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Foreingners to be screwed - the end is nigh! - Land Dept. claims 90% of ...


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Foreigners found guilty will have their land seized before being deported

 

PHUKET: -- Phuket leads all of Thailand in the amount of land held by foreigners, with up to 90 per cent of prime beachfront land being illegally held through Thai nominees, claims one of the country’s top land officials.

 

Speaking at a recent seminar on legal issues relating to land ownership, Land Inspector Sriracha Charoenpanit said Thailand’s positive characteristics, friendly people and hospitality made it an attractive place for foreigners to want to live, work and acquire land.

 

The cumulative effect of this had been a growing problem of land ownership though Thai “nomineesâ€, he was quoted as saying in a Thai-language report on the state-run MCOT website.

 

Thailand was one of many countries experiencing this problem, he said.

 

“Thailand must rectify these problems by tightening up existing laws and adding stricter conditions regarding land ownership by foreigners. This must include penalizing violators, including the nominees,†he said.

 

In response to the problem, new legislation is currently being drafted and expected to be made law in August. The new legislation will make it easier to prosecute violators, the head of the Land Department said.

 

Mr Sriracha explained that the law being drafted will be similar in principle to the anti-money laundering laws.

 

The law would also expand legal measures, better define what constitutes a violation, specify penalties and make it easier to prosecute violators, he said.

 

Penalties for Thai nominees could as much as double existing punishments, while foreigners found guilty will have their land seized before being deported, he said.

 

Mr Sriracha said foreigners had already acquired about one-third of all Thai land, about one billion rai.

 

The land grab was most prominent in resort destinations such as Phuket, Koh Samui and Koh Chang, where foreigners currently hold land to run resorts or have second homes, he said in his speech.

 

Failure to stop the problem would put Thais at a competitive disadvantage, restricting their access to land and putting the national food supply in jeopardy, he said.

 

The bill should be ready in August. If passed into law, inspections would follow, he said.

 

After the speech Mr Sriracha confirmed in an interview that initial surveys by land inspectors found Phuket had more land controlled by foreigners than any other province, with the figure reaching to 90 per cent in beachfront areas.

 

Similar situations existed in Pattaya, Cha-am, Hua Hin and parts of Chiang Mai and Chiang Rai, he said.

 

Phuket Gazette 2011-07-02

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Do the homework and you can "own" land in LOS:

 

http://www.stickmanbangkok.com/ReadersSubmissions2011/reader6762.htm

 

Land ownership by a foreigner in Thailand is prohibited except for certain exception. However, there is a law that allows the foreigners to the rights of the structures constructed over the land such as buildings, houses, plantations, etc. This Thai law is termed as superficies. ..

 

http://www.koratlawyers.com/en/legal-information/thailand-superficies.html

 

The right of superficies is a real right, known in most of civil law countries (like in France, Switzerland,Thailand, etc). The owner of a piece of land granting superficies gives to the beneficiary a right to own, upon or under the land, buildings, structures or plantations.

 

The Thai Commercial and Civil code mentions:

 

“Section 1410. The owner of a piece of land may create a right of superficies in favour of another person by giving him the right to own, upon or under the land, buildings, structures or plantations.â€

 

So under Thai law, the owner of land can grant this right to a person called a superficiary (can be a foreigner), to own any construction or structures built on upon a land.

 

A right of superficies can be created either for the life of the grantor or of the beneficiary; or for a limited period of time (clause 1412 of the Thai Commercial and Civil Code). If superficies are made for a limited period of time, the maximum length can’t exceed 3O years.

 

Like many contracts, at the end, this right of superficies can be renewed if the parties agrees. Again, the renewal must not exceed 30 years. A right of superficies must be registered at the Land Department to be valid toward third parties. The Land Department will ask some registration fees. A lease agreement can be combined to a lease agreement and this could be an excellent protection for a foreigner wanting to secure a real estate investment.

 

To register superficies, you must have a title deed like a “Nor Sor Sam†or a “Chanotteâ€. You can’t register superficies on a “Por Bor Tor 5â€...

