statutory heir, I would strongly advise this person to translate the document above, and make a request to the land department according to that document. You have nothing to lose, only time to make the application. But I also think the same as Donx, they will probably refuse... Again, I have never seen one case.

I have another similar document called "acquisition of land for residential purposes of an alien", also in Thai, which is what Donx refers to, section 96 of the Land Code + Royal Decree and some other treaties. The document above is for section 93. I have another one called "disposition of Alien land", same, in Thai, from land department. I will scan them this month and put them on thailawonline, same as the other, with easy links to find them.

[Thules]

Many thanks for your informed reply.