Hi all hoping you can offer some insight and advice on this situation I find myself in,
I and a friend have recently put down a reservation fee for a plot of land on Koh Phangan with the intention of building a small holiday home. It is one plot in a group of ten that is being developed, with a 30 year lease in place. The development company seem quite reputable and will supply all basic infrastructure road access/water/electricity etc.
We have engaged the services of some good lawyers and have just received the land title check and due diligence report.
The land in question holds a Chanote title but they were not able to trace the title history back to original SorKor 1. They were however able to trace the title history back to Nor Sor 3 Kor, issued September 2001.
In summary “There are missing documents and missing information, preventing us from providing you with a full title history. The documents could be missing through simple administrative error, which is a common occurrence at the land offices in Thailand, given the lack of computerization; or the documents could be missing as a result of fraudulent activity at the land office. In the case of the target Land at hand, the absence of documents does create uncertainty regarding the title history/quality of title. Consequently, we are unable to provide a definitive opinion regarding the title history/quality of title.”
I am well aware that in the past there has been much corruption and fraudulent activity in land offices in Thailand and understand the current government is in the process of trying to clean this up.
Everything else in regards to encumbrances and litigation etc. seems above board and 3 other plots on the land have already been leased.
The question I have is should we go forward with the leasing of the land without full documented title history?
Your advice is much appreciated.
Full land title history
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Roger Ramjet
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Re: Full land title history
Here are the different types of title dead for Thailand, as it stands at the moment: http://www.siam-legal.com/realestate/th ... -deeds.php
I would be very worried, as your lawyer is, about all the missing transfers and where the land originated from. If you look at the back of chanote every transfer from the start to the finish is recorded, dates of sale, type of legal ownership, type of chanote, when it was surveyed by the land department, when the marking pegs were put in, size of the land, size of the subdivisions are all recorded, who it was sold by, who bought it and under what title. All that then has to be signed off by two or three people in the Land Office and officially stamped.
The fact that your lawyers are also making excuses (about lack of computers) is also worrying because all the details should still be on the back of the chanote anyway. Missing documents also pose a real problem because it means the Land Department has been fraudulent at some stage. My wife and I have three full chanotes and each have meticulous records attached to them from two different Land Offices because they are stapled onto them.
I would be very cautious.
I would be very worried, as your lawyer is, about all the missing transfers and where the land originated from. If you look at the back of chanote every transfer from the start to the finish is recorded, dates of sale, type of legal ownership, type of chanote, when it was surveyed by the land department, when the marking pegs were put in, size of the land, size of the subdivisions are all recorded, who it was sold by, who bought it and under what title. All that then has to be signed off by two or three people in the Land Office and officially stamped.
The fact that your lawyers are also making excuses (about lack of computers) is also worrying because all the details should still be on the back of the chanote anyway. Missing documents also pose a real problem because it means the Land Department has been fraudulent at some stage. My wife and I have three full chanotes and each have meticulous records attached to them from two different Land Offices because they are stapled onto them.
I don't know where you got this information from but so far not one piece of land that was fraudulently obtained has been taken back by the junta, probably because they are the "owners" of that land. http://www.khaosodenglish.com/detail.ph ... ypecate=06 If you look further on that website you'll find all the members of the junta are billionaires and millionaires with the land they have "bought" out of their 112,000 baht a month pay check.Jivana7 wrote:I am well aware that in the past there has been much corruption and fraudulent activity in land offices in Thailand and understand the current government is in the process of trying to clean this up.
I would be very cautious.