Legal Advice For Thai Land Lord

[dekbahnnok]

A Thai friend rented her 800,000 baht house to a French national who committed suicide by lighting the house on fire. The house was destroyed. The 71 year old Frenchmen died a few days after the fire. The owner has no insurance.

Is the Estate (or the relatives) of the French renter liable?

He has a late model car, savings and a pension.

The police are waiting for the relatives to come from France to collect the body. Will the police protect the interests of the house owner and ensure the owner receives compensation for the loss of the house?

HOw should she proceed to ensure her interests are protected.

[craigt3365]

How about we move this over to the Real Estate forum so you can get some more focused help from out members?

//Moved//

[Jingthing]

That's a very interesting case, and also quite sad for all involved. Of course, he no longer has a pension. As far as his assets, I would think what he stated in his Thai will IF he had a Thai will would be the primary determinant of what happens to those assets. It seems quite clear the family can't be held liable by any law. If there was no Thai will, there would normally be a lot more difficulties and delays in releasing the assets to anyone. In that case, it is less likely the family would pursue those assets as they don't live here. I just don't see who exactly the landlord can sue for this, the guilty party is dead. I speak from no authority, just framing the discussion a bit.

How should she proceed? Well, obviously she needs to see a good Thai lawyer with a real estate specialty to determine if there is any chance to go after the assets in Thailand. If the lawyer says no chance, well, no point in throwing more good money after bad.

Edited December 20, 2010 by Jingthing

[Pib]

My recommendation is the landlord needs to go to a good law firm and ask the questions; don't rely on the barracks lawyer responses you probably get from some well intended TV responses....which means you can disregard my recommendation if you want to.

[JUDAS]

A quick search on google shows it's not unusual in the West to sue the deceased persons estate for damages. Couldn't find anything Thai specific though so, obviously your friends best port of call is a lawyer.

[Jingthing]

A quick search on google shows it's not unusual in the West to sue the deceased persons estate for damages. Couldn't find anything Thai specific though so, obviously your friends best port of call is a lawyer.

That makes sense, but realistically, even if that could be done here, going after any assets outside of Thailand sounds very tricky.

[ukrules]

Are you sure it was suicide ? I've never heard of anyone killing themselves by setting the house on fire and sitting there waiting to slowly burn to death / die of fume inhalation.

[quiksilva]

Sad story, doesn't seem to be any winners in this one, shame the house was not insured..

[trogers]

The owner has no insurance.

Sure the owner has insurance - it is called self-insured. So now she has to act like the insurance company and engage legal counsel and sue the estate of the party who caused the damaged.

[ukrules]

Sure the owner has insurance - it is called self-insured. So now she has to act like the insurance company and engage legal counsel and sue the estate of the party who caused the damaged.

I'd still like to know how they know it's a suicide. How do we know it wasn't some electrical fault or other issue which burned the place down.

I'm assuming as it was a fire there was no note found at the scene.

[transam]

Sure the owner has insurance - it is called self-insured. So now she has to act like the insurance company and engage legal counsel and sue the estate of the party who caused the damaged.

I'd still like to know how they know it's a suicide. How do we know it wasn't some electrical fault or other issue which burned the place down.

I'm assuming as it was a fire there was no note found at the scene.

If the fire was caused by poor electrics perhaps the owner could be sued for his death.

Suicide by fire, don't think so.

[aussiebebe]

Sure the owner has insurance - it is called self-insured. So now she has to act like the insurance company and engage legal counsel and sue the estate of the party who caused the damaged.

I'd still like to know how they know it's a suicide. How do we know it wasn't some electrical fault or other issue which burned the place down.

I'm assuming as it was a fire there was no note found at the scene.

If the fire was caused by poor electrics perhaps the owner could be sued for his death.

Suicide by fire, don't think so.

I echo your concerns; there is an age-old joke that Thai police determine the cause of death to be suicide even in the face of overwhelming evidence to the contrary.

The real reason the Thai landlord should engage legal counsel is that the deceased man's relatives will likely be able to hire a far superior Thai lawyer to probe the Police investigation in determining the cause of the fire.....recouping the value of the destroyed property will be the least of her worries.

Insuring an 800,000 baht property would have cost, at most, 2,000baht per year, so to imagine that someone who didn't do that could possibly retain a laywer does make me smile.