Last updated on August 8, 2026
Living the dream in Thailand is one thing. Having the paperwork to match it is another. This Legal Health Check asks you a handful of questions about your marriage, your home, your children, your visa and your will, and then tells you exactly which gaps you have, what each one would actually cost you, and what it costs to close.
It takes about ten minutes, it is free, and you get a written report at the end rather than a pat on the head. We only ask what applies to you: answer the first three questions and the rest of the check adapts.
Table of Contents
Completing this Legal Health Check can help ensure that all your legal documents are in order.
Disclaimer: This check is general information, not legal advice, and it does not create a lawyer and client relationship. It works from the answers you gave and cannot see the documents themselves. Thai law changes, and the rules that apply to you may depend on facts this check did not ask about. For advice on your own situation you need to speak to a licensed Thai lawyer.
The expat legal checklist this check runs through
Below is every gap the check can find, why it matters under Thai law, and what fixing it involves. You do not need to take the check to read this part. If you already know which one applies to you, go straight to it.
The basics
Is it legal to hold Thai property through a company I control?
A company formed mainly to hold your house, with Thai shareholders who never paid for their own shares, is a nominee arrangement. That is an offence under sections 36 and 37 of the Foreign Business Act, for the foreigner and for every Thai lending their name, carrying up to three years imprisonment and a fine of 100,000 to 1,000,000 baht. The court can order the company dissolved. It stopped being a theoretical risk in 2026: the Department of Business Development is now actively cross-checking shareholder funding in tourist provinces.
The fix: Get the structure reviewed before anyone else reviews it for you. Depending on what the review finds, the answer is usually either to make the company genuinely trade and be genuinely funded, or to unwind it and put a registered lease or usufruct in your own name instead.
Our fee: Property due diligence (land or house), from 30,000 THB , Quoted with scope
Your home
Is a written land agreement enough if it is not registered at the Land Office?
An unregistered agreement binds only the person who signed it. A lease of more than three years that is not registered is enforceable for three years and no longer, under section 538 of the Civil and Commercial Code. If the land is sold, mortgaged, inherited or taken by a creditor, the new owner is not bound by your paper and can require you to leave.
The fix: Register the right you already agreed. A usufruct or a lease is entered on the chanote at the Land Office, usually in a single visit, and from that moment it binds every future owner rather than just your partner.
Our fee: Usufruct agreement, 3,900 THB , 5 to 7 business days
What happens to my house if it is on my partner's land and nothing is registered?
With nothing registered and nothing written, you are living there by permission that can be withdrawn at any time. If the relationship ends, if your partner dies and the land passes to their heirs, or if a creditor seizes it, you have no right to stay and no way to recover what you spent building or renovating. The money you put into the house became part of the land the day it was built.
The fix: Register a usufruct or a 30-year lease at the Land Office. Both go on the title deed and survive a sale, a death and a divorce, which is the whole point of registering.
Our fee: Usufruct agreement, 3,900 THB , 5 to 7 business days
What is the 49 percent foreign ownership quota, and what if my condo breaches it?
Foreigners may own condominium units freehold, but only within the 49 percent of the building's total floor area that may be in foreign hands, under section 19 bis of the Condominium Act. The Land Office is supposed to refuse a transfer that breaches it, and transfers do slip through. If yours did, the registration is open to challenge and, more immediately, you cannot sell the unit on to another foreign buyer.
The fix: Ask the juristic person for the current foreign quota letter and check it against your unit's registration. It is a short piece of work and it either closes the question or tells you now, while you still have options, rather than at the point of sale.
Our fee: Initial consultation, 2,000 THB per hour , Booked within 1 to 2 business days
Family
Does a prenuptial agreement signed abroad work in Thailand?
Under section 1466 of the Civil and Commercial Code a prenuptial agreement is void unless it is entered in the marriage register at the time the marriage is registered. A foreign agreement is not automatically effective against property here, and a Thai court asked to apply it to Thai assets will look first at whether that formality was met.
