debt laws in thailand question

[silentnine]

Hi All.

i'm living in the UK with my Thai wife..

Her parents had a letter in thailand yesterday addressed to my wife from a debt collection company .

it relates to a scooter she supposedly stood gaurentee or had in joint names with a X thai boyfreind 14 years ago.

she has no recolection of it so we do not know if she did or if he used her details without permision.  he was a bit of a crook aparantly.

 

how does the thai system work on thing like this ? in the UK a debt is classed as void if no contact is made for 7 years after a defualt.

she has spoken to the debt collection company and they say she has to either pay 33,000 baht.. or go to court and expect it to double with intrest.

of course as we are in the UK going to thailand to defend it is not an option. so is this just strong arm tactics from a debt collection company who bought the debt cheap or do we have a problem.

 

 

[lkn]

23 hours ago, silentnine said:

[…] is this just strong arm tactics from a debt collection company who bought the debt cheap or do we have a problem.

I’m inclined to think the former.

 

Did you ask them to send a copy of the contract she allegedly signed? If they cannot provide this, their claim would seem rather baseless.

[whatawonderfulday]

Just politely tell them to <deleted>. End of story.  like most things in Thailand they tell BS just because they assume everyone is stupid. 

[Bundooman]

1 hour ago, lkn said:

I’m inclined to think the former.

 

Did you ask them to send a copy of the contract she allegedly signed? If they cannot provide this, their claim would seem rather baseless.

This seems like good advice. additionally, I would decline to give them any UK address where you can be contacted and ask your wife's parents to contact the originators of the letter and tell them that their daughter has moved abroad and cannot be contacted.

Or, ignore the demand, tell the parents to decline any conversation and have nothing further to do with it, although I have no idea if these people who are demanding money from her can use the parents to collect the debt.

However, if your wife has signed nothing - they have no proof that she was involved.

Good luck.

[terminatorchiangmai]

14 years ago buying a scooter and still in debt ?

I doubt it and smell a scam.

[thailand49]

3 minutes ago, terminatorchiangmai said:

14 years ago buying a scooter and still in debt ?

I doubt it and smell a scam.

+1

[tomwct]

I advised this to a friend when he and his Thai wife tried to get a home loan. She had an ex-husband who she signed for a motorcycle 7 years before. The husband disappeared and owed 37K on the bike. Go directly to the collection agency and find out who the lender is. Go see the lender and offer to pay 50% of the loan balance when the ex-husband stopped paying.The lender is responsible to notify

the guarantors, which they did not. Do not pay any interest or penalties just 50% of the actual loan balance. They will accept your offer. So next time you return to Thailand follow through on this. You could email the collection and tell them you'll talkto the lender next time your in Thailand. My friend paid 17,000 Baht on his wife's ex-husband bike and got the home loan. 

Edited June 3, 2017 by tomwct

[Fulwell53]

1 hour ago, whatawonderfulday said:

Just politely tell them to <deleted>. End of story.  like most things in Thailand they tell BS just because they assume everyone is stupid. 

And of course you arent stupid..you are very very clever clearly.

[Monkeyrobot]

Copy of contract and copy of payments made by ex husband scanned and emailed to you. Also purchase price of the bike ? I am sure they were not 33, 000B 14 years ago.  Sounds a bit fishy, why contact you after all this time???  Report back when you have sorted it out . 

[rapom]

If her parents have not yet provided the collection agency with your mailing address or your name, tell them not to give out any information. If your wife has taken ýour last name and her Thai ID and passport, have her new married name, it will be hard to track her down. Living out of the country makes it impossible to collect. I would not contact them, ask for or request any information. Once you make contact they could use this in court as evidence that you are aware of the debt. Tell the parents if they receive any more mail from the agency, to refuse delivery and have it returned and also tell them not to talk with them by phone or if they show up at their house. Collection agencies buy old debt from a lender or get paid a percentage of what they can collect. When it becomes clear to them that the costs involved in collecting an old debt will be more than the financial return they expected, they will give up. Ignore them and they will go away. Do not worry about the consequences of what could happen, if you return to Thailand. How are they going to know? 

 

 

[lucjoker]

send the letter back ,"dont live here anymore ',MOVED OUT 16 Y AGO'

 

[bitcoinforever]

totally unenforceable they are trying to scare you . that is why credit card companies do not issue credit cards to anyone not living in the country of issue because unenforceable to collect the debt. calling them up and tell them you have not intention of ever going back to live in Thailand see if they come down, and want to negotiate a settlement then you know for yourself it is all thai bullshit, which it is they bought that old debt forr pennies on the  baht

[bazza73]

The debt collection company is in Thailand. You and your wife are in the UK. Just how does the company propose to collect the "debt" from you? It's just a try-on.

