As I recall it, you can register a land lease with the Land department for up to 30 years and it's supposedly a good way to protect your house, even if you have the other safeguards (e.g. pre-signed sharehoider transfer, proxy statements, articles of association etc). Now, what is the process and what are the fees ?

Thanks, Roland

You are gonna need a lawyer old pal. Sorry.

Yes, I realize that, but before I contact one of the "high-quality" lawyers we have around the street corners here in Pattaya I'd like to know the approx fees. As I recall you have to pay the Landoffice some percentage of the lease fees. Anyone who want to share some details on this ?

Thanks, Roland

Having hired a lawyer on the U.S. Conulate approved list, I was shocked at the poor quality of his work. His lease document and the accompanying mortgage type document was extremely crude and unsophisticated. He charged me 40k Baht for what in the U.S. a first year law student could have done better.

In justifying his fee, agreed to in advance (PS he has a French wife) he explained he would be at the land office for the recordation.

It was clear at the land office, that he didn't know what he was doing as the land office personnel required him to re-do, change forms and a whole lot of other shenanigans that let my Thai friend to say he could have done it himself easily, with the help of the land office personnel of course.

In lawyers defense, he explained that Thai law is code law, and therefor documents can be very simple and after all, I was reading the English translation of what he had written in Thai.

While I envisioned a simple lease for 30 years with lease rent equating the payments on the mortgage document so it was a wash transaction, the land office collected 40K baht for recording of the lease with 30 year rent totalling 2 million baht and another 40k baht for the recording of the mortgage document.

Of course the lawyer didn't prepare me for these funds. A year later, the Vat tax man came by and tried to collect 240K on the lease proceeds from the Thai friend-landlord. This was negotiated down to 10k payable in advance at 330 baht a year.

Most farang give the land to their spouses and keep title to the house, declaring the value of the house as little as possible.

visit this thread for more data.

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=5037&st=15

pmugghc,

perhaps ask in the Pattaya forum if anyone knows a good lawyer.

Pattaya local forum, General topics

I use Khun Prem

Jural Law

143/47-48 Soi 10 Thapprasit Road

Pattaya 038 300988

He will give you advice and quote you a fee if you want him to act for you.

He now works out of an office of Thai Swiss Lawyers.

I used Khun Ittipong out of BKK.

His email is [email protected]

Good luck

Mr Vietnam

I was just informed by an attorney here in Khon Kaen that a 30yr. lease could not be made between me ,a falang ,and my Thai wife.He said that the "lessor' cannot be related to the "lessee".I'm thorougly confused as in other threads i've read here,married falangs have submitted lease forms to their respective land departments without question.It makes me wonder what really is legitimate and would they prevail in a Thai court.The attorney I spoke to also suggested ending the marriage, submit the lease agreement and remarry.It seem that this would complicate matters even worse,besides the apparent costs and time involved.Not to mention that the lease agreement may not be worth the paper its on,being I've not read one thread or know of anyone who has based a defense using one.Any info would be appreciated.

When registering a 30 year lease I believe you have to pay 1.5% of the total lease value. As for divorcing your wife and remarrying, that sounds a novel approach to get a lot of Farangs off the hook. Maybe you should PM Sunbelt, the Forum spnosor who will be able to offer his advice.

On the lease thing, not the divorce thing.