The fix: Have the foreign agreement reviewed against Thai law so you know exactly what it protects here and what it does not. Where it leaves a gap, there are separate steps that can close part of it, though not all of it.
Our fee: Contract review, 9,000 THB , 3 to 5 business days
Can I still get a prenuptial agreement if I am already married in Thailand?
Without one, everything either of you acquires during the marriage is Sin Somros and is divided equally on divorce, regardless of who earned or paid for it. Property you owned before the marriage stays yours in principle, but it loses that character once it is sold, reinvested or mixed with marital money, which is what usually happens over a long marriage.
The fix: A prenuptial agreement can only be registered at the moment of marriage, so if you are already married that door is closed, and anyone offering you a Thai prenup now is selling you something that will not bind. Spouses can still agree about property during the marriage, but section 1469 lets either of them undo that agreement at any time while married, or within a year of the marriage ending, so it is not a substitute. What is worth doing is establishing now what is Sin Suan Tua and what has already become Sin Somros, while the paperwork still exists to prove it.
Our fee: Initial consultation, 2,000 THB per hour , Booked within 1 to 2 business days
Am I the legal father if I am on the birth certificate but was not married to the mother?
Under section 1546 of the Civil and Commercial Code a child born to a woman who is not married is the legitimate child of the mother alone. Being named on the birth certificate does not change that. Until you legitimate under section 1547 you hold no parental power: no say in schooling or medical treatment, no standing to consent to or refuse the child leaving Thailand, no right to apply for custody if you separate, and the child does not inherit from you under Thai intestacy.
The fix: Legitimation, by registration at the district office or by court order. Section 1548 requires the consent of both the mother and the child. If they do not appear, the registrar notifies them and silence for sixty days is treated as refusal, and the registration then has to be made by court order instead. The court route is slower but it is available even when the mother does not agree.
Our fee: Child custody and parental rights, Quoted after consultation , Depends on route: district office or Juvenile and Family Court
Do I need a written custody agreement if we are not separating?
With nothing agreed, a dispute goes to the Family Court and the court decides from the beginning, weighing the child's best interest with no starting presumption in your favour. That takes months, and it is time you do not have if a child has already left the country. Thailand is a party to the Hague Convention on child abduction, so removal without the consent of everyone holding parental power can be treated as wrongful, in both directions.
The fix: A written custody and contact agreement, and where either parent has strong ties to another country, one endorsed by the court so it is enforceable rather than merely persuasive.
Our fee: Child custody and parental rights, Quoted after consultation , Depends on route: district office or Juvenile and Family Court
If something happens
Does my home country will cover my assets in Thailand?
A foreign will can be recognised here, but it is not self-executing. It has to be translated, legalised and proved to the Thai court's satisfaction before anyone can touch a Thai bank account or transfer a title deed. That turns a routine probate into a slow one, and every month of it is a month your family cannot access the money they are inheriting.
The fix: A short separate Thai will covering only your Thai assets, drafted so that it does not revoke your home-country will. The two sit side by side, each dealing with its own jurisdiction.
Our fee: Last Will and Testament, 3,900 THB , 3 to 5 business days
What happens to my Thai assets if I die without a Thai will?
Your Thai assets pass under the statutory order in section 1629 of the Civil and Commercial Code: children first, then parents, then siblings, with a surviving spouse taking a share alongside whichever class inherits. A partner you are not married to is nowhere on that list and receives nothing, however long you have been together. Whoever is entitled still has to open a probate case and have an administrator appointed before anything can move.
The fix: A bilingual Thai will covering your Thai assets, drafted to the formalities in section 1656 so that it cannot be attacked on execution. It is the cheapest problem on this page to solve and the most expensive one to leave.
Our fee: Last Will and Testament, 3,900 THB , 3 to 5 business days
Who can act for me in Thailand if I am hospitalised?
Thai banks and the Land Office act on a signed, current power of attorney in the prescribed form and on nothing else. There is no next-of-kin shortcut here and no fast court appointment to fall back on. Rent, school fees and insurance premiums go unpaid from an account your family can see the balance of and cannot touch.
