... "It's her own money that is involved and I assume she knows what she is doing," ...

yadda yadda yadda

how much money are you expected to pay?

We had a very wealthy client who wanted to buy about 400 rai of which only 100 rai had chanot. The seller proposed exactly what Teebee mentioned - the seller would borrow money from the buyer using the land as collateral and just not repay it. The client hired one of the best law firms in BKK who heard what the seller proposed and came back with a written document showing that a court case like this had gone to the Supreme Court of Thailand and the ruling was that this method, although widely used around the country, broke the spirit of the law and therefore was not legal meaning that if push came to shove, our client stood to lose everything. Needless to say, he found another piece of land that did have chanot.

Folks , just adopt the thingking of Thai-Banks: No loan for the land unless undisputable "Chanote". Apply the same standards (ESPECIALLY AS A FARANG) !

If interested: In my region it is absolutely possible to buy "Army-Land" for 5000 Bht per rai. Only problem is: After having built a house on the property, "the Army" might need the land to conduct their annual peace-time exercises, and the freshly built house must serve as "headquarters" for the army for the next 77 years.

So if you absolutely have to buy land (meaning Thai-Wife/ Gf,) stay with chanote and nothing less.

Cheers.