I think I am in trouble with condo purchase. please help !

[rick99]

Hi, I am trying to purchase a foreign freehold condo. I sold my house (in thai name with lease) to the new owner (thai wife gets chanote and foreign husband gets lease).

The buyer, at first, agreed to send money direct from Sweden to my account in Thailand. Then I could get the Tor tor sam for foreign freehold purchase (I have already put a deposit on a foreign freehold condo). But now the buyer is insisting that money be sent to his thai account and then transferred to my thai account (his friend told him this is the best way to safely buy my house). I think this means that I am in big trouble and cannot get the Tor Tor Sam for the land office. Is this true??? Is there a way that I can still get Tor Tor Sam document if the money goes through his bank and then into mine ? If so, how do I do this? Losing sleep over this one. Any comments or suggestions greatly appreciated.

[rayongchelsea]

Go to a money exchange and explain the problem with your estate agent.

It happened to me, the real estate agent sorted it. Commission was about 20k for around 5 million or something. Need to take contract.

Don't worry.

[dorayme]

Talk to your bank first.

[falang07]

I am glad to hear that even the farang unfriendly laws can be avoided in this land of jokes

[how241]

Go to a money exchange and explain the problem with your estate agent.

It happened to me, the real estate agent sorted it. Commission was about 20k for around 5 million or something. Need to take contract.

Don't worry.

Get a lawyer, not expensive in Thailand.

[crazykopite]

Why not send the money to your Thai bank 1st then do an immediate transfer to his /her account this way you would get the form it could all be done in a few hours of receipt into your thai bank

[Gsxrnz]

If the money comes in to your account from another Thai account, you cannot get the proof of funds coming from overseas for those particular funds.

However, provided you have brought funds in from overseas in the past that are at least the equivalent of the condo purchase, you should be able to get the document from your bank. Evidence of the funds arriving in Thailand is not time sensitive, nor is it reason specific, so if you've been here for a few years and brought the 2 or 3 Million baht in from overseas during that time, should be OK.

[jobsworth]

Once bought a Thai condo and my Thai bank had to show that the money came from falang land.

Depositing cash did not count.

TIT.

[Billy The Kid]

Once bought a Thai condo and my Thai bank had to show that the money came from falang land.

Depositing cash did not count.

TIT.

Correct, but it had to be 50% from Falangland, 50% cash deposit is doable. I done that before.

[Gsxrnz]

Once bought a Thai condo and my Thai bank had to show that the money came from falang land.

Depositing cash did not count.

TIT.

That's correct - but it does not have to be one specific deposit. The foreign transferred funds can be deposited to your Thai bank account over any period. It doesn't have to be all at once.

To clarify for the OP - your bank will record all your foreign currency transactions in a memo ledger. This is how they track incoming funds to either issue you the document you need, or indeed to allow anybody to pay money out of Thailand. You cannot remit more money out of Thailand than you brought in from overseas.

This memo ledger receives a "credit" when you bring money in, and a "debit" when you get the document required to purchase a condo, or send money overseas from Thailand.

Correspondingly, when you sell the condo you get the document that allows the bank to "credit" your memo ledger and allow you to remit the money overseas.

EDIT: You probably need to read my previous post No.7 for it all to make sense.

EDIT 2: The reason the dude buying the OP's house wants to send money to his Thai account, is so that he can get the document he requires to prove evidence of the arrival of funds from overseas. If it goes to the OP's account then he's potentially screwing himself.

Edited July 1, 2013 by Gsxrnz

[BrianFantana]

Don't worry - this is easily sorted.

Even if your purchaser had stuck to his original plan of wiring the money to your Thai account it wouldn't have worked. The sender of the funds is the one who the Tor Tor 3 is issued to, not the recipient, so you wouldn't have been able to use it anyway.

I've used a couple of money exchange places in Pattaya - one in Soi Rungland off Pattaya Third Road and another on Walking Street. They charge about 7,000 THB per million THB you need a Tor Tor 3 for. Not bad if you're buying something for a few million, but gets a bit pricey if you need it for 20 million or so.

It usually takes a couple of days to get the Tor Tor 3 from these places as they have to have exchanged that amount of money from other people in order to issue it for you.

It sounds a bit shady, but apparently falls in one of the many grey areas of Thai law. Good luck!

[oops]

By law he has to transfer to his account with a letter stating what it is for, from point of origin, meaning the bank.

This is not his fault if he doesn't do it that way he cannot purchase your home.

[belg]

why they still have these laws?

lets say you have a certain amount of money and get 3.2% gross interest from the bank...

after a few years doing legally nothing here (living here and saving money) you might end up with enough cash to invest in condo's

but what if you dont have any falang land connections anymore ? than it is renting for life ? or giving away your life savings to a thai lady, that what we can read on this forum, often change attitude after they got what they want, aka, what you had is now not yours anymore with 0% chance of reclaiming it as you had to give it "away"

[Monkeyrobot]

I think he gets a better exchange rate sending to his bank, I mean if in his name he can have the currency converted here in Thailand at a better rate. If he is sending to a third party that is you> he has to do the conversion in his country at a lower rate of exchange.

[OneZero]

why they still have these laws? lets say you have a certain amount of money and get 3.2% gross interest from the bank... after a few years doing legally nothing here (living here and saving money) you might end up with enough cash to invest in condo's but what if you dont have any falang land connections anymore ? than it is renting for life ? or giving away your life savings to a thai lady, that what we can read on this forum, often change attitude after they got what they want, aka, what you had is now not yours anymore with 0% chance of reclaiming it as you had to give it "away"

The Thai's that made these laws aren't dumb. Fairness never entered their minds. They want it exactly this way so that the farang continues to support Thai citizens the Thai government doesn't provide sufficient opportunity for. That's why they still have these laws.

