THAILAND Law and Practice Contributed by: Olaf Duensing, Jerrold Kippen and Weeraya Kippen, Duensing Kippen, Ltd.
for up to 30 years. A habitation may be regis - tered and gives the holder the right of occupa - tion of a structure for either up to 30 years or the life of the holder. A superficies is the right to own a structure that is built on another party’s land for up to 30 years. A servitude grants the owner of a property rights (eg, access) over another property owned by someone else. However, a servitude is not a personal right, it is registered in favour of one piece of real estate over another piece of real estate, and this remains the case regardless of who owns the properties. Thus, a servitude has no time limitation. A charge is similar to a servitude, but it is a per - sonal right that gives the holder rights over real estate owned by someone else, for either the holder’s life or up to 30 years. 2.2 Laws Applicable to Transfer of Title The CCC applies to the transfer of real estate in Thailand. Special laws do not apply to a trans - fer of title for specific types of real estate, such as: residential, offices, retail, factories or hotels. However, some of these, eg, factories and hotels, are regulated uses of the real estate that require a licence to operate. Thus, if a new owner purchases real estate that is being used as a factory or hotel, that new owner would need to obtain a licence to use the real estate for either of those purposes. 2.3 Effecting Lawful and Proper Transfer of Title All real estate in Thailand is registered and held under various forms of title (see 2.1 Categories of Property Rights ) as prescribed by the Land Code.
The CCC requires an agreement to sell and pur - chase real estate to be in writing and registered at the local land office where the property is located. For a limited time during the COVID-19 pandemic some additional health protocols were added to this process, which led to some delays in completing transactions. Title insurance is not common in Thailand, but it is available. Buyers who are “land banking” (ie, whose sole purpose for the investment is to hold the real estate for a period of time and then resell for an anticipated profit), or who hold land for commercial purposes, are most likely to pur - chase title insurance which generally insures the owner against any flaw in the title which would invalidate it. 2.4 Real Estate Due Diligence Buyers typically engage a law firm to perform legal due diligence into the property. This typi - cally includes searches at the: • land office; • local administrative office; • forest resources and management office; • natural resources and environment office; • public works and town and city planning office; • civil courts; • bankruptcy courts; and • the department of legal execution, where the land is located. Title searches are particularly important, as wrongfully issued titles are not unknown in Thailand. Even if the title is not clearly invalid, official real estate records are sometimes lost or destroyed, which may make it impossible to verify the title to the real estate.
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