Buying a House in Thailand
For many years of experience, we have observed high demand of foreigners who are looking for buying a house in various areas of Thailand such as Bangkok, Phuket, Chiang Mai, Hua Hin etc. They wish to buying a house in Thailand for usual residence, retirement or even investment.
However, under the Land Code of Thailand, foreigners are not allowed to own the property in their name unless they are holding Thai Permanent Resident or become a Thai Citizen.
So, they need to set up Thai Company Limited in order to own the house by indirect way.
Here is the careful step to be handled by the lawyer:
1. Due Diligence the property.
Before proceeding any action, we need to ensure that the house you intend to buy is safe, no obligation, without court or government proceeding, or other actions that may affect after your procession.
Moreover, the property must be legally allowed to be transferred to the buyer.
2. Set up Thai Company Limited.
Once the house is in good condition to buy, we will proceed to set up Thai Company Limited.
At the beginning, we will use our address as virtual address for registering the company and provide Thai trustee as the shareholder and director of the company.
3. Draft/Review and Engage to Sale and Purchase Agreement(SPA).
Then, our lawyer will draft or review SPA in order to buy the house and use such Thai Company to engage in an agreement.
In the SPA, it must contain all information related to the property such as price, completion date, registration date or obligation of the Seller after transferring the house.
4. Transfer ownership at Land Department.
This is important step that the ownership will be transferred to the Thai Company Limited.
So, the lawyer must ensure that every detail of transaction follows by the SPA.
On this date, we must prepare the resolution and company documents to support this registration.
Mostly, the last payment will be settled on this date by the Seller and the Buyer.
The land officer will endorse the title deed (paper) to the Thai Company and record in their computer data base.
5. Adjustment of the company structure.
Once we finish the transfer of house to the company, we will register in order to change director of the company to the foreigner’s name and adjust the list of shareholders to the foreigner 49% and Thai trustee 51%.
6. Thai Trustee will provide pre-sign Share Transfer Agreement.
In order to protect the client for the further period, the Thai Trustee will provide pre-sign Share Transfer Agreement.
This is to ensure that the client has full authority to transfer the share from current Thai trustee to other Thai anytime.
Due to the Civil and Commercial Code, it requires signature of the shareholder in order to transfer the share.
7. Translation of all documents to English.
After all processes above are completed, as some documents that we just received from the Land Department or Department of Business Development are still in Thai language, we will translate them into English and have them certified by translator of the company and arrange them in the proper file.
Siam Attorney International can assist you in buying the house across Thailand. We are not limited our service only in Bangkok or Phuket.
We have traveled to different provincial Land Department. So, we are expressly aware that what material is required by each office of land.
Please feel free to contact us, our lawyer will assist you in the professional approach with the reasonable offer.