[Bagwan]

Go to a money exchange and explain the problem with your estate agent.

It happened to me, the real estate agent sorted it. Commission was about 20k for around 5 million or something. Need to take contract.

Don't worry.

Get a lawyer, not expensive in Thailand.

Given the reputation of Thai lawyers could be mightily expensive. I was advised,by a Thai lawyer, to NEVER give a Thai lawyer power of attorney or nominate one to act as executor of a Will. He said he would never take on such tasks as he didn't trust himself not to scoop out of the barrel.

[rick99]

OK. THANK YOU ALL SO MUCH !!!

I have already got a stack of Tor Tor Sams from past years when I brought money into my Kasikorn bank. If the money is brought from my usa account to my thai account the service is free for a 3 month period. They also charged only a few hundred baht to go back a few years and issue for Old money brought in.

The funny thing is that Bank of Bangkok issued a Tor Tor Sam through my Kasikorn bank when I recieved the original house deposit from Sweden to my account. So strange thngs can happen.

I have seen other articles stating that the Tor Tor Sam can be transferred from another persons name, but has to arrive in my account with my name as recipient (this appears to be true from my recent experience).

I am so grateful to hear that money exchange places can do this. I hope to not have to use them, but am so happy that I have an option. I am still talking about 5 million though from the house sale . How would I bring that to an exchange service ???

thank you

[oliver engel04]

No Problem to get the TorTor 3 in any way.

Up to 50.000 US Dollar it cost 15.000 Baht and takes about 3 days

You can contact me I will tell you how,I have done this many times in the past

[PattayaPhom]

_{You may find FET requires the address of property that is being purchased}

[cheeryble]

Questions:

1. Is Tor Tor 3 the same form required to repatriate money abroad?

2. Rick99....are you saying you asked BKK Bank to dig up all the old forms for years showing you imported money and they actually did so?

(My larger money imports started maybe 6 years ago)

3. If I wanted for example to sell a condo to buy another or repatriate the money is the mere fact that I was qualified to buy the condo in the first place enough proof that the funds were imported?

Thanks!!

Edited July 2, 2013 by cheeryble

[rick99]

I will try to answer the question posed. What I have done is to look at my old bank books (which i was lucky to keep for some reason)......then I found the dates of money transferred into thailand for the past four years. Kasikorn bank then looked up all these dates and issued tor tor sam for each one. They charged me around 1000 baht to do about 4 or 5 different dates.

Bank of Bangkok actually gave me a tor tor sam for the deposit money that was converted in sweden by my buyer, then sent to my kasikorn account. The two banks worked together to do this. I am in a small town and it is amazing how helpful the banks will be.

My problem is that i am buying a pretty expensive condo and still need the tor tor sam from my house sale. The bank will issue me one if i get the buyer to transfer direct from sweden.

Looks like i may have to go to the money exchange.........this is an option that i was totally unaware of.

Off topic a bit, but it makes me frustrated that the Thai can go to my country and simply buy anything and hold freehold, fee simple. I can understand the fear of china buying up all land, but other countries have a great law stating "if you let us buy in your country, you can buy in ours". To me, this is fair and reasonable. Let's face it, they don't even give us a share in the common areas, just let us buy a box in the sky. Very silly to jump through currency hoops to do this. I bought a fee simple, outright ownership in a condo in Hawaii, not my country.....but did not even have to go there. Simply sent the money to an escrow agent and all done quickly and stress free.

[cheeryble]

I will try to answer the question posed. What I have done is to look at my old bank books (which i was lucky to keep for some reason)......then I found the dates of money transferred into thailand for the past four years. Kasikorn bank then looked up all these dates and issued tor tor sam for each one. They charged me around 1000 baht to do about 4 or 5 different dates.

Bank of Bangkok actually gave me a tor tor sam for the deposit money that was converted in sweden by my buyer, then sent to my kasikorn account. The two banks worked together to do this. I am in a small town and it is amazing how helpful the banks will be.

My problem is that i am buying a pretty expensive condo and still need the tor tor sam from my house sale. The bank will issue me one if i get the buyer to transfer direct from sweden.

Looks like i may have to go to the money exchange.........this is an option that i was totally unaware of.

Off topic a bit, but it makes me frustrated that the Thai can go to my country and simply buy anything and hold freehold, fee simple. I can understand the fear of china buying up all land, but other countries have a great law stating "if you let us buy in your country, you can buy in ours". To me, this is fair and reasonable. Let's face it, they don't even give us a share in the common areas, just let us buy a box in the sky. Very silly to jump through currency hoops to do this. I bought a fee simple, outright ownership in a condo in Hawaii, not my country.....but did not even have to go there. Simply sent the money to an escrow agent and all done quickly and stress free.

Thankyou for that Rick

How many years were they able to look up?

Also if anyone knows still interested in my last question 3:

3. If I wanted for example to sell a condo to buy another or repatriate the money is the mere fact that I was qualified to buy the condo in the first place enough proof that the funds were imported? (ie if I show funds came from a condo sale by me is that proof of foreign source and satisfactory to either export funds or buy another condo?)

Edited July 11, 2013 by cheeryble

[djlest]

Very Interesting topic, i myself an suffering the same outlandish requirements for an FET and the thought of sending money back home (4 working days) and back again (4 working days) then to the Developer. Its maddens me, not to mention the huge potential for loss on the very volatile exchange rate.
What is the point comes to mind?
Then after all these losses one has to pay maybe 8% in taxes to sell.
Does anyone have any positive investments from buying condos Here?
Would love some upbeat stories for a change.