Transcript of the above video:

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing Yellow House books in Thailand. For those who are unaware, Thailand uses a system called the Tabian Baan system. It is basically a house registration book. Folks who are on a Tabian Baan are basically registered on that address. There are a number of things associated with Tabian Baan registration, that there is not really a great corollary to the Tabian Baan for example in the American system but for example Tabian Baan, that is one's legal address so things like possibly service of process will, it is not necessarily the only place one can be served but it may be a legal address for those purposes; it may be a legal address for various other purposes when dealing with the Government and it is also in a sense it is kind of a living census where in the United States every 10 years they actually actively do a census, in Thailand it is done on a constant basis through this Tabian Baan system. Now there are pros and cons to that and that is not the purpose of this video. 

Thai Nationals and Permanent Residents are registered in a blue Tabian Baan. That notes those who are resident in Thailand legally. In I believe it was 91 or 94 Thailand amended their Civil Registration Laws to allow foreign nationals to be on a Tabian Baan, to be on a House Book, and that basically changed the game a little bit. Now foreign nationals are not considered legally resident simply because they are in what is called a yellow Tabian Baan. It is for non-immigrants but it is for those who maintain a regular presence in Thailand they created these House books. There are a lot of misconceptions about these. I did another video on this and went into rather great detail. I am going to try and put the link up to the description in the description below. I have to dig through and find that link but the long story short for this video is there are a lot of misconceptions on this. Some people think it confers residence, it does not. Some people think that because you are in a Yellow House book it obviates the need for you to do things like 90 day reporting or TM 30. I have done a video specifically on that topic, it does not with either of those obligations. Again they amended the Civil Registration rules, didn't change anything to do with the Immigration Act which for Non-immigrants that is what covers them. 90 day reporting, TM 30 still required. 

I recently got a comment on this channel and quoting directly from the comment: "What about a yellow book? You can't own land but you can own the house that sits on the land by having a Yellow Book. Is that correct?" So this was a discussion on Thai property ownership specifically the restrictions regarding foreign ownership of land in Thailand. That is true, foreigners cannot own land. There may be a few limited exceptions that require a number of formalities in order for that exception to apply but the notion of a Yellow House Book conferring the ability to own a house, that is not strictly speaking the case. What are we talking about here? Well the ability to have a Yellow House Book does not convey the right to own a house. I think what this person is talking about is what we talked about as bifurcation of title which is you have title to land, to real estate which can be restricted to foreigners, foreigners cannot own land in Thailand and then you may have the ability to own the house, the actual structure that sits on the land. That is definitely possible. We have assisted a number of clients in house ownership notwithstanding lack of land ownership but the House Book does not confer that. One is not chained to the other; again it is this misconception.

Really all a Yellow House Book is is an ID document. It is a document regarding one's address, basically one's registered address. I should not say it is a superfluous document; before I was a Thai citizen I had a Yellow House Book. It can provide some conveniences. I found it to provide real convenience and it had to do with banking. It seemed like setting up a bank account was quite a bit easier when you had a Yellow House Book as opposed to having to prove up a lot of documentation regarding one's address. So, it does have its benefits but there is a lot of misconception about this. It does not in and of itself create the possibility to own a house. One has that ability to own a structure sitting on a piece of land without a Yellow House Book. Just because you don't have one of those doesn't mean you can't own a structure sitting on property. So that is just one misconception.

Again I made a video regarding misconceptions on Yellow House Books in an immigration context for those who are interested, I urge you to look that up or check the search function in our channel, and search " Yellow House Books" you will find everything about Yellow House books up to this video but I just wanted to clarify that. No, Yellow House books in and of themselves do not confer the right to own the structure of the house. That exists separate apart from that. It exists basically under the general provisions of the Thai Civil and Commercial Code and the provisions regarding movable and immovable property here in the Kingdom of Thailand.