Transcript of the above video:

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing Thai Leases and Usufructs. I don't think there are many people watching this video that are unaware of what a lease is but just briefly, it is basically the right of usage, a leasehold, right of usage of a piece of property let's call it land for purposes of this video, for a specific period of time. So basically, you have relatively unfettered usage of that land for a set period of time. There may be some rules with respect to alteration, what you can and can't do, but for the most part you can do with it what you will for the period of time specified in the lease agreement.

Then you have got what are called usufructs. This is somewhat foreign to folks from a common law standpoint. In a common-law tradition I look at usufruct not unlike what we would call a life estate where basically someone can confer the right to enjoy the usage of land or property to someone for their lifetime. Then that right extinguishes and passes on to whatever the next person in the chain of title may be, for example an heir. It may revert back to the person who granted the usufruct, it is going to depend. It is like a life estate or in a sense although this is bad terminology legally speaking, you can think of it as a lifetime lease. In a common-law tradition it would be called a life estate but it is a usufruct.

A question comes up from time to time, people ask me what is better, from a practical standpoint? My answer to that is well, and I am sure people get tired of hearing this on these videos, it depends. One thing it may really heavily depend on is the local land office. Some of them may be open to certain types, first of all let’s preface this by saying Government Officers in Thailand have a great deal of discretion with respect to how they apply the laws with respect to their given jurisdiction and their subject matter jurisdiction. This can be very foreign coming from a common law perspective because often times we don't really have any parallels to this in our system. Long story short you may have a land office or be dealing with a land office who doesn't like to see a foreigners getting long-term leases or they view them as pretensive. The same maybe true for usufructs. So, depending on your land office you are dealing with, you or may not be able to do one or the other. 

Then the next thing is it is whatever is best for you and your circumstances. I know a lot of folks especially in advancing years, I have dealt with a lot of folks in their 70s that have no problem at all with the lease, especially a 30-year lease. I have had many of them tell me, "I am going to be long gone by the time that lease expires so I am not overly concerned about it." Meanwhile, especially folks that are a little bit younger, usufruct may be a better thing. They may be trying to get that.

Practically speaking, it may or may not be possible to go ahead and secure those property rights. Again it is going to depend on the specific facts of your given case. It may not be a terrible idea to contact a legal professional, try and gain some insight and guidance into how best to deal with that.