property and death of a spouse

[terryfrd]

So you (a foreigner) buy a house in your Thai wife's name and she dies. What happens since you are not supposed to a homeowner under Thai law?

Terry

[FaranginPhetch]

did she leave a will and what did it say.

Or has she died yet, if not get a will giving you a 35 year lease or get one now before she dies.

[DavidBua]

The Thai spouse arrangement seems contradictory in itself and likely IMHO to lead to much misunderstanding and dispute, especially if after death of party or the relationship.
The company share arrrangment is clearer
49% ownership can be foreign, 51% is to be Thai national.

see...
http://www.siam-legal.com/land/land_foreigner.html.

For company creation see...

http://www.boi.go.th/english/how/com...tablishing.asp

[FaranginPhetch]

There ya go then, have her lease it to you for 30 years,,just as I thought..

[Peterg]

I have often thought that solution is buy the land in the wife's name, setup a lease with a ground rent of 100 baht a year that covers your lifetime, then build away. That solution should cover anybodies paranoia!

By the way, is there such a thing as property tax in Thailand? i.e. a yearly property assessment based on the value of the property that is paid to local or regional government to cover such things as road, infrastructure, politicians paramoors etc.

[visionchaser45]

No property tax; at least not in the rural areas. They still haven't gotten around taking away property ownership in exchange for leasing from the government indefinitely. I guess they won't be evicting any widows any time soon either.

[FaranginPhetch]

We are located in Nongua, a small village 11 KM north of Phetchabun city, and pay about 100 baht a year for our residential property and a small tax on farm property that is in timber now.

Also some govt property we lease that is farmed up close to Khao Kao and is share cropped by a cousin.

The roads are mostly paid by taxes from booze, tobacco and such as that, and I imagine that property taxes also go into that fund.

Hey Vision, are you still here or have you went home already, been missing ya and haven't seen any posts forever.

[terryfrd]

My initial message was a hypothetical, prompted by looking at a very nice townhouse in Bangkok. Thanks for the responses. I'm still wondering what happens in the case where the wife does die and no arrangements have been made. Does anyone know, because I'm sure it happens?

Terry

[FaranginPhetch]

hypotheticaly, never happen, wife always lives longest, husbands like it that way and some want to die right after the wedding as soon as they sober up.

[khunlungphudhu]

I have been given to understand that the 'farang' would have up to twelve months in which to dispose of the property.
This is only what I have been told, so do not treat it as caste in stone!