cheekyboy Posted May 27, 2009 Report Share Posted May 27, 2009 http://www.phuketgazette.net/news/index.asp?id=7414 Wednesday, May 27, 2009 Land purchase through Thai spouse forbidden: Land Dept The entrance to the Phuket Provincial Land Office. PHUKET CITY: The director general of the Land Department has reiterated that foreigners using Thai nominees to buy land anywhere in the country will have their land title deeds revoked if caught â?? even if the nominee in question is a lawfully wedded spouse. Land Department Director Anuwat Meteewiboonwut made the comments during a recent stop in Phuket as part of a nationwide inspection tour of 30 provinces. The tour is aimed at improving public services by land officials in three areas: dress, conduct when dealing with the public and working harder to eliminate a backlog of work. Many members of the public have complained that it takes up to a year to complete a transaction that should only take one day, he said. Mr Anuwat, a former governor of both Phang Nga and Samut Prakan provinces, said he was satisfied on the first two points, but rated the general level of success among land officials nationwide at speeding up their work rate at â??only 30%â?Â. The next round of inspection tours will come in July, after which time personnel changes will be considered if service does not improve, he said. â??We have to keep pressure on them, otherwise the work will not get done,â? he said. As for foreigners seeking to buy homes in Phuket, they can do so through the Condominium Act, which allows foreign ownership of up to 49% of any project, he said. Foreigners cannot use a Thai spouse as a nominee to buy property in Thailand, however. â??If the Thai spouse has enough money to buy the house that is fine, but if the Thai has no money and uses money given to him or her by a foreigner to acquire property, that is against the law. If we check and find out later that a Thai person has been using money from a foreigner to buy land anywhere in Thailand, we will revoke title deeds,â? he said. Mr Anuwat said the provisions of [Ministry of Interior] ministerial order 43 makes it difficult to issue land documents quickly, as it requires action from a number of different agencies. Desire for land on the island has also led to encroachment problems here, he said. As a key market for property companies, Phuket is a constant source of problems and complaints to the director generalâ??s office, he admitted. â??We will try to resolve these problems and develop our personnel continuously in order to provide high quality services. Fortunately the governor of Phuket used to work in the Land Department, so he understands the procedures and can help co-ordinate all the agencies involved,â? he said. Mr Anuwat was speaking of Phuket Governor Wichai Phraisa-ngop, who served as Land Office director in Nakhon Pathom in 1997 and as deputy director of the Land Department nationwide in 2003. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cheekyboy Posted May 27, 2009 Author Report Share Posted May 27, 2009 so this would make it possible for jealous Thai neighbours to snitch on their farang neighbours and get their house deeds confiscated ! where did this law suddenly appear from ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Faustian Posted May 27, 2009 Report Share Posted May 27, 2009 Yet again I'm reminded of how disliked we are.... Whilst I'm sure there are scams on land ownership, there are also a lot of legitimate purchases. It seems we aren't welcome yet again. Lets fuck over the farang! I'm sick of this nationalistic bullshit. As Thaksin abundantly proved, any Thai can buy a property/land in the UK. Why the fuck can't we here? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Faustian Posted May 27, 2009 Report Share Posted May 27, 2009 As a PS, I would point out that this is bad news for Thai property developers and the property market and could further damage the economic development here....but why bother applying logic to hate. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rchapstick Posted May 27, 2009 Report Share Posted May 27, 2009 I cannot help but laugh at the google banner ad for Costa Rican Real Estate that is accompanying this discussion. Those google guys are good! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cheekyboy Posted May 27, 2009 Author Report Share Posted May 27, 2009 Bear Grylls has just bought a house in Kata beach and the Beckams have a property there too !they could get shafted any time ... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zzzz Posted May 27, 2009 Report Share Posted May 27, 2009 I suppose a foreigner could still lease the land for long periods like 30 yrs. If that is the case, a foreigner could still use a wife to buy a house on leased land with the condition that the foreigner will have the right to lease the house from the wife for 30 yrs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
radioman Posted May 27, 2009 Report Share Posted May 27, 2009 Nothing wrong with farang buying a house. Just cannot buy/own the land on which it stands. House and land are separate legal entities. Like many tales told here I suspect there is a ton more to this than is being printed. So far as I know (little) there is no law that prevents gifting money to your spouse such that it becomes her property, nor of you employing her and paying a wage, such that the money is rightfully theirs. We went through a situation years back after the original law preventing the spouse of a foreigner owning land was revoked. The provincial office said cannot so wife spoke to land office in Bangkok and found somebody who understood. They told her that the provincial fuckwits rarely knew what day it was never mind the law on land ownership. A couple of faxes later and it was sorted. Did need to sign a document, forget which number, that says I have zero claim to any title relating to the land and that it all belongs to her. Since that includes our kids I could not be happier. My guess is that if the noise level from a report like this rises then at some point Bangkok will weigh in and the guy who made such statements, much to his displeasure, will get slapped down. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Central Scrutinizer Posted May 27, 2009 Report Share Posted May 27, 2009 Yet again I'm reminded of how disliked we are.... Whilst I'm sure there are scams on land ownership, there are also a lot of legitimate purchases. It seems we aren't welcome yet again. Lets fuck over the farang! I'm sick of this nationalistic bullshit. As Thaksin abundantly proved, any Thai can buy a property/land in the UK. Why the fuck can't we here? Thais are afraid (the 'haves' that is) that rich farang will buy up all the primo property here. No reciprocal land ownership agreements from country to country. The rich Thais want the playing field uneven to their advantage. It could all be fixed easily and everyone kept happy with a law that states a foreigner married to a Thai can legally own a small plot of land to build his 'residential' house on, and zoned so no business can be on the property. 2 rai would satisfy most, though I'd like to own 5 rai. If the law made it so there was a limit to what a foreigner could own, and it had to be all one plot (not 1 rai here, 1 rai there, etc.) and for residential purposes only there would be little problems and most would be happy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vintage_Kwai Posted May 27, 2009 Report Share Posted May 27, 2009 ...that says I have zero claim to any title relating to the land and that it all belongs to her. Since that includes our kids I could not be happier. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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