A second home in Thailand is a dream for some--and a nightmare for others.
Condensed from subscriber’s copy of Time Asia May 3ed, 2004 by Jason Gagliardi of Bangkok
March 2003 was when Bangkok was recovering from the property doldrums. He found a village on the city’s northeastern outskirts, full of old houses with potential, in quiet and green canopied lanes. The house he found was a mess but could be renovated or rebuilt. The owner told him that he was a retired air force general.
He negotiated to rent for six months, with the first refusal to buy after that, and asked him to fix the place up. But when he moved in, it was a shambles. New paint was already peeling. Plumbing leaked. He had already paid for half of these so-called renovations, but now he smelled a rat and sought a lawyer. The lawyer told him to stall while a title search was made. It wasn’t easy, as the deed number had been obscured on the copy the general had given him. But when he was shown the original, he was stunned; there was a big, red stamp on the top, forbidding the owner from selling or renting out the property. He subsequently learned from court documents that the general had borrowed money against the house and had been unable to repay it and had his ownership revoked. The house had been put up for auction three times by the court, without attracting a buyer. If he wanted it, he would now have to bid at the next auction. He was devastated, but decided to fight for the house and to stop paying rent to the general.
Soon after, the general’s wife started showing up with a gang of cronies (including monks), yelling, haranguing, even singing. He received threatening letters in mangled legalese. Gun magazines ominously appeared in the mailbox, along with almost daily missives from debt collectors.
One morning the general himself appeared-in military fatigues, frothing at the mouth-and threatened to put me in a coffin. He pulled out a pistol-shaped package, brandished it, and then drove away. Was it a gun? Or simply a last-ditch attempt to scare him off?
The police told him he had every right to stay. They began to put together a case against the general for forgery and fraud. He had allegedly done the same thing to two other would-be buyers, but they’d been too scared to complain about it. Nor was he a general, police said, merely a middle-ranking officer who had been kicked out of the air force for misconduct. A warrant has now been issued for his arrest, and the police have set up a checkpoint outside the house. A cop comes by every three or four hours. In the meantime, he lives in limbo. He built a big fence around the house and bought four dogs. He sleeps with a crowbar under his bed. And when he dreams, it’s of a legion of weary lawyers intoning, “buyer beware.”
A Buyer’s Guide
Are you thinking of buying a home in Thailand? If you are a foreigner, you’d better tread carefully and follow these tips:
Buy A Condominium
You own it, whereas with a house you can only have a leasehold of up to 30 years, with options to extend. If you have a Thai spouse, you can buy a house in his or her name—but if your spouse dies or you get divorced, you’re entitled to nothing. You can also form a company with a majority of Thai shareholders and buy property through that. The only option is to invest $1 million, which gets you clear title to 1 rai (about 1,600 square meters) of land.
Get a Good Lawyer
Ask him to do thorough background checks. It’s amazing the history some Thai properties have—often, multiple banks are owed money on them, or all manner of liens and encumbrances will prevent you getting clear title. Swindles are rife. A common one is to sell a house but keep the land on a separate title.
Check the Type of Deed
There are many kinds of deeds in Thailand, and this can affect both price and how ironclad your claim to the land is. “Chanot ti din” means the land has been surveyed properly and this is the best type of title to have. But there are many other types, such as “Nor Sor” and “Nor Sor 3 Kor,” which indicates imprecise boundaries, “Sor Kor” titles bestow little more than squatter’s rights. Live long and prosper. J.G.
P.S. Look for articles in futures issues of this paper about the perils of buying a condominium and the perils of renting.
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