I would like to ask anyone that has bought or sold land in Thailand, or whose wife has done so Did you use a solicitor or other professional to assist in the transaction? If not, why not? Would you have done the same in your country of origin?

Have bought 3 pieces of land over the past 5 years...Two are farm land near my wife's village and we bought those from long time family friends and handled everything at the amphur.

The 3rd piece was a building lot near Udon and it was bought from a third party who is a close friend of my wife's aunt..Again, paperwork handled at the land office and no problems.

The Wife Bought our land from her older sister which included 6 rai of rice fields, title was tranferd at the amphur, Her sister still works the rice fields

Left it to the wife.....she/we ?? have several plots in the same area all have paperwork and all completed at the ampher/local land registary office with no problems,she/we? are offered several peices of land on a fairly regular basis from local thais,some with no access and one with the occasional pond on (interesting point the other day regarding a shared water facility on the land) .
and no i would not leave it to the wife to buy a peice of land in the uk,....well i would if it was the same price as the land she/we ?? brought in Udon-ville.

Now, if it was a prime peice of land $$$$ in town, i sure would be hiring a pro to assist.

left it to the wife, twice..

I acutally accompanied her both times to the Provincial land office.. No muss, no fuss, treated very politely, and when finished the wife walked out with the land title...

That said, both pieces of land were cleanly titled not agricultural or Naw Saw 3 (??) untitled land.. I had a friend whose TW purchase 6.5 rai of N.S. 3 land and he definitely went to a Thai lawyer to ensure everything was in order..

My wife may get a little confused with differential calculus or the theory of reciprocating integers, but no one will beat her on a land deal! I have left our several purchases to my wife

looks like the "wifes" are ahead by a lenght.

'left it to wife', i was still in the 'ignorant bliss' stage of thia euphoria. luckily, not completely stupid and had a pre-nup w/long term lease as i mentioned many times, reality, my track record is not good on long term relationships.

Well I put the land in the wife's name also, But at this point we
have 2 children together and the least i could do is make sure
there was a proper house and farm near for the sake of their
future. (and of course still seeing to the children's future if
all went south). In the event of buying some commercial property
or business in udon or elsewhere i'd of course use a lawyer.

I used a friend that had done many land purchases before and understood the titles etc.!

for the sake of their
future

ok, your next step is a lease for life, or 30 yrs, depending on you age and life expectancy. negative for life lease, you will probably need lawyer, as they will till you it can't be done. negative on 30 yr lease, you will need to pay 30 yr lease tax upfront, though not expensive. 1000 baht a month X 360 months = 360000 X 1 % = ttl tax 3600 baht.

if thinks go south, this will protect the kids from having house sold, as the lease will be registered with land papers and lease stays on land papers until you sign off on it. meaning, nobody in their right mind would buy land if they can't use house. it doesn't protect from ex at the time from borrowing on land title, althought again, someone would have to weight whether worth the return if again, possible a legal hassle to use house, as it is leased out.

for an excellent real estate lawyer, contact FBI real estate, he can refer you to one to protect your interest as best a possible. should actually be done when land purchased, but hindsight at this point. i wish he was here when i bought, one more option for me would of been available, though presently secure.

if wify questions your motive, everyone will tell her you don't trust her for requesting lease. simply tell her you need for your embassy info or for immigrations info.

good luck

beer monkey wrote:looks like the "wifes" are ahead by a lenght.

Of course they are ahead because they own the land,farangs cannot.If there is a house on the land it can be used to obtain a loan from a bank,if only land, it can be used to guarantee a loan with someone ie bank's not interested in land only.
Do you know where all your wife's land papers are?
Never understand why farangs never get a 30 year lease when staying in the house to give you at least some rights,ie not being kicked out.The wives always hear or have a friend whether family or not who wants to sell land,no lease for farangs here.
To solve problems if children are involved why not put the land in a child's name as like a trust so that it cannot be used as a loan bargaining tool.I bet the wives would not be so happy then

pompui wrote:

beer monkey wrote:looks like the "wifes" are ahead by a lenght.

Of course they are ahead because they own the land,farangs cannot.If there is a house on the land it can be used to obtain a loan from a bank,if no land, it can be used to guarantee a loan with someone.
Do you know where all your wife's land papers are?
Never understand why farangs never get a 30 year lease when staying in the house to give you at least some rights,ie not being kicked out.The wives always hear or have a friend whether family or not who wants to sell land,no lease for farangs here.
To solve problems if children are involved why not put the land in a child's name as like a trust so that it cannot be used as a loan bargaining tool.I bet the wives would not be so happy then

A lease definitely makes sense unless you are making a gift of the land.The security a wife acquires by owning property goes along ways in creating good balance in the marriage!I believe that if one does not make some kind of financial commitment to the wife,the marriage is probably being used to take advantage of the girl!If one does not have trust in the sincerity of ones partner,IMO,they probably should not have gotten married to them!

No problems with that Stan,I just think your main residence ie home on the land, cover yourself and then fine buy rice fields/land for your wife to have in her name then everyone is happy.Everything in her name fine if you feel secure in that you think your relationship will last forever.Maybe it is good that if a serious problem like divorce occurs then ok she keeps everything so no legal and lengthy costs of transferring title if it is bitter.
Knowing how the Thais love to borrow/lend off each other in hard times and the fact that they use land papers to give to the lenders as security, I bet some forumites probably do not know where all the land papers are as they have just left everything to the missus.

Buying land.... for sure get the wife to do it .... Just dont forget to provide her with the letter that you stake no claim to the land or the money used to purchase it.

Guess it depend on how much you love and respect your wife over the money.