Thai inheritance law help

[monjach]

I am writing on behalf of my fiancee, who is of danish citizenship. I am however a half thai still with thai citizen. His mother who was of thai citizenship just passed away in March and have left some land in thailand, we're pocessing the chanote's and have a will made in Denmark that has been signed in front of the court here and has now entered into force. In that will it is written that everything his mother own will become the longest living spouses responsibility, which is his father. He has signed that he'd like everything to go to his son, so he can handle all assets in Thailand. In that will it is also mentioned that they share mutual assets. They've been married for 30 years and everything has been bought with the shared money

Now we know there are many tricky aspects to this matter according to thai law, the inheritance law states that without a will the inheritance will be devided so that 50% goes to the spouse and the remaining 50% will be equally devided between the living heirs which right now is a mother of his mom and her 2 sons. However we know that my fiancees mother did not want anything to fall into her mothers hands since all of these lands were all along meant for her sons to poccess, but before she could make a will in thailand she got alzheimers and was uncapable of securing the lands to only become her childrens. We hoped that the will made in denmark signed before she got sick would have been enough but have now come to understand that the court might not accept this since it's not made in Thailand. The relationship between his grandmother and his mom has been somewhat bad, she has not been living with her mother since the age of 8. We have been informed by the family living here in Denmark that martins grandmother wanted to find a way to steal the land somehow since she believes that she is in the position to claim 100% of the inheritance and has therefore asked for help from Martins cousins to steal the land in Thailand since they didn't think we would claim it. Not only has she no right to claim it since the land is bought the shared money from her marriage.

Also we know that as a foreigner my fiancee has to hand over the land to a thai within a year. How does it work if he becomes the statutory heir and has to claim the lands before selling them or whatever? if we got married he would be able to give the lands to me, is that correct? how does that work? also how do we make the court accept the legally correct and official last will?

Is it possible for the court to accept the last will made? What can we do to secure his mothers wishes that everything should become her childrens?

I hope you guys can help us out.

[johnatong]

Sounds as though you should consult a Thai lawyer.

[monjach]

we tried consulting various parties and the answers havent been the same. We've hired one that has sent all the translated documents to court and we have now gotten a court date, however we've now been told that the will might not be okay from other parties than our lawyer.

it's a mess.

[Maestro]

A testament made in Denmark, written in Danish and translated into Thai, is enforceable in Thailand. The inheritance of assets in Thailand are subject to the Thai law, the Civil and Commercial Code (CCC)

Section 1603

An estate devolves on the heirs by statutory right or by will.

Heirs who are so entitled by law are called “statutory heirs”.

Heirs who are entitles by will are called “legatees”.

Based on what you wrote, the deceased left a will specifying two legatees, her husband and her son.

Section 1620

Where a person dies without having made a will, or if having made a will, his will has no effect,

the whole of his estate shall be distributed among his statutory heirs according to the law.

Where a person dies having made a will which disposes of or has effect for a part only of his

estate, the part which has not been disposed of or is not affected by the will shall be distributed

among his statutory heirs according to the law.

[Maestro]

Ideally, either the deceased's husband or her son should petition the court to be appointed the executor of the estate and, once appointed, proceed with the division of the estate in accordance with the terms of the will.