What does a lawyer check before you buy a Thai condominium?

A lawyer's pre-purchase due diligence on a Thai condominium verifies six things before your money is committed: the unit's title, any encumbrances registered against it, the building's foreign-quota position, the developer or seller behind it, the sale and purchase agreement, and the condominium juristic person that runs the building. Each is a document check at a specific office, not an opinion — and each can stop a purchase that looked sound in the brochure.

This is legal work, carried out under a separate written engagement with Suwanvara Law Firm and never as a condition of buying through the brokerage. It is distinct from the buyer's own resale due-diligence checklist in the guide, which tells you what to ask; this describes what a lawyer independently verifies on your behalf, from the records rather than from the seller.

In brief

• A lawyer verifies six things before your money moves: title, encumbrances, foreign quota, the developer or seller, the contract, and the juristic person.
• The search is on your unit title deed; the land chanote is held collectively by the juristic person.
• Registered encumbrances — mortgage, seizure, lease, servitude, usufruct — travel with the unit, not the seller.
• The 49% foreign quota is measured by area at transfer; the juristic person's quota letter is the proof.
• A developer's contract must follow the prescribed standard form; a term that disadvantages the buyer is void.
• The debt-free letter matters because unpaid common fees follow the unit to you.
• This is a separate legal engagement, never a condition of buying through the brokerage.

What title is the lawyer actually searching?

The unit title deed for your specific condominium unit — not the land chanote, which the building holds collectively. A condominium unit is owned under its own unit title deed (หนังสือกรรมสิทธิ์ห้องชุด), issued by the Land Department under the Condominium Act B.E. 2522 (1979). The chanote for the land the building stands on is held by the condominium juristic person on behalf of all co-owners, so you never own a share of the land directly. The lawyer pulls the official record of your unit at the Land Department office that registered it and confirms three things line up: the unit number and floor, the registered area in square metres, and the name of the registered owner.

That last point catches more problems than any other. The registered owner on the deed must be the party who is actually contracting to sell — a unit sold by someone other than its registered owner, or by one of several co-owners without the others, cannot transfer. For a new development, the lawyer also confirms the condominium itself is registered and that unit title deeds have been issued; a developer selling units on land that carries no chanote, or before the condominium is registered, is selling a contract right, not a title.

What can be hiding on a unit that the deed does not show at a glance?

Registered encumbrances — a mortgage, a court or tax seizure, a registered lease, a servitude or a usufruct — each recorded against the title at the Land Department. Encumbrances are the claims other people hold over the unit, and they travel with the property, not with the seller. The Land Department record lists each one registered against the deed: a mortgage securing the seller's borrowing, a seizure order from a court or the Revenue Department, a registered lease that would bind you as the new owner, a servitude or a usufruct.

A mortgage is the common one, and it is not a reason to walk away — but it must be discharged at or before the transfer appointment, and the mechanics of paying the seller's bank out of the purchase price are arranged in advance, at the same Land Office visit, so the encumbrance is cleared as the title moves. A registered lease is the one buyers overlook: because a lease binds a successor in title, a unit sold with a tenant on a registered lease transfers to you with that lease attached. The lawyer reads what is registered, not what the seller describes, and flags anything that would survive the sale.

How does the lawyer confirm the foreign-quota position?

By obtaining the condominium juristic person's foreign-quota letter and reading it against section 19 bis of the Condominium Act. Foreign ownership in any condominium is capped at 49% of the total area of all units, measured by floor area rather than by number of units, under section 19 bis of the Condominium Act B.E. 2522 (1979). The definitive evidence is the foreign-quota letter the juristic person issues for your transfer, confirming the building has room for your unit within the 49% ceiling. The lawyer obtains it and, because the position is measured on the day the transfer is registered rather than the day you sign, makes sure the purchase agreement is conditional on quota being available at transfer, with your deposit refundable if it is not.

