9 hours ago, williet98248 said:

Perhaps not as expensive but similar.  I was about six months into a lease that I had signed with a Thai lady when a Swedish guy, a couple of cops and some other people (lawyers?) showed up at my door.  He claimed the house was his and his soon to be ex wife had no right to rent it as well as sell his his car and motorcycle while he was visiting Sweden.  I told him I would continue to pay the original lessor until he got it sorted but I moved out a couple of months later.

He claimed the house was his? When did Thailand allow foreigners to own landed properties?

Have always made my point: As a Farang, don't buy property in a country, where "legal-certainty" is not given.

But now, hearing about "property-acrobatics" involving 3rd parties, having nothing but COPIES of a Chanote or even inferior land papers, enabeling those 3rd parties to re-shuffle property situations, sends the final (property) shiver down my spine.

Next time I am in Pattaya, I will buy my pair of socks and my underwear without the assistance of a Thai-Sidekick.

To avoid future property disputes, of course.
Cheers.

5 hours ago, swissie said:

Have always made my point: As a Farang, don't buy property in a country, where "legal-certainty" is not given.

But now, hearing about "property-acrobatics" involving 3rd parties, having nothing but COPIES of a Chanote or even inferior land papers, enabeling those 3rd parties to re-shuffle property situations, sends the final (property) shiver down my spine.

Next time I am in Pattaya, I will buy my pair of socks and my underwear without the assistance of a Thai-Sidekick.

To avoid future property disputes, of course.
Cheers.

There is legal certainty for a foreigner in owning a condo under the allowed 49% quota for foreign ownership.

 

There is also legal certainty that foreign ownership of landed properties and the 51% quota on Thai ownership is forbidden by law.

 

Any legal uncertainty is self-created by foreigners using Thai nominees to try owning that which is forbidden.

On 6/7/2017 at 4:09 PM, trogers said:

He claimed the house was his? When did Thailand allow foreigners to own landed properties?

He claimed, I didn't ask him for proof.  Of course you can own a house in Thailand.  You just can't own the land under it.  You can lease land for 30 years and build a house on it.  

Here's another example of unscrupulous tactics that involved a plot of land that my Thai wife (ex now) owned about 12 years ago.

 

She wanted to borrow some money, so took out an agreement with a private lender.  The loan contract was for 1 year, with the sum to be repaid at the end of the year, or the land would be forfeit.

 

She checked the loan contract and she (and I) and the private lender went to the Thalang land office in north Phuket to have the loan registered on the chanote.

 

The land office did all the remaining paperwork and then said that they would copy the loan contract, so that both parties could sign and each to hold a copy.

 

They returned after 10 minutes with what at first glance looked to be an exact copy of the loan contract, which was to be the copy held by my wife.  On very closer inspection, I (yes I read Thai), saw that the term of the loan was written as '1 month', not '1 year'!!.  This meant that the land would be forfeited if the loan wasn't repaid in full after 1 month.  I pointed out the error, the land officer gave me an icy look and simply said words to the effect of 'Oh sorry, it must be a typo', and went off to have the document corrected to 1 year.

 

This 'error' was no doubt implemented by the land office staff, in cahoots with the private lender.

 

At the end of the day, my wife still failed to repay the loan after one year, and the 3.5 rai of prime building land was forfeit.  One of many reasons why she's an ex-wife now.