Phuket Sa Ton Po land disputed reaches conclusion

[webfact]

Phuket Sa Ton Po land disputed reaches conclusion
Nattha Thepbamrung

PHUKET: -- A long standing dispute over land in the Sa Ton Po Community finally reached a conclusion on Wednesday (July 8) during a visit to the community by Vice Governor Somkiet Sangkhaosuthirak and a team of officials.

Last month, a number of villagers from the community were led by Ronhem Sangkhao to Provincial Hall to file a complaint at the Damrongtham Center about a business person who claims to hold a Chanote for the land on which they live and is trying to expel them from the land.

The villagers also claim that the person had also sent unknown men to threaten them and had taken a backhoe to the land to remove houses.

A few days after their visit to Provincial Hall, the person who claims to own the land, Suluk Kunaruk, also paid a visit there with his lawyer to show his Chanote. At the same time he also filed a complaint to the Damrongtham Center stating that residents were encroaching on his land.

He denied sending anybody to the land to threaten the villagers.

Mr Ronhem, acting a community leader, explained that the land previously had a mining concession and that if that concession has expired the land must belong to the government.

“We thought that a tin mining concession can only be issued for government land. About 50 houses belonging to the villagers of the Sa Ton Po community have lived on this land since 2003. Now they have had a warning from a man who claims he got the land in 2012,” said Mr Ronhem in the meeting.

“We just want to know where the land is that got the concession. We will leave this land if the land deed is valid. We learned from the concession document that the tin mine covered 72 rai of forest land and 13 rai of mangrove land, and that it was not private owned land.”

It was announced by a land officer at the meeting that the land deed covering the Sa Ton Po community is valid and it came from five different land deeds issued from 1913.

“The paper for this land was issued legally. The cases where houses were destroyed by the ownerʼs backhoe are now under court consideration and a team from the Royal Forest Land Department and Thai Industrial Standards Institute in Phuket, who are responsible for tin mine land, will visit the land and check exactly where the area is that received a tin mining concession and to see where the forest and mangrove areas mentioned in the concession paper are.

“However, this does not guarantee that the villagers can live on the land,” concluded V/Gov Somkiet.

Source: http://www.thephuketnews.com/phuket-sa-ton-po-land-disputed-reaches-conclusion-53150.php

-- Phuket News 2015-07-10

[Reigntax]

Something does not sound quite right about this story, 1913 title, tin mining only on govt land, these people have occupied it since 2003 and this guy was issued a title in 2012.

[eisfeld]

So basically the residents admit encroaching either on government or on private land. Either way they have no right to stay there, do they?

Regarding the mining concession: are those not limited in terms of time? If not then at least they only allow using the land for.. well tin mining. So I guess that owner can start mining tin there if he wants but not build residential buildings. Is that his plan?

[Linky]

So basically the residents admit encroaching either on government or on private land. Either way they have no right to stay there, do they?

Regarding the mining concession: are those not limited in terms of time? If not then at least they only allow using the land for.. well tin mining. So I guess that owner can start mining tin there if he wants but not build residential buildings. Is that his plan?

Even if the residents are there illegally that does not give the alleged land owner the right to evict them. It is up to the govt to move them on.

Unless of course he is mining.

Edited July 10, 2015 by Linky

[NamKangMan]

So basically the residents admit encroaching either on government or on private land. Either way they have no right to stay there, do they?

Regarding the mining concession: are those not limited in terms of time? If not then at least they only allow using the land for.. well tin mining. So I guess that owner can start mining tin there if he wants but not build residential buildings. Is that his plan?

"So basically the residents admit encroaching either on government or on private land." - yes.

The difference is, the residents are encroaching illegally, and the developer has paid to encroach legally.

[KarenBravo]

This could be a minefield.

Some of the biggest "land-owners" in Phuket who hold thousands of rai, are Chinese families that were given tin-mining concessions.

They never gave the land back and have now sold/developed parts of it and still hold huge swaths of it, still.

[fgmr]

When purchasing land is there a requirement to conduct a thorough research of previous Land Registry documents to satisfy legal representatives both private and Government that the proposed transaction satisfies the laws regarding ownership?

Presumably all state agencies involved are happy to accept the fees and taxes due when a transaction is conducted and any annual land tax due thereafter.

Perhaps the sages of the Thai legal profession should be inveigled into examining and overhauling the whole process of land and property ownership. For instance what effect will ASEAN have, if any, on trans border land & property ownership?