Owning Property And Divorce

[david96]

Buying a house and land with your Thai wife.

1 Using the loan /lease agreement. Your wife becomes the legal owner and you lease the property for 30 years.

2 Use the company structure. Your wife is a Thai shareholder along with 6 other Thai shareholders.You being the

foreigner control the company as managing director.

Five years in the future you divorce, what happens to your investment now? Your wife could also be a director of the company.

In this case we will presume that the land is valued at 1M baht and the property 5M baht.

[N&M]

So...having marital problems are we ??

[david96]

In my case no. but it is something every foreigner should check before investing and you are married or considering marriage. It is what the Thai courts decide in the end is important.

[Dragonman]

Buying a house and land with your Thai wife.

1 Using the loan /lease agreement. Your wife becomes the legal owner and you lease the property for 30 years.

2 Use the company structure. Your wife is a Thai shareholder along with 6 other Thai shareholders.You being the

foreigner control the company as managing director.

Five years in the future you divorce, what happens to your investment now? Your wife could also be a director of the company.

In this case we will presume that the land is valued at 1M baht and the property 5M baht.

There is no definitive answer, as unless you settle out of Court it would be left to a Thai Judge to decide your circumstances and what he considered communal assets. Lawyers differ wildly on their interpretations of the law as it affects foreigners. My opinion is that communal property is to be shared 50 - 50 by law, and any agreements or documents signed does not nullify this. Either way you could be forced to sell the property and share the proceeds. Many lawyers have said that if you sign at the Land Office saying it is your wife's funds to buy it is excluded from communal property. But this does not make sense in law as other things bought within marriage by whoever's money is still communal property.

Best thing to buy everything you want before a marriage and quantify in a pre nup.

[thaigene2]

This is why the Land Registry makes the foreign spouse sign away his right to the property. The Government is looking out for the best interests of the Thai citizen - not the foreigner.

To make matters worse, as for condos, you could buy the condo in your own name..get divorced and then have the Immigration people tell you there is no longer any legitimate reason for you to remain in the country (no new O Visa) since you are not supporting a "thai spouse". In other words, you can buy a condo here, but Immigration could subsequently limit your stay in Thailand anytime they want..Ownership of a condo does not imply automatic visa renewal!

[Thaipwriter]

Ownership of a condo does not imply automatic visa renewal!

True, but getting the bus to the border every 30 days does!

[tavarich]

When you buy just put in in your mind that you will not get anything back if the marriage goes south. If you use this as a bench mark you will have no worry's. I'ts a cold hard fact of life in LOS

[astral]

Go the company route and be safe.

You can write a will and leave the property to your wife.

Mind you, one mother-in-law had her son-in-law murdered.

He was found at the bottom of a well.

That was back in the late 80's.................

[N&M]

Get your missus to sign you a lease for 30 years with automatic renewal every year, this way it is continualy 30 years and if you split up, you can live in it as you have the lease and you can then happily pay her the 50 baht which the rental amount is for at chrissy time.

She will get sick of this and agree to a beneficial settlement in the end, meanwhile you have somewhere free to live.

Also make sure the house is in your name as owner, not the land, the house. Then should the lease ever run out for one reason or another, or she dies and it goes to family, you can own the house and give them the opportunity to purcahse it from you. Otherwise if they decide to just hang onto it until the lease ends, say 30 years and hope that you will just walk away from it, you can then have the greatest satisfaction with the mother of all bonfire nights or new years eve parties and totally trash the joint.

Alternatively you could sell the 30 year lease for less than the rental value..ie 30 x 12months x 15,000 baht for a nice sized house and the owner gets cheap digs for 30 years and you get your cash and walk away.

Also, do as I have done and have the missus sign some documents one day and throw in a 'loan' agreement for the value of it all and include a 1% per month compounding interest rate with an open ended maturuty date. By the time the upheavels come around, she will owe you a shitload. You can also register this against the title.

Or you can forget all this sneaky shit and just love and trust her.....lol