 

http://www.isaanlawyers.com/en/property/superficies.html

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Back in 1997 they tried to expand the Foriegn Business Act (FBA) so that it would compel foreigners to divest their holdings in Thai companies. Many of these companies had operated for decades in Thailand. Foreigners would be forced into a firesale of holdings they had held for decades.

 

The argument for changing the law the Ministry of Commerce (MOC) put forward then is similiar to the argument the Land Department's is using now: we need to change the law to enforce the law.

 

The law would also expand legal measures, better define what constitutes a violation, specify penalties and make it easier to prosecute violators, he said.

 

When they say "better define what constitutes a violation" they are necessarily talking about changing the definition of what constitutes a violation. Making the definition "better" means changing the defintion. It means that people who are not violating the law now will be in violation after they change the definition.

 

Basically what this means is that the Land Department is proposing that Thai law be changed (a "better definition") so that the Thai government can take property away from people where they are not able to currently able to do so under current law. That is a taking of property. The less polite term is "theft".

 

If foreigners are really violating exisiting Thai law, enforce that law as it is written now. If you have to change the law to enforce it, you are not enforcing the exisiting law. You are changing the law so that you can take property from foreigners.

 

Thailand has an appalling record when it comes to this sort of thing. The WTO just issued a major ruling that held that the Thai Customs's Department's system of valuing imports is unabashedly discriminatory and confisicatory. The WTO ruled, among other things, that the Customs Department's enforced Thai Customs law in confisicatory manner that was inconsistent with what Thai law itself says.

 

I see a connection between the (a) the recent WTO ruling and (B) recent efforts to change the FBA and now this proposal to change Thai property law. And this is why I bang on so much about Thailand's failure to comply with international laws and practices.

 

When a country changes its laws or applies it laws in an inconsistent manner to discriminate against foreigners and confisicate their property, its theft. It needs to be called for what it is. That is essentially what the WTO said about the enforcement of Thai customs laws, and that is what needs to be said about this effort to re-write Thai property law. It needs to be called for what it is.

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"90 per cent of prime beachfront land being illegally held through Thai nominees"

 

or if we alter that statement to -

 

" 90 per cent of prime beachfront land being legally held through Thai nominees"

 

1/. Without the foreign investment that this entails, Phuket would probably still be a relatively unspoiled tropical paradise. Not the festering pustule that by all accounts, it is.

 

2/. Being a festering pustule, the actions referred to in the article above will allow the the lands in question, to revert to wholly Thai ownership, and thereto become derelict, especially with the dive in Tourism numbers due to expulsion of foreigners, and eventually revert to a tropical paradise.

 

Also rid the nation of a significant number of Eastern Bloc and Euro hooligans.

 

A fine plan is you ask me...

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haha, part of what makes this all so ludicrous is when you consider who owns a great deal of the REALLY valuable land in Bangkok...I'll give you a hint, if I were to say HIS NAME this post would be deleted...

But he would be a Thai national :beer:

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"90 per cent of prime beachfront land being illegally held through Thai nominees"

 

or if we alter that statement to -

 

" 90 per cent of prime beachfront land being legally held through Thai nominees"

 

1/. Without the foreign investment that this entails, Phuket would probably still be a relatively unspoiled tropical paradise. Not the festering pustule that by all accounts, it is.

 

2/. Being a festering pustule, the actions referred to in the article above will allow the the lands in question, to revert to wholly Thai ownership, and thereto become derelict, especially with the dive in Tourism numbers due to expulsion of foreigners, and eventually revert to a tropical paradise.

 

Also rid the nation of a significant number of Eastern Bloc and Euro hooligans.

 

A fine plan is you ask me...

I concur, if Thailand better groomed its intake of so called tourists it would be a much better place ... especially these ethnic ghettos that have sprung up, like Indian Tailor streets, the arab quarters, the russian drug cartels and of course, the wannabe soccer hooligan types :beer:

 

Not that I have anything to do with the above, but how can these Indian tilor shops, without any hint of a Thai national running the shop never be subject to scrutiny?

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