Buying a Thai Company to Own the House by Drew Noyes

Dear Drew:

I look for the Pattaya Times every time I visit Pattaya so I can read your articles. My question is, what can PAPPA Co Ltd and your fine self do to help me buy an existing company that owns a house I really like in Pattaya.

I do not want to put the house in my Thai girlfriend's name or set up another company because the transfer fee is 6.5 percent of the value of 15 million baht, or roughly one million baht for transferring ownership. So I'll buy the company so I don't have to go to the Land Office.

So I ask, what is required?

Regards,

Johnny Mac

Dear Johnny,

Thank you for your loyalty to the Pattaya Times and for your question.

If you hire us, we will prepare a mortgage loan agreement between you and the company so the company is borrowing your money and it won't matter who the other shareholders are because all the money upon sale of the house will go to you. We also will prepare a lease agreement so you have exclusive rights to the house  and a promissory note to offset interest on the loan with rent due from the house.

We will investigate property you want to own by checking the title deed (chanote) at the Land Office to make sure there are no claims against the property that have been recorded. We will check the Department of Business Development to get a complete, certified report of all activity of the company since it opened until this date.

Then we will check Banglamung Revenue Department and other tax agencies to make sure all taxes for each year of company operation have been paid.

We will get signatures from the current managing director of the company you want to buy allowing a replacement managing director and to change shareholders and the registered address of the company you want to buy that owns the house you like.

We will check with all 12 banks locally to see if any debts on loans are outstanding. We will also check Pattaya Municipal Court and Chonburi Provincial Court to make sure no pending lawsuits have been filed.

There are many other small steps that need to be taken, but necessary to assure that nothing comes back to haunt you later. Call my Pattaya Thepprasit Road office at 038 301 050 to make an appointment.

Best wishes,

Drew Noyes