How Can I Own A House In My Name?

[Derifo]

Mate, you have been flimflammed. I predict that in the very near future you will be kicked out of the place and told that you have no rights and that it would be best for you to leave town while you still have your teeth. Sorry to sound harsh, but that is where it looks to be heading.

Do you know how to drive a bulldozer?

TheWalkingMan

You really got me thinking with that one.

Sorry to hear about your plight.

Some people will tell you that what is happening to you is okay, but the truth is, it isn't.

You can walk away because you've been lied to, or you marry her and live in the house while the marriage lasts, or you burn / destroy the house.

Good luck.

[Derifo]

for the second time this morn.dont you just love them,another thai classic we should have a forum on its own,named thai classics,brains or no brains,los,land of scams any more.

Until there's a way to start shaming these women, other unsuspecting foreigners will continue to fall into their traps.

[rcjoop]

To have the building permit in your name is also in Chiang Mai no problem.

I have a similar set of papers in Chaing Mai Muang district.

Needed a letter from my partner because the land is in her name.

Had no need for legal support, most of the paperwork was handled by our builder and the proces was smooth and no "hidden costs"

This was three years ago.

Joop

[khunPer]

Crossy with all due respect that is one of the biggest myths here at Thai Visa

The building permit will only be issued in the name of the person or entity on the chanote

The house book (Blue Book) will then by issued in the name of the person or entity on the building permit

All the utilities will be listed in the name of the person or entity on the house book

Please advise me exactly how a foreigner can own a house in Thailand (other than via the BOI investment rules)

I would love to be able to show my lawyer how it can be done

and stgrhe's route still does not result in a foreigner owning a house in Thailand and is entirely dependent upon a "friendly" land office

OK well there's a challenge. This is an interesting point which I would like to clarify/confirm. Has anyone reading this thread been able to get the building permit in their name? or tried to but then been told by the relevant officers that they cannot do that? Please share

Yes, at Koh Samui.

I have leased the land.

I got my name on the drawings and on the building permission. I had to show a lease agreement (may be a standard 3 year), a permission to apply for a bulding permit from the land owner (kind of proxy), and the Land Deed.

House number and house book shall be obtained within one year from building permission and the house shall be 80% completed.

I got a blue housebook for my girlfriend and our doughter, but no owner of the house mentioned.

I got my yellow (farang) housebook, with my name stated as owner of the house.

Rules may be slightly different in other districts (Tassaban office).

May be (very) important to do the things in the right order.

Building a house you want to be owner of on somebody else land, without a contract and not have your name on a bulding permission, may complicate the later paperwork.

All good advises, I have heard, are:

1) A permission (written contract) to use the land plot - lease contract, usufract or...

2) A set of drawings and/or building permission with you name

3) Keep all constructor contracts, bills, money-transfer-slips etc. as proff of paying the expences

4) In some districts, it may be difficult to obtain a yellow house book. That requires, to my experience and knowledge, that you are resident (retired or married or...) and come up with two witness (one shall be gouverment employed) and is recommended after an interview at the Tassaban.

My best advise (which is the same as other have mentioned):

Perhabs have a talk with a lawyer, who is used to advise expats. Most lawyers do not charge for the first consulting, only for work done.

Talk to your GF and MIL to have a lease agreement or usufrcut or any other prof of permission to use the land.

Keep all construction documentation, bills etc.

Do you (your GF/MIL) have a building permission? Some times up at Isaan, they just build a house. If there is a building permission, check if it is possible to transfer to your name, may be possible with a proxy-letter.

What kind of Land Deed (Chanote, Nor Sor 3 or ...) are we talking about? If the Land Deed is high enough, you shall be able to have a loan servitute stated on the back (at the Land Department), say 1.5 mio. baht. That will make it impossible to sell the land without paying the loan back. Your loan agreement can be made (if the Land Deed is high enough) with the land as security. However, you will then need a Thai name on the loan agreement, as a foreigner cannot own (take over) land. Consult a lawyer about theese possibilities.

