Prenup

[djjf]

Some background:

Thinking about buying a small property (house/land) for me and my Thai wife (marriage not registered in Thailand) in Thailand.

I'm obviously paying, and have looked at all the options for this, incl. leases/limited company/usufruct.

I have decided the easiest thing would be to "gift" the money to her and have her purchase the property in her name. Not sure if I would seek an usufruct or lease or if that's even possible (the info on this is somewhat confusing). But I have decided that I don't like the idea of going the company route.

Now, I'm somewhat not quite at the stage where I'm happy to just loose this investment in case we separate and we have had our difficulties both as a non-married and married couple, so it is a concern in the back of my head.

Prenup:

Prenup is one of the things that does strike me as the best option, because (as I understand it) we could have a contract that would outline some financial compensation for me (equivalent to part eg. 50% of the property/properties) in case of a divorce, but then I read this:

http://www.thailand-...prenuptial.html

And now I'm a little confused. The article states that in Thailand, all prenuptial agreements are null and void if entered after marriage.

It also states that marriage with prenup entered outside of Thailand will be tricky to make hold up in a Thai court with regards to any Thai assets (and we don't have a prenup anyway). As I stated, we're legally married abroad for 1.5 years, but have not registered this in either of our respective countries.

So my questions are:

1. Is a Thai prenup useful at all when it comes to securing some financial compensation from properties or assets that non-Thais are legally prohibited from owning anyway?

2. Are we able to go to Thailand and sign a prenup and then register/marry again in Thailand?

3. Or is the prenup option simply out the window now that we've already married, be it in Thailand or not?

Edited January 13, 2013 by djjf

[Mario2008]

Land cannot be in your name, a house can be (in combination with a usefruct/lease).

1. A prenup is useful, but after marriage very difficult to enter.

2. No. You are already married and that marriage is recognised in Thailand. What you will need to do is informing the Thai government of that marriage, so they know about it. But you are not marrying again and ths cannot enter a pre-nup.

3. Yes. See 2.

But under Thai law on divorce you split the gains made during the marriage, what either had before the marriage is left out. (Gains include debts). Your foreign marriage can make that different, expecially with regards to property outside of Thailand.