Asset Value By Divorce ?

[JOC]

Shit has hit the fan, so it it time to go different ways.

Probably not going to be an uncontested divorce, so I understand I will need a lawyer.

Assets are 2 plots of land and 3 houses. Value around 40 M baht. All bought after marriage. And all in her name.

I am not interested in receiving any real estate as part of the settlement, since I will be forced to sell it within a year.

I want us to sell everything and split the money 50/50, but who decides the correct selling price? I want to price it to sell, so I can move on with my life, but no doubt madame will want a higher price to make sure the assets stay in her name. Can the court decide a fair selling price and a time frame within it must be sold?

If we can't agree on, who is going to stay in our main residence, while it is on the market, can the court order us to both to vacate during that time?

Thanks for your time!!

[williamgeorgeallen]

i only know of one guy without kids who went through the courts and got awarded half the house. (cost him alot of money in lawyers) ex wife was ordered to sell the house. she set the price (very high) and it is still for sale a number of years later. you are best bet is to try to come to some agreement with her. you will probably have to give her a bit extra to get her to agree. courts and lawyers are going to rip you every way they can otherwise.

a good friend of mine went through the courts and the house was put in their sons name. this is a great solution if you have kids although you will probably not be able to sell it until the kid is 18.

you are probably going to loose one way or another so looking to get anything you can is your best option. would be interesting to hear other peoples experiences.

[bazza40]

So simple - the OP would not have got into this mess if he had not married.

I've made it clear to my Thai GF while she will be well provided for before and after I die, marriage is not going to happen.

[georgemandm]

Hi hop it works out for you .

Can I ask you why , why ,why would you put so much money in to a thai lady not trying to be a smart ass , but would just like to know because I can't understand it why so many man do it .

[dotpoom]

Sorry to hear it has ended like this.

[bazza40]

As I understand it, Thai law mandates only those assets accumulated during the marriage are subject to the 50:50 split. Actually a lot more sensible than the Western family law system.

If your money prior to the marriage was used to acquire the property assets, there may be some leverage there.

I suggest you need a good lawyer - in fact, the best money can buy given the asset base.

[NickJ]

Unless a paper, Thai was signed stating that the money used was both there money. This ploy has been used.

I would get a good lawyer and have him make sure that she cannot borrow on the land before the sale as well.

[williamgeorgeallen]

So simple - the OP would not have got into this mess if he had not married.

I've made it clear to my Thai GF while she will be well provided for before and after I die, marriage is not going to happen.

if he had not got married he would not have any claim to any of the assets in her name. the mistake this guy made was putting assets in her name.

another poster made a good point about making sure she does not just go out and borrow against the properties.

still really interested in hearing about other people who have been in this situation. almost always the guy just ends up walking away from everything, or worse spending alot of money and then getting nothing anyway.

was just in the car and heard the nation anthem. it goes on several times about keeping thailand for thai people. i am pretty sure the judges in the courts listen to the same song played twice daily. makes it an up hill battle for any foreigners wanting to invest in land here.

[williamgeorgeallen]

As I understand it, Thai law mandates only those assets accumulated during the marriage are subject to the 50:50 split. Actually a lot more sensible than the Western family law system.

If your money prior to the marriage was used to acquire the property assets, there may be some leverage there.

I suggest you need a good lawyer - in fact, the best money can buy given the asset base.

you are right that the law here seems to be quite fair, for thai people. infact if you dont get married at all then the female has no right to take anything from you, unless you have put the assets in their name. i keep telling my mates not to marry their thai girls as they are giving up half of the stuff they buy in thailand. they never listen and often they are doing it to get marriage visas. most of my friends are too young to get retirement visas. it would be cheaper to get the elite visa than give away half of their assets. is a sad thing to see so many of my friends loosing so much to thai girls who i suspect were only in it for the money from the start.

[SOTIRIOS]

.....we only get screwed.....

...and surprise, surprise.....where do you think 'our' lawyers stand....???

...the situation is seriously NOT right......

..and nobody seems to be doing anything about it....

...basic human rights include....joint assets and joint custody......

...but suddenly....they don't....

[happylarry]

The courts here are reasonably fair to both parties. An earlier poster stated that his wife was told to sell the house but put too high a price on it so that nobody would buy it. Well the judge can and does order the properties to be sold at auction to the highest bidder, so therefore the posters lawyer wasn't doing his job properly by not asking the judge to make that order.

The most important thing is to make sure you get the right lawyer and also an expert interpreter so that you are kept aware at all times what is being said. The lawyer needs to be A) aware of all the laws and ways around them, and more importantly, willing to fight 100 per cent for his client.

