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 :
Réponse courte : no law in Thailand requires you to pay sin sod, and no court will order you to. It is a custom, and a serious one. Thai law recognises it only to answer one question: who keeps the money if the marriage does not happen. Section 1437 of the Code civil et commercial defines sin sod (สินสอด) as property given to the betrothed person’s parents in return for that person agreeing to marry, and it says the paying side can reclaim it if the marriage does not take place because of an important cause on the other side. That is the whole of the law. Everything else, the amount, the gold, the negotiation, is culture and family.
La distinction qui décide de tout : sin sod goes to her parents; khongman (ของหมั้น), the engagement cadeau, goes to the bride herself and becomes hers. They are refunded under different rules. Voir la comparaison.
Vous cherchez la définition courte ? Consultez notre entrée de glossaire pour sans soude. Cette page concerne les décisions : combien, si vous devez le faire, et si vous pouvez le récupérer.
Table des matières
Le Sin Sod est-il légalement requis en Thaïlande ?
Non. Il n'existe aucune loi obligeant un homme à payer le sin sod, pas de minimum, pas de maximum et aucun registre. Un mariage enregistré au bureau de district est valide, qu'un seul baht ait changé de mains ou non.
La loi thaïlandaise va plus loin que de simplement ne pas l'exiger. En vertu de section 1438, des fiançailles ne constituent pas un motif pour saisir un tribunal afin de contraindre quiconque au mariage, et tout accord prévoyant le paiement d'une pénalité en cas de rupture des fiançailles est vide. Une promesse écrite selon laquelle un fiancé perdra une somme s'il se désiste ne peut donc pas être exécutée, pas plus qu'une promesse de la famille de la mariée de la confier.
It is also worth being clear about what a ceremony does and does not do. A traditional Thai wedding, however large, does not create a legal marriage. Only registration at the amphore does. The Cour suprême made the point squarely in Décision 4656/2567: where a couple simply lived together by agreement, the fact that there had been no formal proposal, no sin sod or khongman, no traditional ceremony and no registration meant no biens matrimoniaux regime arose at all. The reverse holds too. You can have the proposal, the sin sod, the gold and three hundred guests, and still not be married in law. See comment se marier légalement en Thaïlande.
Rien de tout cela ne rend le "sin sod" facultatif dans un sens social. Refuser catégoriquement, dans la plupart des familles, met fin aux fiançailles. Ce que cela signifie, c'est que vous négociez une affaire familiale, et non que vous vous conformez à une obligation légale, et vous devez l'aborder de cette façon.
Le Sin Sod et le Khongman ne sont pas la même chose
Il s'agit de l'erreur la plus fréquente dans les écrits en anglais sur les mariages thaïlandais, et elle a son importance, car les deux sont remis à des personnes différentes et sont soumis à des règles différentes.
| Sin sod (bien remis aux parents de la future épouse) | Don de fiançailles | |
|---|---|---|
| Qu'est-ce que c'est | Don nuptial | Le don de fiançailles |
| Qui le reçoit | Ses parents, ses parents adoptifs ou son tuteur | La mariée elle-même |
| À qui appartient-il ensuite ? | Ses parents | À elle, de plein droit, dès le moment des fiançailles |
| Qu'est-ce qui conclut un engagement | Rien. Le sin sod n'est pas ce qui rend des fiançailles valides. | La remise du khongman est ce qui parachève l'engagement en vertu de l'article 1437. |
| Remboursement | Reproductible si le mariage n'a pas lieu pour une cause importante du côté de la partie fiancée, ou pour des circonstances dont cette partie est responsable | Restitution à la partie fiancée si la partie fiancée rompt les fiançailles (article 1439) |
En pratique, les deux sont généralement remis le même jour, souvent sur le même plateau, ce qui explique précisément pourquoi les familles et les étrangers les considèrent comme un seul et même paiement. S'il y a le moindre risque de litige par la suite, la différence entre “ cet or est pour votre fille ” et “ cet argent est pour vous ” est la différence entre deux issues juridiques. Précisez lequel est lequel, devant témoins, le jour même. La base légale est section 1437.
Combien coûte le Sin Sod ?
