securing right of access to land: what kind of access? foot? motorcycle? car?

[Awk]

We are looking at a plot of land which does not have direct access from public road. The access is via an unpaved dirt track that has apparently been in use for many years. In total there is perhaps around 10 owners using various lengths of this dirt track/road.

Yes, this is obviously not ideal, but we've been looking for land and/or house for a while, and within our price bracket, this is by a very far stretch the best we've found. That is the reason I did not immediately drop any further consideration of the land when I found out that the road leading of it is private. As it is, it's very unlikely that we will be able to find anything similar in our somewhat limited price bracket, and thus I would appreciate any tips on how to go about this in the safest way.

We will need to use about 300 meters of the road, and pass through land owned by four other people, to access the land we are looking at. The road continues further inwards after these 300m, for use by owners further in, but that is of no concern to us I gather.

The first 150-200m of the road, i.e. the first 150-200m of the road we use, has been donated by the owner as some sort of public use. Not exactly sure how/what, but was told this evening that the owner of the land we are looking at has a copy of the paper where that donation is specified. Will investigate this further of course, but for now assume this donation is registered where it needs to be registered, and that the first half of the 300m of road/dirt track we need to use for access, will not pose any problem. That is one of the four owners whos land we will need to pass over.

The other three owners have previously given a verbal permission for our right of access, and have said they will accompany us, with the owner of the land we are looking at, to have this properly registered at the chanote(s) at the land office. As we are told it, the various land plots have been owned by a few families through many generations, all are friends, and thus right of access has never been an issue brought up, nor do they have any objects to registering that right of access formally. They all consider it to be a public road, but I would of course like to have our access formalised.

After our real estate agent (which appears to be a decent fellow, as far as I can tell after meeting with him occasionally during the last 3-4 months) has verified everything, I will also attempt to find a decent lawyer to verify it again before we eventually all trot down to the land office. Before we get there I would appreciate some tips however, which will hopefully also help me judge whether the lawyer I eventually deal with knows his stuff or not.

My question is what kind of access does the right of access grant? Obviously there must be some limit, as I don't assume I can demand to drive an 18-wheeler through there, if that should be my normal mode of transportation for popping down to the local 7-11. Should a right of access registration specify the width of access? We have a normal car and we would like to drive that to the land of course. If at some point a disgruntled neighbour, perhaps most likely a future owner, should want to interpret "right of access" as being "right to access by foot", is that something he can do? And if so, how do we avoid that to make sure we can drive a regular car to our land?

Best would of course be if we could buy some more land, enough to make a road to our plot, but that may not be possible here, though we are still investigating the possibilities here.

Many thanks for any feedback.

[Crossy]

Have a read of this recent thread on a similar subject http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/792789-land-with-chanote-but-no-access/

[ToddinChonburi]

Find the main guy who is in charge of this area, I can not remember what they call him. Head man something like this. your Thai wife should know what I mean . He is the guy in that area that everything goes through. He will make sure it is all legal in the neighborhood. Sounds like you already have things going correct.

[ToddinChonburi]

Contact Siam Law firm and see if they can do or recommend a good lawyer. They answer a lot of ? in this forum for free. Good luck !!!

[ToddinChonburi]

Just got done talking to my Thai girl friend and she say basically, No road no buy. She thinks that at anytime one of the land owners could block your access and you would have to go to court . She owns land and is building a rental property so I would say make sure you have all your paper work in order because if someone sells and the road is on there land you may find yourself in a real pickle. Let us know how it works out.

[Gonsalviz]

Sounds like you need 4WD or get your access paved. Rainy season is a bitch.

[Awk]

Just got done talking to my Thai girl friend and she say basically, No road no buy. She thinks that at anytime one of the land owners could block your access and you would have to go to court . She owns land and is building a rental property so I would say make sure you have all your paper work in order because if someone sells and the road is on there land you may find yourself in a real pickle. Let us know how it works out.

Thanks for that. Further investigation has revelaed that all the road/dirt track to the land we are looking at has been donated to public use ("saa-taa-ra-na" is the word Mrs. Awk uses), and the land office also confirms this to Mrs. Awk. Seems some of the original owners, who later split up the land for giving to their relatives, thought about this problem, some 20 years ago. At least it appears so.

Some people in the local Chiang Mai forum have previosuly recommended a laywer, so I hope to contact her and get her to verify everything again before the final step of paying.

[Awk]

Find the main guy who is in charge of this area, I can not remember what they call him. Head man something like this. your Thai wife should know what I mean . He is the guy in that area that everything goes through. He will make sure it is all legal in the neighborhood. Sounds like you already have things going correct.

"puu yai ban" I guess. Thank you, we've talked with him and he says everything is ok, for whatever that means.

[mike324]

if all roads are donated and it checks out at the land office, then you should be fine. Even if its not noted, if its been used for years (don't remember how many), the owner needs to continue to allow people to use it I believe.

[ToddinChonburi]

Just remember that were the road crosses over someones land they can close it, you would win in court but the hassle of going to court takes time. I talked a little more with the GF this afternoon about this and she said she would not buy that piece of land . She said they can charge you an access fee to use the road and charge what ever price they choose.

Just make sure your ass is covered before you sign the papers and hand over any money.

GF family has a road crossing over properties, all family owned land and uncle threatened to put up gate so the other uncle said he would kill him if he did. Family is so much fun.

[casualbiker]

I was looking at a new build house on a small estate. Concrete roads etc. It had two access points, one 200 metres away directly onto the main road and the other way meandered through the country side, probably 8 kms to get back to a similar point on the main road.. it all looked good house was ok priced BUT I did notice that about 10 metres of road was unfinished on asking it transpired that they were still negotiating with the owner of the land. I decided not to go for it. 4 months later. The land is closed off with signs stating no access and has been like it now for 8 months! Beware!