You get them on board and you have got an excellent chance of getting your fifty per cent unless you have misbehaved sufficiently during your marriage to give people reason to knock you back of course.

HL

[happylarry]

I don't get it....in my post above I have put a capital b ) but for some reason it shows as a smiley face. I tried to edit it but it still comes up as a smiley face....lol

HL

[williamgeorgeallen]

.....we only get screwed.....

...and surprise, surprise.....where do you think 'our' lawyers stand....???

...the situation is seriously NOT right......

..and nobody seems to be doing anything about it....

...basic human rights include....joint assets and joint custody......

...but suddenly....they don't....

well there is plenty of stuff all over the net about not marrying thai girls and not putting houses in their names. i have tried to advise my friends on these things but they almost without exception do not listen to me. last situation was a mate of mine who lost 10 million baht, 2 cars and a large house. he never married her so had no claim on any of his stuff. not that that would have mattered anyway as she had run the loans up against the cars and the house to the point where there was no equity left.

seriously thailand is a mans world but western men shoot themselves in the balls by getting married and putting houses in their girls names. if you dont get married or put anything in their names they can touch you financially on separation, no matter how long you lived together.

maybe someone can recommend a good lawyer who will not just bleed this guy dry. half of 40mill is alot of cheadder to loose. maybe the OP could tell us where he is based. i have a lawyer i could recommend if you are near pattaya.

[Ridge]

You can set up a company and buy the properties. Your wife and/or her lawyer know this. If you want to sell below market value, they will get suspicious. Either you will have to be quite generous en come to an agreement, or it will be a long and nasty battle. Good luck.

[wanderluster]

sorry but - stupid is as stupid does

hope that you can afford the lesson

[georgemandm]

Has any of you heard of usufructs agreement I think lots have .

So can't understand why western man don't do it with there thai partner as long as you don't get married to her .

Why get married to the thai lady no need to , but most man get suck in by thai pussy like all of us but we lean from the first thai we get and hop when we get a new one we don't do the same mistake with the first one .

I would never get married to one at all .

So I feel sorry for the op but that is thailand and thai lady's he is best to walk away from her but hop he can get some money back .

[williamgeorgeallen]

sorry but - stupid is as stupid does

hope that you can afford the lesson

dont go too hard on the poor guy. looks like he will be loosing hundreds of thousands of dollars over his mistakes. he does not need strangers telling him how stupid he is. remember half of all marriages end in the west and in most of those cases the guy gets ripped there as well. sure many of the guys on this forum lost alot to their first wife in the west before moving here.

hope this guy can get some of his money back, would not like to think of how many guys put themselves in mortal danger trying to get back what they think is rightfully theirs.

reading a great book call 'worth more dead' by ann rule. was thinking about most western men in thailand being worth more dead to their thai girlfriends.think we should all be more care full and follow the policy of not putting houses or cars in their names. my girl gets a sallary/house keeping allowance, it stops when i die. like her to think i am worth more to her alive.

[happylarry]

sorry but - stupid is as stupid does

hope that you can afford the lesson

dont go too hard on the poor guy. looks like he will be loosing hundreds of thousands of dollars over his mistakes. he does not need strangers telling him how stupid he is. remember half of all marriages end in the west and in most of those cases the guy gets ripped there as well. sure many of the guys on this forum lost alot to their first wife in the west before moving here.

hope this guy can get some of his money back, would not like to think of how many guys put themselves in mortal danger trying to get back what they think is rightfully theirs.

reading a great book call 'worth more dead' by ann rule. was thinking about most western men in thailand being worth more dead to their thai girlfriends.think we should all be more care full and follow the policy of not putting houses or cars in their names. my girl gets a sallary/house keeping allowance, it stops when i die. like her to think i am worth more to her alive.

Sounds very romantic.....you pay her a salary to stay with you....lol

HL

[williamgeorgeallen]

sorry but - stupid is as stupid does

hope that you can afford the lesson

dont go too hard on the poor guy. looks like he will be loosing hundreds of thousands of dollars over his mistakes. he does not need strangers telling him how stupid he is. remember half of all marriages end in the west and in most of those cases the guy gets ripped there as well. sure many of the guys on this forum lost alot to their first wife in the west before moving here.

hope this guy can get some of his money back, would not like to think of how many guys put themselves in mortal danger trying to get back what they think is rightfully theirs.

reading a great book call 'worth more dead' by ann rule. was thinking about most western men in thailand being worth more dead to their thai girlfriends.think we should all be more care full and follow the policy of not putting houses or cars in their names. my girl gets a sallary/house keeping allowance, it stops when i die. like her to think i am worth more to her alive.