Normally it is the Tassaban office, not the Land Department, which issue house books and register ownership.

Ownership thrugh marriage - you need to talk to a lawyer. Maybe it can be stated in the marriage contract, that you own and can keep 50% (or 100%) of the house, but with no prof of right to use the land, your 50% (or 100%) ownership of a house seems to be useless. Anyway, in case of a brake up, a house in somebodys (your MIL's) garden, may be quite useless for anyone else, but that family.

[Crossy]

A post suggesting illegal (and unlikely to work anyway) advice, and the responses to it have been removed.

[InterestedObserver]

Normally it is the Tassaban office, not the Land Department, which issue house books and register ownership.

Are you sure? A Tabien Baan house book is not a legal registration of house ownership.

[khunPer]

Normally it is the Tassaban office, not the Land Department, which issue house books and register ownership.

Are you sure? A Tabien Baan house book is not a legal registration of house ownership.

No, I am not sure.

However, at Koh Samui it was the Tabien Bann office issuing the building permit in my name and same office issuing the yeollow house book with me named as owner (or master?). That was the correct way to do it, according to the office here and my local lawyer. The Tabien Bann office may be wrong - however a lot foreigners own houses on this island - or they may do it different, in other districts. I did fx. notice, that some of the Land Department procedures are slightly different here at Koh Samui, compared to the Land Department up in Surin.

According to Philip Bruce's book, How to Buy Land and Build a House in Thailand (page 80-81): "Buildings other than condomiums do not have any form of title document, but their sale or long lease can be registered at the Amphur (district) land office. Proof of ownership, must be established either from proof of construction or document showing previous sale-purchase.

Transfer of a building as distinct from its land requires the posting of 30 days public notice (to see if anyone wishes to contest the ownership). Foreigners may own a building (as distinct from its land) and may register such transfer of ownership into their names at the local district office."

[khunPer]

I shall ad to my comment #37, that my archietct told me to keep and take good care of the original set of drawings with the stams and signatures from the office issuing the building permission, as proof of ownership of the house, as theese drawings have my name printed as owner on each page.

At Samui, I did have to bring that set of original, stamped drawings to apply for the house book, and an employee from the office did come to inspect the actual building site, compared the house with the drawings and took photographs of the house, before they issued the house book.

Anyway, the quote from Philip Bruce's book may help the O.P. to have the house transferred into his name - depending of precedures at the local Land Department.

[englishinsiam]

Don't marry the girl the GF's mother probably has no intention of honouring any verbal or legal agreement and as the groundwork wasn't done before the ground was shifted you are shafted.

If you marry the girl which will still give you little rights you will end up giving them much more money.

If you just cut and run it's only cost £30,000 (1.5Mil Baht)

Get a job wherever you re from and earn it back and next time THINK before parting with that much cash.

I love my wife dearly and trust her with my life, however as I legally can't own anything I will never buy something in Thailand I am not prepared to walk away from.

[phuketrichard]

YES, In Phuket as i stated before

[travelmann]

Mate, you have been flimflammed. I predict that in the very near future you will be kicked out of the place and told that you have no rights and that it would be best for you to leave town while you still have your teeth. Sorry to sound harsh, but that is where it looks to be heading.

Do you know how to drive a bulldozer?

TheWalkingMan

Hello sorry to say you will never own a house in Thailand. Not as a farang anyway.

You better go and buy some Anethaine ( local anethetic cream) 'cos it looks like you got scr(#( ) in the tail end.

Foreigners can own the house not the land

[meatboy]

for the second time this morn.dont you just love them,another thai classic we should have a forum on its own,named thai classics,brains or no brains,los,land of scams any more.

Until there's a way to start shaming these women, other unsuspecting foreigners will continue to fall into their traps.

unless these blokes take the advice given to them they will learn the hard way,you cant shame the women its in their blood.old and wise is better than old and skint.