The lawyer also confirms you personally qualify to hold under section 19 — for most foreign buyers, by bringing the purchase money into Thailand in foreign currency under section 19(5), with the bank's Foreign Exchange Transaction evidence produced to the Land Department at registration under section 19 ter. Owning a condominium is a property right; it does not by itself confer any right to live in Thailand, which is a separate matter of immigration law.

What does the lawyer check about the developer or seller?

Whether they are who they say they are, and whether they are solvent and entitled to sell. Every Thai company can be checked in the Department of Business Development's public registry, which shows the registered directors, the shareholding and the filed accounts; a listed developer additionally files audited statements through the Stock Exchange of Thailand. The lawyer verifies the selling entity matches the party on the deed and the contract, and looks for signals a buyer cannot see from a sales gallery — a company in liquidation, a director who is not authorised to bind it, or a seller whose unit is already under a seizure order.

For an off-plan purchase, this check extends to whether the developer holds the permits the project needs and whether the condominium is on track to be registered so a unit deed can issue in your name. The firm conducts this verification independently and does not rely on the seller's own representations. It also declines to arrange or endorse any nominee company structure used to hold property for a foreigner, which is unlawful; where a purchase only works through such a structure, that is a reason to stop and take advice.

What in the sale and purchase agreement actually matters?

For a developer sale, that it follows the prescribed standard form; for any sale, who carries which cost and what happens if the deal fails. A developer's sale and purchase agreement must follow the standard form prescribed by the Minister under section 6/2 of the Condominium Act B.E. 2522 (1979), and any term that departs from it to the buyer's disadvantage is void — so the lawyer checks the contract you were handed against that form rather than accepting the developer's own drafting on the points that bind. Under section 6/1 the developer's advertising material forms part of the agreement, which is why the lawyer keeps the brochures, floor plates and specification sheets you were shown.

On every purchase, resale included, the lawyer confirms the allocation of the four transfer-day charges is stated in writing, that the deposit and default terms are balanced, and that the agreement is conditional on the title and quota checks passing. A resale contract is governed by the Civil and Commercial Code rather than the prescribed form, so its protections are the ones negotiated into it — which is precisely why it is reviewed before it is signed, not after.

Why does the condominium juristic person get checked too?

Because its finances, its records and its regulations all attach to the unit you are buying. The juristic person is the entity that runs the building, and three of its documents matter to a buyer. The debt-free letter confirms the seller owes no outstanding common fees — which is decisive, because unpaid common charges follow the unit to the new owner, and the Land Department will not register the transfer without this letter. The building's accounts and sinking-fund position show whether it is funded for the maintenance it will need. And the registered regulations, which bind every co-owner under section 32 of the Condominium Act, set out what the building permits — including any restriction on letting, which a buyer intending to rent needs to read before committing.

None of these is visible from a viewing, and none is something a seller has any incentive to volunteer. The lawyer obtains them from the juristic person office directly, and reads the last set of annual general meeting minutes alongside the accounts to see how the building has actually been run.

The limits of this article

• This article is general information about legal due diligence, not legal advice on any particular unit or transaction. A lawyer acts for you only under a separate written engagement with Suwanvara Law Firm, entered into after a conflicts check; instructing the firm is never a condition of buying through the brokerage, and you remain free to appoint another adviser.
• Suwanvara Property is a property brokerage. The pre-purchase due diligence described here is legal work, provided separately by Suwanvara Law Firm under its own engagement and fee — it is not bundled into the brokerage service.
• The firm conducts this verification independently and does not arrange, administer or endorse nominee company structures used to hold property for a foreigner, which are unlawful. Where a purchase only works through such a structure, that is a reason to stop and take advice, not to proceed.
• Statutes, Land Department procedures and fees change. The instruments cited were current when this article was checked; confirm the position for a specific purchase with the firm before you rely on it.

Continue reading

• The buyer's own checklist — what to ask. This article describes what a lawyer independently verifies.
• How the 49% foreign quota is measured — the position a lawyer confirms with the quota letter.

This article is published in multiple languages. Where the versions differ, the English text prevails.