Sounds very romantic.....you pay her a salary to stay with you....lol

HL

i would never pay a thai woman or any other woman to stay with me. i dont understand why anyone would do that especially when life is so much better being single. the allowance is to pay for everything for our 2 kids.

[happylarry]

sorry but - stupid is as stupid does

hope that you can afford the lesson

dont go too hard on the poor guy. looks like he will be loosing hundreds of thousands of dollars over his mistakes. he does not need strangers telling him how stupid he is. remember half of all marriages end in the west and in most of those cases the guy gets ripped there as well. sure many of the guys on this forum lost alot to their first wife in the west before moving here.

hope this guy can get some of his money back, would not like to think of how many guys put themselves in mortal danger trying to get back what they think is rightfully theirs.

reading a great book call 'worth more dead' by ann rule. was thinking about most western men in thailand being worth more dead to their thai girlfriends.think we should all be more care full and follow the policy of not putting houses or cars in their names. my girl gets a sallary/house keeping allowance, it stops when i die. like her to think i am worth more to her alive.

Sounds very romantic.....you pay her a salary to stay with you....lol

HL

i would never pay a thai woman or any other woman to stay with me. i dont understand why anyone would do that especially when life is so much better being single. the allowance is to pay for everything for our 2 kids.

Haha put your hair back on mate, I'm just pulling your plonked....but it was you that used the word "salary".

HL

[williamgeorgeallen]

dont go too hard on the poor guy. looks like he will be loosing hundreds of thousands of dollars over his mistakes. he does not need strangers telling him how stupid he is. remember half of all marriages end in the west and in most of those cases the guy gets ripped there as well. sure many of the guys on this forum lost alot to their first wife in the west before moving here.

hope this guy can get some of his money back, would not like to think of how many guys put themselves in mortal danger trying to get back what they think is rightfully theirs.

reading a great book call 'worth more dead' by ann rule. was thinking about most western men in thailand being worth more dead to their thai girlfriends.think we should all be more care full and follow the policy of not putting houses or cars in their names. my girl gets a sallary/house keeping allowance, it stops when i die. like her to think i am worth more to her alive.

Sounds very romantic.....you pay her a salary to stay with you....lol

HL

i would never pay a thai woman or any other woman to stay with me. i dont understand why anyone would do that especially when life is so much better being single. the allowance is to pay for everything for our 2 kids.

Haha put your hair back on mate, I'm just pulling your plonked....but it was you that used the word "salary".

thats why i put salary/house keeping allowance. has upset a few people in the past when i say salary. she is a shareholder in my business and the money comes from there so i should really call the payments dividends or profits. dosent matter what i call it, its all the same thing as far as i can tell.

[Seizetheday]

sorry but - stupid is as stupid does

hope that you can afford the lesson

Everything is relevant, I lost just over 10m in my divorce, had a great time for the first 7 years of my marriage, have a great son, live in a 20m house by myself and earn about 250k a month.

I certainly don't regard myself as stupid.

[JOC]

Thanks for the replies guys. Sorry I have been a little slow to answer, been busy.

To all the "experts" telling me how stupid I have been, let me put some facts straight:

We have been married for 15 years. Most of the assets were bought in the beginning of our relationship, when you still could get a bargain in Hua Hin. Total investment from me about 12 Mio baht and from her !! about 2.5 Mio baht. Priced to sell it would give around 40 Mio baht today. Rent saved during 15 years around 5 Mio baht. A 50/50 split would see me walk away with 20 million.

In my opinion not such a bad deal. That she would receive the same amount, is IMO only fair, so I don't have a problem with that.

All the above numbers would not have been possible without me being brave/stupid enough to put the assets in her name!!

Have hired a lawyer, and so far he has convinced madame, that an auction ordered by the court is not the way to go. So she has agreed to put our most valuable asset on the market. Always a start !!

As for her borrowing against the properties. Not possible without my signature, since we are married. I know because she has tried that little stunt already some years back, when she wanted to open a new business, but the bank called me.

Anyway I think the lawyer has got the ball rolling, so hopefully within a year the assets will be sold and we can go to amphur and get an uncontested divorce

Thanks for your time,..

Thanks for your time

[blackcab]

As for her borrowing against the properties. Not possible without my signature, since we are married. I know because she has tried that little stunt already some years back, when she wanted to open a new business, but the bank called me.

That's not quite correct. Your wife could sell the property with the right of redemption (Kai Fak) i.e. get a loan on the property from a third party. This would be done at the Land Office, and I guarantee you the Land Office wouldn't call you.

This is because the Land Office will always treat your wife as the sole owner of the property as they regard the land as her personal property.

If she did that, and the loan amount was the same as the value of the property (or higher) then you would be in a very difficult situation.