[thaiwanderer]

for the second time this morn.dont you just love them,another thai classic we should have a forum on its own,named thai classics,brains or no brains,los,land of scams any more.

Until there's a way to start shaming these women, other unsuspecting foreigners will continue to fall into their traps.

Even if a trap it was hardly the most sophisticated and the OP mustn't have had even a cursory interest in protecting his money before.

[ThaiMouse]

I read an interesting article in Thailand Style? magazine today. Had an article called YES a farang can own a house and the land in Thailand.

Firstly the house must be valued at more than 40 Million Baht, the farang must show the money came into the country via legal means..via bank, investment house etc. Then there are all sorts of forms and paperwork that needs to filled out and signed stamped and delivered.

Then the land must NOT total more than 1600 square meters.

So if you fall into that catagory then you can own the land and the house. My hapenny's worth.

[InterestedObserver]

I read an interesting article in Thailand Style? magazine today. Had an article called YES a farang can own a house and the land in Thailand.

Firstly the house must be valued at more than 40 Million Baht, the farang must show the money came into the country via legal means..via bank, investment house etc. Then there are all sorts of forms and paperwork that needs to filled out and signed stamped and delivered.

Then the land must NOT total more than 1600 square meters.

So if you fall into that catagory then you can own the land and the house. My hapenny's worth.

Not quite! You must first invest 40 million THB in a BOI approved investment scheme, then you may be allowed to purchase a maximum of one Rai land and build a house in addition to your initial investment..

[thaiwanderer]

I read an interesting article in Thailand Style? magazine today. Had an article called YES a farang can own a house and the land in Thailand.

Firstly the house must be valued at more than 40 Million Baht, the farang must show the money came into the country via legal means..via bank, investment house etc. Then there are all sorts of forms and paperwork that needs to filled out and signed stamped and delivered.

Then the land must NOT total more than 1600 square meters.

So if you fall into that catagory then you can own the land and the house. My hapenny's worth.

Not quite! You must first invest 40 million THB in a BOI approved investment scheme, then you may be allowed to purchase a maximum of one Rai land and build a house in addition to your initial investment..

....and its tied to the investment so is highly unattractive

[boney]

Buy a Condo, your name, your lease

[thaiwanderer]

Buy a Condo, your name,your lease

Huh?

[ESB7]

Don't marry the girl the GF's mother probably has no intention of honouring any verbal or legal agreement and as the groundwork wasn't done before the ground was shifted you are shafted.

If you marry the girl which will still give you little rights you will end up giving them much more money.

If you just cut and run it's only cost £30,000 (1.5Mil Baht)

Get a job wherever you re from and earn it back and next time THINK before parting with that much cash.

I love my wife dearly and trust her with my life, however as I legally can't own anything I will never buy something in Thailand I am not prepared to walk away from.

So you value money more highly than your life...............you said you trust your wife with your life but not your money............wow..that sucks man!!!.a small house could be bought for less than 2 million Baht.......some self respect you got there bud

[travelmann]

My wife bought some land and i was added on the back with a usufruct we plan to build in 12 months so heres the conundrum, where we plan to build we DO NOT need any permission so can i still own the house??? This down in Silaloi 16km inland I had no problem doing the usufruct at the land office for 100 baht no bribes just had to wait a long time (6 hours).

Land is Nor sor sam Gor

Edited May 27, 2011 by travelmann

[InterestedObserver]

My wife bought some land and i was added on the back with a usufruct we plan to build in 12 months so heres the conundrum, where we plan to build we DO NOT need any permission so can i still own the house??? This down in Silaloi 16km inland I had no problem doing the usufruct at the land office for 100 baht no bribes just had to wait a long time (6 hours).

Land is Nor sor sam Gor

Define 'own the house'. You have permission to occupy the land but do not have a building permit according to local custom. Ask the local Amphur if they will issue a Tabien Baan (house book) with your name as Master/Owner.

Edited May 27, 2011 by InterestedObserver