Il n'y a pas de réponse juridique, ce qui suit relève donc de ce que nous observons dans la pratique et de ce que les familles en Thaïlande attendent généralement. Considérez cela comme une carte, et non comme une grille tarifaire. Le montant est fixé par le statut de la mariée, les attentes de sa famille et la région, et il est négocié entre les deux familles plutôt qu'annoncé.
| Situation | Fourchette de prix couramment discutée (THB) | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Famille rurale, sans éducation universitaire, précédemment mariée ou avec des enfants | Souvent symbolique, parfois entièrement supprimé | Lorsqu'une mariée a déjà été mariée auparavant, les familles réduisent ou abandonnent fréquemment cette attente. |
| Famille de classe moyenne, diplômée de l'université | À peu près 100 000 à 300 000 | Le groupe le plus souvent cité |
| Famille de plus haut statut, professionnelle ou éduquée à l'étranger | 500 000 à 1 000 000 ou plus | Les exigences augmentent considérablement avec le statut de la famille |
| Gold, given alongside the cash | Typically 5 to 20 baht weight of 96.5% Thai gold | One baht weight is about 15.2 grams. Gold is often the visible part of the ceremony |
Two practical points that no statute covers but every family understands.
Display and keep are different questions. A large part of sin sod is about face: the sum shown on the tray in front of the guests. It is entirely normal for the amount displayed to exceed the amount the family actually retains. If a figure sounds impossible, the useful and entirely respectful question, asked through your fiancée or a Thai intermediary rather than directly, is whether it is for showing or for keeping.
It is frequently given back. In many families the sin sod, or a large part of it, is returned to the couple after the ceremony as the parents’ contribution towards a house, a car, or a business. This is common enough that a foreigner who assumes the money is gone is often wrong. It is also not something you can rely on or ask about in advance without causing offence.
A word on how this is discussed. Sin sod is not a purchase, and framing it as buying a bride is both wrong and, to a Thai family, insulting. It began as, and largely remains, a demonstration that the man can support a household and a recognition of what the bride’s parents have invested in raising her. The families who ask for the most are usually the ones for whom the ceremony carries the most social weight. Approaching it with that in mind produces better outcomes than approaching it as a haggle.
À qui s'appliquent ces règles
The betrothal provisions are non genré, and have been since the Civil and Commercial Code Amendment Act (No. 24) B.E. 2567 came into force on 23 janvier 2025. The Code no longer speaks of a man and a woman. It uses phu man (ผู้หมั้น), the betrothing party, and phu rap man (ผู้รับหมั้น), the betrothed party. That amendment rewrote section 1437 itself, the sin sod provision, so two people of the same sex can become betrothed and every rule on this page applies to them in the same terms. See Le mariage homosexuel en Thaïlande.
The same amendment raised the minimum age. Under section 1435 a betrothal may be made only where both parties have completed their eighteenth year, and a betrothal in breach of that is void. The previous rule was seventeen, so anything you read that still says seventeen predates January 2025.
Sin sod itself remains a custom with a gendered history, and this page describes the custom the way families actually practise it. The legal rules are not gendered, and where this page states a rule it uses the Code’s own terms.
Peut-on récupérer le Sin Sod ?
Sometimes, and the statutory rule is narrow. Under the third paragraph of section 1437, the betrothing party may reclaim sin sod where there is no marriage, and the reason is an important cause arising on the betrothed party’s side, or circumstances for which that side is responsible, making it improper or impossible for the betrothing party to marry them.
Read that carefully, because three conditions all have to hold.
| Situation | Can the paying side reclaim the sin sod? |
|---|---|
| The wedding never happens, and the receiving side is responsible | Oui, this is the case section 1437 is written for |
| The wedding never happens, and the paying side changed their mind | Non. The refund right depends on the cause being on the other side |
| They married, then divorced a year later | Non. The marriage took place, so the condition is not met. Divorce does not reopen sin sod |
| They had the ceremony but never registered the marriage | Contested and fact-dependent. Whether “no marriage” means no registration or no ceremony has to be argued on the facts. Take advice before assuming either way |
| The property was never really given in return for her agreeing to marry | Not a sin sod claim at all, though there may be another route |
That last line is where the case law is most useful. In Decision 1901/2559, at the formal proposal the man placed a land sale and purchase contract on the ceremonial tray, naming the bride’s mother’s daughter as the buyer. The sale later fell through. The Supreme Court held the land was not property given in return for the woman agreeing to marry, and therefore was not sin sod within section 1437 paragraph three. A promise, a contract, or an asset that was never actually transferred as consideration for the marriage does not become sin sod because it was presented on the tray.
And a warning about self-help. In Decision 7868/2560 the groom’s mother picked up a gold necklace and bracelet from the counter of a gold shop and took them. The court held that whether or not the items were sin sod or khongman, the man’s side had already delivered them to the bride’s mother on the wedding day, so the groom’s mother no longer owned them. If she believed the bride’s family had broken an agreement, her remedy was a civil claim, not taking the property back. Recovering sin sod is a court matter. Taking it yourself can be a criminal one.