The fix: A power of attorney in Thai, drawn for the specific things it needs to cover, because a general one is often refused at the counter. Signed abroad it usually needs embassy legalisation, so it is far simpler to sign it while you are here.
Our fee: Power of Attorney, 3,900 THB , 1 to 2 business days
Is a living will recognised in Thailand?
Section 12 of the National Health Act lets you refuse treatment that serves only to prolong dying, and a valid directive binds the treating doctor. Without one the decision falls to whichever relative the hospital can reach, often in another time zone at three in the morning, and the default in Thai hospitals is to continue treatment.
The fix: A living will under section 12. It is one page, and it is the least expensive document on this list. Taken together with a Thai will it is charged as a package rather than separately.
Our fee: Living Will (advance medical directive), 1,900 THB , 3 to 5 business days
Staying legal
Is it safe to let a visa agent handle my extensions?
Agents handle the paperwork, not the consequences. If an extension is refused, or was obtained on documents that do not survive a later check, it is your stamp, your record and your ban. You find out at the airport, and the agent does not travel with you.
The fix: Ask your agent which extension category you are actually on and what the financial requirement for it is, and keep your own copy of the file. If the answer is vague, that is the finding.
What happens if I overstay my Thai visa?
Overstay is counted per day and enforced when you leave. Past 90 days it carries an automatic ban on returning, one year at first and rising with the length of the overstay, and being arrested on overstay rather than presenting yourself carries a longer ban than leaving voluntarily. There is no grace period and no discretion at the counter.
The fix: Check the date on your most recent entry stamp or extension today, then confirm which extension you actually qualify for before it runs out rather than in the last week.
Does my work permit have to match the work I actually do?
A work permit authorises the job description and the employer written on it, and nothing else. Working outside that scope is treated the same as working without a permit for that activity. This is the way a long-settled, otherwise entirely legitimate expat most often gets caught, because the permit was correct on the day it was issued and the job quietly changed afterwards.
The fix: Amend the permit so it matches what you actually do. It is a change filing rather than a fresh application, and it is far cheaper than the alternative.
Our fee: Work permit, 15,000 THB , 10 to 15 business days new, 5 to 7 renewal
Is remote work for an overseas company legal in Thailand without a work permit?
Working without a permit carries a fine of 5,000 to 50,000 baht, deportation, and a two year bar on applying for a permit again. The definition of work does not require a Thai employer, a Thai client or Thai income, so remote work for an overseas company is still work unless you hold a visa that expressly allows it. The Destination Thailand Visa does allow remote work for an overseas employer. A tourist entry does not.
The fix: Either bring the activity onto a permit, or move onto a visa category that covers what you are actually doing. Which of the two is right depends on who pays you and from where, so it is worth an hour before it is worth a lawyer.
Our fee: Work permit, 15,000 THB , 10 to 15 business days new, 5 to 7 renewal
Am I legally protected in Thailand?
That is the question underneath all of these, and the honest answer is that most foreign residents are protected in some areas and completely exposed in others, usually without knowing which is which. Thai law does not work the way your home country’s law works, and the differences that catch expats out are rarely the ones they worry about.
People worry about visas, which are at least visible and dated. What quietly goes wrong is the house built on land nobody registered a right to, the child whose father never legitimated him, the estate that has no Thai will and takes a year of probate to unlock. None of those are difficult to fix in advance. All of them are expensive, slow, or simply impossible to fix afterwards.
The legal requirements of living in Thailand, in one place
There is no single register that tells you what you are missing. Immigration knows about your visa and nothing else. The Land Office knows what is on your title deed and nothing else. The district office knows whether you registered a marriage or a legitimation, and will not tell you that you should have. Nobody joins it up, which is why the gaps are usually found by the person’s family rather than by the person.
This check is our attempt at joining it up: one pass over property, family, estate, visa and work status, from the firm that would be handling it if something went wrong. Laws and practice change, so it is worth running it again once a year, and straight away if you marry, separate, buy or sell property, have a child, or change visa category.
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