[CH1961]

I guess the whole story is just to provide some money to the parents back home in Isaan ;-)

A new kind of 'buffalo/little sister/grandpa is sick' story :-)

[GuiseppeD]

1 hour ago, lucjoker said:

send the letter back ,"dont live here anymore ',MOVED OUT 16 Y AGO'

Or died in a freak accident involving a JCB and an invalid carriage.

 

Could be a scam, though.  Hard to tell.

 

 

Edited June 3, 2017 by GuiseppeD

[Boiled Frog]

Thailand has a debt register same as other western countries.

 

If this is a valid debt, because it is some 14 years old your wifes name would already be on the register.

 

So contact the debt register and check if you girls name is listed there as a bad debtor.

 

If no, then someone is trying to scam you.

 

If yes, then you need to decide if you will ever have to rely on the borrowing ability of you girl in the future.

 

If yes, then you may seek to clear the debt via negoiation with the lender and upon the express terms in writing, that the strike against you girl in the debt register is removed.

 

If you don't think you will need to rely on her borrowing ability in the future.  Do nothing.

[vivasamui]

2 hours ago, CH1961 said:

I guess the whole story is just to provide some money to the parents back home in Isaan ;-)

A new kind of 'buffalo/little sister/grandpa is sick' story :-)

Scam by wife/family?

 

[snowgard]

Give the address in UK. They must sue she in the UK for become something. And it is just a private case. 

[silentnine]

3 hours ago, vivasamui said:

Scam by wife/family?

 

we have the letter so not a family scam.

asked a lawyer freind in thailand for advice and he said ignore it as thye were a collection agent who had bought the debt.

she is not on the debt register.. although i assume no payment now if we don't defend it could result in getting on the register.

surname now changed from marriage howwever i think thai people retain the same id card number so a name change will not clear it..

 

to add to the story .. wife spoke the collection agency and i gather the bike was bought 14 years ago.. then they took it back after 6 months for non payment... makes me wonder how they calculate 33k when they also reposessed the bike the also ... would not of thought a bike in thailand even cost thay much outright that long ago

Edited June 3, 2017 by silentnine

[jacko45k]

11 hours ago, Monkeyrobot said:

Copy of contract and copy of payments made by ex husband scanned and emailed to you. Also purchase price of the bike ? I am sure they were not 33, 000B 14 years ago.  Sounds a bit fishy, why contact you after all this time???  Report back when you have sorted it out . 

Mine was 53000 about 12 years ago bought cash.

[mstevens]

Small problems not attended to can become big problems.  I'd certainly request more information and seek to find a solution.  Simply ignoring it could see further charges added to it and claims made in court which if ignored and not defended could end up becoming enforceable judgments.  Best to deal with this front on rather than ignore it.

[sanukjim]

14 hours ago, Bundooman said:

This seems like good advice. additionally, I would decline to give them any UK address where you can be contacted and ask your wife's parents to contact the originators of the letter and tell them that their daughter has moved abroad and cannot be contacted.

Or, ignore the demand, tell the parents to decline any conversation and have nothing further to do with it, although I have no idea if these people who are demanding money from her can use the parents to collect the debt.

However, if your wife has signed nothing - they have no proof that she was involved.

Good luck.

If this is not a scam then they could threaten your wife's parents ( even though this is illegal)  so you maybe want her parents to request the copy of the original contract and be prepared to find a cop friend to help them. Good luck

[BEVUP]

14 hours ago, thailand49 said:

+1

Found out a Falang was on the scene knowing they would pay to have piece of mind where a Thai would just run to another district or not give a crap

[vivasamui]

On 06/03/2017 at 0:30 PM, silentnine said:

we have the letter so not a family scam.

asked a lawyer freind in thailand for advice and he said ignore it as thye were a collection agent who had bought the debt.

she is not on the debt register.. although i assume no payment now if we don't defend it could result in getting on the register.

surname now changed from marriage howwever i think thai people retain the same id card number so a name change will not clear it..

 

to add to the story .. wife spoke the collection agency and i gather the bike was bought 14 years ago.. then they took it back after 6 months for non payment... makes me wonder how they calculate 33k when they also reposessed the bike the also ... would not of thought a bike in thailand even cost thay much outright that long ago

Scam by loser ex Thai boyfriend.

How does collection agency know your wife's details?

Wouldn't out make more sense for them to go after ex? Is he living and working in Thailand?

[GuiseppeD]

9 minutes ago, vivasamui said:

Wouldn't out make more sense for them to go after ex? Is he living and working in Thailand?

They've had no luck so gone for the guarantor, doh.