Registry of land in Chiang Rai

[ginglee]

My girl owns a house and land in Phan, Chiang Rai. We will be applying for a visa next year, and as part of the application we've been told that it would be very benificial to the application if she could produce evidence of ownership....However, she's explained that she doesnt have paper work what so ever, for house or land. She said that she built the house on land the familly had for a long time, and she bought the other land in good faith, on a hand shake sort of thing . Apparently that's how things are done in the village.

Anyway I asked her, if we could contact the land dept, to see if we could pay to get a 'chanote' title on it. She said it was not possible. And maybe if we contacted local goverment on it there may be trouble !

Im really at a loss with this. Anyone had a simillar experience? or can recommend a good lawyer to talk to about this?

Thanks....

[Chicken George]

You don't say whst vida but I take it its a tourist visa. Yes it does help to hsve property here in her name when spplying do they can see dhe has a reason to come back but its not the be all and end all. You have to show money to sponsor her in the form of money on account and or money ad in wages. . I have been to the UK twice with my wife and its the money thats important. Good luck

[DonaldBattles]

You have described a typical situation in Chiang Rai where much of the land is bought and sold without Chanote. The reason for this is that the government owns the land and are not issuing Chanotes on forestry land. Many people have built houses on this kind of property and have been living there for years. The government most likely will not address this issue as it is not popular to talk about moving people off the land that they live on.

[ginglee]

You don't say whst vida but I take it its a tourist visa. Yes it does help to hsve property here in her name when spplying do they can see dhe has a reason to come back but its not the be all and end all. You have to show money to sponsor her in the form of money on account and or money ad in wages. . I have been to the UK twice with my wife and its the money thats important. Good luck

Yes tourist visa initially. Understand about the money bit, and like you said her having something in Thailand will help...thanks for the reply

[ginglee]

You have described a typical situation in Chiang Rai where much of the land is bought and sold without Chanote. The reason for this is that the government owns the land and are not issuing Chanotes on forestry land. Many people have built houses on this kind of property and have been living there for years. The government most likely will not address this issue as it is not popular to talk about moving people off the land that they live on.

But she has no paper work at all...Is this normal also? The land she has is about 8 rai, she paid 400k for it. Reckons she paid more for it as it's close to the main highway to Chiang Mai. She says she can only use it for farming . She also said if she devided it into 1 rai lots she could get 100k per rai. To me doesnt make much sense.

Is it worth contacting local goverment to see if she can get some sort of proof that she has a lease on the land?

[DonaldBattles]

Simply, she does not own the land she bought as she has no chanote. If you raise enough hell then the government will ask her to vacate the land as she will loose everything. Take it easy and accept the situation for what it is. She knew this when she paid the money for the land.

[David48]

ginglee ... more bluntly ... she's (most likely) squatting.

Often overlooked.

That's why she's asking you not to pursue the issue.

[Arkady]

Sounds like your gf's land may indeed be an illegal encroachment on forest reserve land. The government went through a phase of massively increasing forest reserve land 3-4 decades ago and they included a great deal of land that was already cultivated by villagers. Prior to that Thailand had a homesteading law and villagers were allowed to stake claims to land they had cleared. Often these claims were ignored with the excuse for not issuing title deeds that a full cadastral survey had not taken place or simply that there was no Land Office yet in that area. In many of these cases the homestead claims were later reclassified as forest reserve. After reclassification the "squatters" were not automatically evicted and many are still there or their descendants are. Some may have lesser types of deed that prove ownership but cannot be transferred outside the immediate family and lapse if the holder is no longer cultivating the land. In the North reclassification of already settled land is a big problem. It should not be too difficult, however, to obtain maps of the forest reserve land in that area and determine the status.