Révisé par ThaiLawOnline, un cabinet d'avocats thaïlandais agréé exerçant en Thaïlande depuis 2006. Avocate thaïlandaise en charge du dossier : Wichuda Atthamethakon, LL.M., licence du barreau thaïlandais 3149/2556.
Dernière mise à jour :
Le six classes d'héritiers légaux (ลำดับทายาทโดยธรรม, lamdap thayat doi tham, the order of heirs at law) are the ranking in Section 1629 of the Code civil et commercial that decides which relatives inherit when a person dies without a will. The classes run, in order, from descendants to parents, full-blood siblings, half-blood siblings, grandparents, and finally uncles and aunts, with the surviving spouse inheriting beside whichever class survives. The section is short, but the rules around it, exclusion, representation, the parents’ exception and the spouse’s share, are what decide who actually receives what.
Table des matières
Comment l'article 1629 classe les proches
Class 1 is descendants: children, grandchildren and further down, including adopted children and children whom a father has legitimated (Section 1627). Class 2 is parents. Class 3 is brothers and sisters of full blood, class 4 brothers and sisters of half blood, class 5 grandparents, and class 6 uncles and aunts. Under Section 1630 the existence of any heir in a higher class excludes every lower class entirely, with one exception: surviving parents inherit alongside descendants, each parent taking the same share as a child.
Within a class, heirs of the same degree take equal shares. Where a member of class 1, 3, 4 or 6 died before the deceased, that person’s own descendants step into the share by representation, so a predeceased son’s children divide what he would have taken. Classes 2 and 5, parents and grandparents, are not represented. The spouse is not in any class; Section 1635 gives them a child’s share with class 1, half the domaine with class 2 or 3, two thirds with class 4, 5 or 6, and everything when no class survives.
Prouver l'appartenance à une classe
The court appointing the administrateur de succession wants documents, not family lore. A child proves class 1 by a birth certificate showing the deceased as parent; for a child born to unmarried parents that means the mother automatically, but the father only if he registered légitimation at the district office, married the mother, or obtained a court judgment. Parents prove class 2 by the deceased’s birth certificate. Siblings prove class 3 or 4 by both birth certificates, and the difference between full and half blood turns on whether both parents are shared.
For a foreigner who dies in Thailand, these documents usually come from abroad and must be legalised and translated before the Thai court accepts them, which is why an intestate estate with foreign relatives takes so much longer than one with a Thai will. A registered certificat de mariage, Thai or foreign, is what proves the spouse; an unregistered partner is in no class at all. Where a foreign heir in any class receives land, Section 93 of the Land Code requires ministerial permission or a sale within one year.
Exemples traités de la commande
| Who survives | Résultat |
|---|---|
| Wife, two children, both parents | Estate divided in five equal parts: wife, each child, each parent |
| Wife and parents, no children | Wife one half; parents share the other half |
| Wife and one full brother | Wife one half; brother one half |
| Wife and a half-sister | Wife two thirds; half-sister one third |
| Children only | Equal shares; a predeceased child’s share passes to that child’s own children |
| Nobody in any class, no spouse | Estate passes to the State under Section 1753 |
The order is a default that a valid will overrides in full, since Thai law has no forced share for any class. Foreigners are often surprised that a parent in Europe shares equally with a Thai child, or that a brother inherits ahead of a partner of twenty years. The guide on Mourir sans testament en Thaïlande shows how a short will changes each of these outcomes.
Foire aux questions
Que dit l'article 1629 du Code civil et commercial thaïlandais ?
Il énumère les six catégories d'héritiers légaux dans l'ordre : les descendants, les parents, les frères et sœurs germains, les frères et sœurs utérins ou consanguins, les grands-parents, ainsi que les oncles et tantes, et prévoit que le conjoint survivant est également un héritier légal. Une catégorie prioritaire exclut les catégories subordonnées, à l'exception des parents qui héritent aux côtés des descendants.
Est-ce que les parents héritent si le défunt avait des enfants en Thaïlande ?
Yes. Although parents are class 2, Section 1630 makes them an exception to the usual exclusion: surviving parents inherit alongside the children, each parent taking a share equal to one child’s share. Grandparents and siblings, by contrast, take nothing while any child survives.
Un enfant adopté ou illégitime compte-t-il comme un descendant en vertu de l'article 1629 ?
Un enfant adopté est considéré comme un descendant du parent adoptif. Un enfant né hors mariage est toujours un descendant de la mère et devient un descendant du père une fois que ce dernier enregistre la légitimation, épouse la mère, ou qu'un tribunal établit la paternité.
Voir aussi : héritier légal, succession ab intestat, légitimation, adoption, et les guides sur Mourir sans testament en Thaïlande ET whether a foreigner can inherit land.
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