Agreements (contracts) concluded between husband and wife during a marriage may be voided by either party... there is no safety in making a legal agreement with your wife!

....except to assure you have a place to live should she pre-decease you. A much more important aspect for those in long-time stable relationships.

That's what Wills are for.

Duplicate post, sorry.

Edited January 15, 201115 yr by InterestedObserver

That's what Wills are for.

Yeah? Your Thai wife's Will can say 'I leave all my possessions, including my land, to my hubby' -- but that won't make it so under current Thai law. That's where a lease or usufruct keeps you in your digs, regardless of who ends up the owner of the land...which probably won't be you.

My wife's Will says something to the effect: If Thai law allows, I leave my land to my husband. If not, he has the option to sell the land -- or designate a Thai person of his choice as legal owner.

Which will probably be my niece. We're on good terms now. But, it's nice to know that should she sell the land (not that anyone would buy it, encumbered by a lease....), I still can keep on living here.

A Will is certainly a necessity. But so too a lease or usufruct. After 35 years of marriage, I don't think the wife voiding the lease is a probable option.

Both at the land offices in Sichon and Khanom (in Nakhon Si Thammarat district) we have experienced that I cannot lease the land from my common law wife, because we live together, even we're not legally married.

Another couple from Denmark, where the woman had both Thai and Danish nationality, the Danish husband could not lease the land from his wife.

The latest matter was some 3 years ago and it is still in effect here today! At least in NST.

Both at the land offices in Sichon and Khanom (in Nakhon Si Thammarat district) we have experienced that I cannot lease the land from my common law wife, because we live together, even we're not legally married.

That would have certainly thrown a curve in my long-term planning, as I'm sure it would with many others reading this.

What did you do? Or, what is your plan should she pre-decease you? (Sell is all I can think of, assuming she leaves the land to you in her Will -- and it's larger than 1 rai.)

land bought before marriage is treated as a gift to the wife and is never common property.

<deleted>, did i read that correct,

when i do a leasehold with my GF and later marry her, the lease is basically counted as gift her, and NOT common property?

land bought before marriage is treated as a gift to the wife and is never common property.

<deleted>, did i read that correct,

when i do a leasehold with my GF and later marry her, the lease is basically counted as gift her, and NOT common property?

Chapter 4 of the following link may provide the info you seek,

http://www.thailawonline.com/images/thaicivilcode/book%205%20title%201-3%20thai%20civil%20and%20commercial%20code%20.pdf

As always seek proper professional legal advice before venturing to put land in someone else name.

Never understood why so many try and circumvent laws that are there to protect them.

land bought before marriage is treated as a gift to the wife and is never common property.

<deleted>, did i read that correct,

when i do a leasehold with my GF and later marry her, the lease is basically counted as gift her, and NOT common property?

That's right, property belonging to either spouse before marriage is Sin Suan Tua, not common marital property.. So if you give your GF some land then she is the registered owner of that land and nothing changes after marriage. A lease is essentially a lien against the property and an entirely different subject.