Et si les fiançailles sont rompues ?
Breaking an engagement is not costless, even though nobody can be forced to marry. Under section 1439, where one side breaks the engagement the other may claim compensation, and where it is the betrothed party who breaks it, the khongman must also be returned.
Article 1440 then sets out what compensation can cover, and it is narrower than people expect:
- damage to the body or the reputation of either party;
- expenses incurred, or debts taken on, in bonne foi and reasonably, in preparing for the marriage;
- loss from having disposed of property, or having given up or changed a job or business, in the expectation that the marriage would happen.
Where the betrothed party is entitled to compensation, the court may treat the khongman they already hold as all or part of it. These claims are personal, and the rule sits in section 1447 paragraph two rather than in section 1440: a claim under this chapter cannot be transferred or inherited unless it has been acknowledged in writing or the injured person has already brought the action. There is one exception written into that sentence, and it is the practical one: a claim under section 1440(2), for expenses or debt incurred in good faith in preparation for the marriage, est transferable and inheritable. That matters because 1440(2) is usually the largest head of the bill.
The Deadlines, Which Are Short
This is the part that decides most real cases, and almost nothing written in English mentions it. The betrothal claims do not run on the ordinary limitation periods.
| Réclamation | limite de temps | Section |
|---|---|---|
| Compensation for breach of the betrothal agreement (section 1439) | Six months from the breach | §1447/1 |
| Compensation where the other side’s gross misconduct caused the renunciation (section 1444) | Six months from when it was known or ought to have been known, and never later than five years from the act | §1447/1 |
| Return of the khongman after a breach (section 1439) or a renunciation (section 1442) | Six months from the breach or the renunciation | §1447/2 |
| Return of the sans soude under section 1437 paragraph three | Not in the six-month list. Section 1437 applies the undue enrichment rules, so the period is un an from knowing of the right to restitution, and in any event ten years from when it accrued | §1437 with §§412 to 419 |
The asymmetry is worth saying plainly: the khongman claim can expire in six months while the sin sod claim is still alive. Families who wait to see whether the relationship recovers routinely lose the shorter one without knowing it existed.
If One of Them Dies Before the Wedding
Article 1441 deals with this separately and the result surprises people: where either betrothed dies before the marriage, there is no claim for compensation at all, and the receiving side does not have to return the khongman or the sin sod, whichever of the two died. It is not a breach, and the statute does not treat it as one.
What section 1440 does not cover is disappointment, wedding guests’ travel, or the value of the relationship. And remember section 1438: a clause in an engagement agreement fixing a penalty for withdrawal is void, so drafting one achieves nothing.
Comment le Sin Sod interagit avec un contrat de mariage
They solve different problems, and one does not substitute for the other.
Sin sod is a transfer made before the marriage, largely to the bride’s parents, and it is spent, kept or returned according to family arrangement. It never becomes marital property, because it is not the couple’s, and it is not on the table in a later divorce.
A Contrat prénuptial governs what happens to the couple’s property. In Thailand it must be made before the marriage is registered, recorded in the marriage register or attached to it and referred to there, and signed by both parties and two witnesses. Get the timing or the registration wrong and it is void: it cannot be added afterwards. That is the single most common way foreign couples lose the protection they thought they had.
The two questions worth asking together are these. If the bride’s parents return the sin sod to the couple and it goes into a house, whose is the house? And if you brought assets into the marriage, are they clearly separate property? Both are prenup questions, not sin sod questions. See contrats prénuptiaux en Thaïlande, and if you are already married, postnuptial agreements. What marriage changes about your property generally is covered in the consequences of marriage in Thailand.
Bien mener la conversation
- Never negotiate directly with her parents. In most families the discussion runs through your fiancée, an uncle, or a respected intermediary. Going straight at it yourself reads as disrespect however politely you do it.
- Ask what is customary in her family and her province, rather than what is customary in Thailand. The variation between regions and families is much larger than any national figure.
- Separate the gold from the cash out loud. Gold given to the bride is hers. Say so at the time.
- Do not sign anything promising a penalty if the wedding is called off. It is void under section 1438 and it dégâts the relationship for nothing.
- Keep a record of what was given and to whom. Not a contract, just clarity: photographs of the day, and someone who can say what was handed over. Every sin sod dispute that reaches a court turns on evidence of who received what.
