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What If a Thai Spouse Leaves Real Estate to a Foreigner in a Will?
Transcript of the above video:
The question posed in this video is what happens if a Thai spouse leaves real estate, bequeaths real estate if you will, to a foreign national here in Thailand. As we have discussed in many other videos on this channel, foreign nationals are precluded from owning land in Thailand. They are specifically prohibited by Thai Law from owning Thai property specifically land; they cannot own title to land in Thailand. The questions posed: "what then do they have the option of doing in the event that their spouse bequeaths them land upon their death?" Now this may be intestate in a situation without a Will; we will talk about both, primarily the thrust of this video regards Wills but intestate situations you are going to have to get into the specific facts in the given case. If there was no Will then there may be claims by other family members out there other than a spouse. Meanwhile if there is a Will out there and someone has passed away and pursuant to the provisions of the Will, that land, that real estate whatever has been left to that person per the Will. The question posed is then what do you do?
Well one, you have got to get the Will processed through the Court System and get a Court Order issued with regard to the instructions in the Will. Then as we have discussed I think a little bit in prior videos, in the event of the closure of the estate here in Thailand, you are going to have to go ahead and sell property and the foreigner will just have to basically take the proceeds, rather than the land itself. Now dealing with the details of something like that can be extremely painstaking, and then on top of it, there may be certain scenarios where if you know how the legal system works here in Thailand, you can forestall the sale based on certain legal principles. That said, generally speaking it is not possible for foreigners to inherit land here in Thailand. Again there may be exceptions; the Interior Ministry does have the authority to sign off on such a transactions but it is not a foregone conclusion that it will happen. As we discussed in other videos, this has been an option for some decades now but as a practical matter it's just not done.
So dealing with the aftermath of the loss of a Thai spouse for example which in and of itself is a problem, but when you are dealing with it from a property standpoint, from an estate planning standpoint, from what we would call in call in the Common Law vernacular, basically the probate process or what they call in Thailand succession, again where a foreigner factors in, it changes the analysis, and again the analysis of how that exactly is going to play out is going to be very dependent on the underlying facts. So there may be scenarios where you're stuck with look you are going to have to get this property sold off, but then there may be other scenarios where there may be ways to set it up in such a way that usage at the very least can be maintained. Again this is a perfect example of one of those situations where it's probably a good idea to contact a legal professional, gain some insight and guidance into how best to proceed.
Real estate can be an extremely fraught endeavour if you will for a foreign national or foreign nationals here in Thailand. Those who are looking to purchase real estate be it a condo, be it some other type of real estate, there are all types of examples, some sort of structure. As we have discussed in many of our videos on this channel, it is rather difficult for a foreign national to own land specifically in Thailand but even then, depending on the situation or the facts in a given case, there may be some sort of legal structure that can get someone just as many rights or effectively give them the type of enjoyment or control over a piece of Thai property that they otherwise want.
So the reason I am making this quick little bumper here, is to tell people, look at the end of the day you are probably going to need legal assistance in doing the due diligence. It is probably not a terrible idea to contact a legal professional, gain some insight and guidance into how best to proceed.