Documents Needed to Sell Property in Thailand

Proof that you own it

The title deed is the document the whole transaction runs on, and it is issued by the Land Department — not by you, your developer or your agent. For land, with or without a house on it, the strongest form is the chanote, a full title deed with surveyed boundaries. Weaker land documents exist and some cannot be transferred in the ordinary way at all, so if what you hold is not a chanote, establish exactly what it is with a lawyer before you market the property.

For a condominium the equivalent is the unit title deed issued for your unit, recording the unit, its floor area and its registered owner. It is separate from the building’s own paperwork, and it is what the Land Office endorses when ownership changes.

Find the physical deed before anything else. If the property is mortgaged, the lender holds it, and releasing it means asking the bank for a redemption figure and arranging for the bank to attend the transfer so the loan is settled out of the buyer’s money at the same appointment. That coordination takes longer than owners expect and is a common reason a completion date slips.

The house registration book, the tabien baan, is issued for the address rather than for the owner and records who is registered as living there. There is a blue book used for Thai nationals and a yellow book for foreign residents, and a condominium unit has one of its own. It is not proof of ownership and should not be treated as such, but it is asked for at transfer.

• Chanote for land or a house, or the unit title deed for a condominium
• The house registration book for the property
• Written confirmation from your lender of the redemption amount and the transfer arrangement, if mortgaged

Proof of who you are

The Land Office matches the person at the counter to the name printed on the deed, and it does that literally. Any gap between the two has to be bridged with a document. A Thai seller produces a national ID card and their own house registration book; a foreign seller produces a passport, in the name that appears on the deed.

That is where most identity problems start. If you have married, divorced or changed your name since you bought, or have simply been issued a new passport with a different transliteration of your name into Thai, you need the certificate connecting the two. This applies to spellings as much as to names: a deed transliterated one way and a passport rendered another is a mismatch as far as the counter is concerned.

If you are married, ask early whether the branch will require your spouse’s consent, and in what form. Practice depends on your circumstances and on whether the property was acquired during the marriage, so this is a question for the branch or your lawyer rather than something to assume either way.

If you cannot attend, you need a power of attorney on the Land Department’s own form — there are separate forms for land and for condominium units. Do not use a generic power of attorney drafted elsewhere. If it is signed outside Thailand it will normally need certification, and what a branch accepts varies, so confirm the requirement with the branch holding the title before you sign anything overseas.

Where the registered owner is a Thai company, the company itself has to be documented: a current company affidavit and registration documents, the shareholder list, the memorandum, the board resolution authorising the sale, and identity documents for the signing director. These come from the Department of Business Development, and the Land Office will expect recently issued copies rather than the set from the year you bought.

Documents only the juristic person can issue

If you are selling a condominium, the juristic person that manages the building sits on the critical path and there is no way around it. The document that matters most is the debt-free certificate, confirming that common area fees, sinking fund contributions and any levies charged against your unit have been paid. The Land Office will not complete the transfer without it, and the juristic person will not issue it until the account is clear.

Ask the management office three things as soon as you decide to sell: whether anything is outstanding on your unit, how much notice it needs to produce the certificate, and what it charges. The certificate must be current on the day of transfer, so it is requested near the end — but arrears are best discovered at the beginning, while you still have time to clear them without a buyer waiting.

The second document is a letter confirming the building’s foreign ownership position. Under the Condominium Act, no more than 49 per cent of a building’s total saleable floor area may be held freehold by foreign owners, and only the juristic person can say where the building currently stands and which side of that line your unit sits on. Get it in writing and dated, and refresh it as you approach transfer, because the position moves as other owners sell.

While you are there, ask for the current fee statement and any notices about forthcoming works or levies. A buyer’s lawyer will ask, and it is better that you know about a special assessment before it is raised as a reason to renegotiate.

Documents that exist because of the buyer

Some of the paperwork at transfer is not yours at all, but your sale is what fails if it is wrong, so it is reasonable to ask about it early.

A foreign buyer taking freehold in a condominium’s foreign quota has to satisfy the Land Office that the purchase money came into Thailand from abroad, in foreign currency, in that buyer’s own name. The evidence is issued by the Thai bank that received the funds. It cannot be produced retrospectively at the counter, and it is only useful if the name on it matches the name going on the deed exactly. Ask whether the money has been remitted, in whose name, and whether the buyer holds the bank documentation.

If the buyer is borrowing, their lender has its own document requirements and its own timetable, and the Land Office appointment has to be booked around the bank rather than the other way round. Ask which bank, at what stage the application is, and whether approval is formal or indicative. If the buyer is a Thai company, the same company documents described above apply to them.

Extra documents when you are selling a house

A house and land sale carries everything above except the condominium-specific items, plus a set of its own. The building has a paper trail separate from the land, and buyers’ lawyers look for it.

The construction permit issued by the local authority shows the house was built with permission, and later permits cover extensions and structural alterations. Where a previous owner added a room, a pool or a wall without one, that surfaces during the buyer’s checks rather than at your convenience, so establish what exists before you list.

Boundaries matter in a way they do not for a condominium. If the chanote’s survey is old, if a wall does not obviously follow the boundary markers, or if a neighbour crosses the land to reach their own, resolve it before marketing. The same goes for access: if the property is reached over land belonging to someone else, the buyer will want to see a registered right of way rather than an assurance that it has never been a problem.

• Construction permit for the house, and permits for any extension or alteration
• Boundary survey and confirmation that walls and fences follow the deed
• Registered right of way, where access crosses land you do not own
• Electricity and water account details for transfer to the buyer
• Estate or village management clearance and fee statement, where one applies

Getting it right on the day

Everything above converges on one appointment at the Land Office branch that holds the title. The officer checks the documents against each other, and the failure mode is almost always a mismatch rather than an absence — a name spelled differently, a certificate dated too long ago, a copy where an original is required.

Work in originals. Take the physical deed, the physical registration book and the actual passport, and bring signed copies as well, because copies are routinely retained. Assume the Land Office works in Thai: anything issued in another language needs a translation, and the branch will tell you what form of translation and certification it accepts.

Ask your agent or your lawyer to run through the file with you a few days before the appointment rather than on the morning. That is the point at which an expired certificate or a missing consent can still be fixed, and it is the most useful thing an agent does in the last week of a sale.

• Original title deed, released by the lender if it was mortgaged
• Original house registration book
• Original passport or Thai ID card, matching the name on the deed
• Documents bridging any name change, marriage or divorce
• Land Department power of attorney form, correctly certified, if you are not attending
• Debt-free certificate dated close to the appointment, for a condominium
• Juristic person letter on the building’s foreign ownership position
• Company affidavit, shareholder list and board resolution, where a company owns the property
• Certified Thai translations of anything issued in another language