Thailand reader question: legal status of land inherited by a Thai national married to a non-Thai national
Dear readers,
This is a very important legal point. I do not have the most recent information.
Suppose a father or mother passes away and the real estate is inherited by the daughter. What is the status of the inherited property if the daughter is legally married to a non-Thai under Thai law; in other words, if the marriage was registered at the Amphoe Office?
I am asking this because in the past, a Thai person, as soon as he or she was legally married to a non-Thai, lost the right to buy land. That story circulated during the great rush of the late 1980s and 1990s. Naturally, this also has consequences for the inheritance of land.
At some point, the year escapes me, a procedure was introduced at the Land Office requiring the couple to present themselves in person to the competent official at the Land Office. There, the non-Thai partner would sign a document acknowledging that the property was being purchased and that it was, or is, the full property of the Thai partner within the marriage, including the purchase price. I seem to recall that the purchase was limited, I suspect, to 1 rai of land, with or without buildings on it.
This was introduced following a discussion about a healthy family life, including in relation to children.
Does this measure still apply? In addition to the 40 million baht scheme and the BOI scheme, which are unattainable for most.
You sense that this is the most common case in practice.
I know a number of couples who, for that reason, never registered their marriage, cohabitation, or concubinage in Thailand. As a result, they were not married under Thai law, and usually, the wife could make the purchase in her name.
Related to this, and also important: suppose the marriage is registered in Thailand after all, something that presumably has significant implications in various areas, including state healthcare. What is the status of the real estate then? Must it be sold within 1 year?
In addition, there is of course the question: is the Thai partner, at the time of the marriage registration, if she already owns real estate, in violation of Thai land ownership law?
Allow me to congratulate you on having covered this much more extensively in the past two installments of the blog and having warned against the unscrupulous lawyers associated with every real estate agency. As soon as the bottom of the land market is reached after 2030, there will once again be a high demand for existing real estate.
Yours faithfully,
Dr. Walter EJ Tips
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