I want to make a 3 year lease agreement with a Thai land owner, so no need to register at the land department . If the agreement is written in English only, will it be valid for a Thai court ?

The Thai owner speaks English, even is married to an Australian and has taken his family name.

At the closing of the agreement will be a note that the agreement is made in the English language only and the owner will have no problem to sign with the handwritten words, " I have read and understand everything that is written in this agreement ".

For a lease agreement to be valid, it would be based on mutual agreement between the 2 parties. That is the Land Owner/Lessor/Landlord and the Tenant/Lessee (how you would want to term them). No matter if your landlord is a Thai with an English speaking spouse, she is still considered as a Thai.

If your agreement was made only in English and there were a breach of the agreement, and the case ended up in court, the agreement would still have to be translated into Thai.

It is a good idea to have a bilingual agreement (Thai and English) to avoid any misunderstanding of the content then the claim that he/she did not understand the English or you don’t understand the Thai could not be made. Sunbelt Asia has extensive experience drafting such agreements so please feel free to send us a personal message if you need more information.

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