2 replies to this topic

[Expattaya]

If you have ever thought about buying a piece of land for a Thai friend, read this amazing bit of nonsense by some jerky bureaucrat:

"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 – 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. . .

Foreigners cannot use a Thai spouse as a nominee to buy property in Thailand, however.

“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,” he said."

http://www.bangkokpost.com/forum/viewtopic...f=29&t=2120

I wonder if this guy thinks it's illegal to give Thais money as a gift. What they do with it seems to me their business.

[Haloi]

I have a feeling that what this Thai guy intended to say was that the authorities will void a deed where the Thai is holding title as a subterfuge of the system and that the land really still belongs to the farang. If I want to give my wife or boyfriend a gift of 500,000 baht so they can buy some land in Issan, there's nothing illegal about it. In fact, I wonder if there's ever been a case where the government has even tried to say that land bought with money
from a foreigner is illegal.

[Dick]

I have no idea how many thousand Thai women are married to farangs living in Thailand, but I would guess that 95% of those married and living in their own home used money belonging to the farang to buy the home, which is held in the Thai woman's name. The idea that the government is going to void those deals is absurd and the bureaucrat who suggested it is a xenophobic fool. Personally, I'd like to see every country in the west impose the same restrictions on real estate and business back home on Thais as the Thais do to foreigners here. You might see some "enlightened" Thais law then.