- Deal with the prenup before the registration, on its own timetable, and do not let it get tangled up in the sin sod conversation.
Questions fréquentes
Doit-on payer le sin sod en Thaïlande ?
Pas légalement. Aucune loi thaïlandaise n'exige le sin sod, n'en fixe le montant ou ne permet à un tribunal d'ordonner à quiconque de le payer. Sur le plan social, c'est une autre affaire : dans la plupart des familles, il est attendu, et un refus net met généralement fin aux fiançailles. Ce que fait la loi, c'est décider qui le conserve si le mariage n'a pas lieu.
Le sin sod est-il la même chose qu'une dot ?
Not really, and the English word misleads. A dowry in the historical European sense travelled with the bride to the groom’s family. Sin sod moves the other way: from the man’s side to the bride’s parents, in return for her agreeing to marry. “Bride price” is closer, though it also carries connotations the custom does not deserve.
Quel est le montant normal du Sin Sod ?
There is no legal figure. In practice, a commonly discussed band for a middle-class, university-educated bride is roughly THB 100,000 to 300,000, with 500,000 to 1,000,000 or more where the family’s standing is higher or the bride was educated abroad, plus gold of typically 5 to 20 baht weight. Amounts are often nominal or waived where the bride has been married before. It is negotiated between families, not fixed.
Puis-je récupérer mon sin sod si nous ne nous marions pas ?
Vous ne pouvez le réclamer en vertu de l'article 1437, troisième alinéa, que si le mariage n'a pas lieu et que le motif est une cause importante imputable à l'autre partie, ou des circonstances dont cette partie est responsable. Si c'est vous qui vous êtes retiré, le droit au remboursement ne prend pas naissance.
Puis-je récupérer le sin sod après un divorce ?
No. The refund right in section 1437 depends on there being no marriage. Once you have married, sin sod is settled, and divorce does not reopen it. Divorce deals with the couple’s marital property, which is a separate question.
Quelle est la différence entre le sin sod et le khongman ?
Sin sod goes to the bride’s parents, adoptive parents or guardian, in return for her agreeing to marry. Khongman goes to the betrothed person as evidence the other will marry them, and becomes theirs outright once the engagement is complete. Under section 1439, if the betrothed party breaks the engagement the khongman must be returned; sin sod is refundable only under the narrower test in section 1437.
Pouvons-nous convenir par écrit que le sin sod est perdu si le mariage est annulé ?
Non. L'article 1438 rend nul tout accord visant à payer une pénalité en cas de rupture de fiançailles, et aucun tribunal ne contraindra au mariage. Ce que vous pouvez faire, c'est être au clair au moment des faits sur ce qui a été donné et à qui, ce qui est en réalité ce qui tranche ces litiges.
Does paying sin sod make us married?
No. Only registration at the district office creates a legal marriage in Thailand. A full traditional ceremony with sin sod and hundreds of guests creates no marital rights on its own, as the Supreme Court confirmed in Decision 4656/2567 in the converse situation.
Can the bride’s family keep the gold as well as the cash?
It depends on who it was given to. Gold given to the bride is khongman and becomes hers. Gold given to her parents as part of the sin sod is theirs. Because it is usually all presented together, saying clearly on the day which is which is worth more than any document afterwards.
Should I sign a prenuptial agreement as well?
They are separate questions, and a prenup is the one with a deadline. A Thai prenuptial agreement must be made before the marriage is registered and recorded in or attached to the marriage register, signed by both parties and two witnesses. It cannot be added later. If you have assets to protect, or if the sin sod may come back to the couple and go into property, deal with the prenup on its own timetable.
Si vous avez besoin de conseils
Most sin sod questions are family questions and we are not the right people to answer them. Where we do help is the legal side around the wedding: a prenuptial agreement drafted and registered in time, the marriage registration itself for a foreign spouse, and the occasional dispute where an engagement has ended badly and real money is involved.
A prenuptial agreement is 8 900 THB and takes about five working days. A consultation, if you want to talk something through first, is 2 000 THB par heure. Voir notre droit de la famille thaïlandais hub, or enregistrement de mariage.
Contactez-nous in English, French or Thai.
E-mail: info@thailawonline.com | Téléphone: +66 87 225 1340 (English and French), +66 87 414 9288 (Thai and English).
This page states the law as at August 2026 and is general information, not advice on your situation. Statutory references are to the Thai Civil and Commercial Code. Amounts described are observed social norms, not legal requirements, and no law in Thailand sets any figure for sin sod.
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