Existing Thai Company ( Non Nominee) Buying A Property

[huawei]

Hello

I have my own existing Thai company, 49% owned by myself, 45% owned by my daughter (under 18) and the remainder is shareholders from my deceased wife’s family.

I am the Director and sole signatory; do not have any preference shareholder structure. It is a vehicle I use for work permit purposes and I have been fortunate to acquire employment in Thailand over the last few years, so it is actively trading and profitable.

Question.

I am now considering buying a property in Jomtien through the company, financed partially by a re-mortgage on my UK property plus earnings accumulated in the company. I will transfer the company-registered address from my Condo here in Bangkok.

Can my company buy land, because my daughter plus myself may therefore define the company as "foreign" and therefore cannot buy land?

Can my company that is Non-nominee Company legally buy a villa from a nominee company? Given that nominee companies by definition are in essence no longer legal (never were) or can I assume that this is OK because the directive is not retrospective.

I have lived in Thailand since the early 80's and my experience of Thais changing the laws or enforcing them is that they follow directives and overall are good administrators of any defined policy, so I am loathe to be persuaded that it isn't retro-spective and that at sometime will be investigated.

If it is possible to buy the villa with the nominee company attached, should I just replace all the shareholders with 100% owned in my company name or change the share structure of the nominee company to that of my own company.

I could buy in my daughter’s name, which would involve transfer fees, (she already has her mothers house in her name).

BTW, when I first thought of buying a property here in the late 80's I was informed by more than one source that nominee companies were illegal and then late 90's it seems like everybody was doing it...

Also, if you are unfortunate like myself to lose a wife, with the property in her name and have children, please ensure you have a will and if the child was born in the UK ensure that you have a Thai birth certificate for the children, it will make it easier. If you have no will the property is split between the parents, yourself and the existing children, in my case everybody signed their portion over to my daughter, but I could foresee a messy situation if you are not so lucky, just at a time you don't want it

Cheers

Greg I will be in contact with Sunbelt Asia at some point.