Reviewed by ThaiLawOnline, a licensed Thai law firm practising in Thailand since 2006. Thai lawyer of record: Wichuda Atthamethakon, LL.M., Thai Bar Licence 3149/2556.
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The six classes of statutory heirs (ลำดับทายาทโดยธรรม, lamdap thayat doi tham, the order of heirs at law) are the ranking in Section 1629 of the Civil and Commercial Code 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 of Contents
How Section 1629 ranks the relatives
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 estate with class 2 or 3, two thirds with class 4, 5 or 6, and everything when no class survives.
Proving membership of a class
The court appointing the estate administrator 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. For the father, legitimation (registration, marriage to the mother or a court judgment) is the clean proof, but it is not the only route to inheriting: Section 1627 treats a child born outside marriage whom the father has acknowledged as his descendant, and the courts accept acknowledgement by conduct, such as supporting the child and letting the child use his surname (Supreme Court Decisions 381/2538 and 1205/2542). 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 marriage certificate, 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, the Land Code requires the Minister’s permission (section 93), failing which the land must be disposed of within the period the Director-General sets, of not less than 180 days and not more than one year (section 94).
Worked examples of the order
| Who survives | Result |
|---|---|
| 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 dying without a will in Thailand shows how a short will changes each of these outcomes.
Last reviewed: 27 September 2026. Civil and Commercial Code sections 1627, 1629, 1630, 1635, 1639, 1643 and 1753 and Land Code sections 93 and 94 were read in Thai, with Supreme Court Decisions 381/2538 and 1205/2542 on acknowledgement.
Frequently asked questions
What does Section 1629 of the Thai Civil and Commercial Code say?
It lists the six classes of statutory heirs in order: descendants, parents, full-blood siblings, half-blood siblings, grandparents, and uncles and aunts, and provides that the surviving spouse is also a statutory heir. A higher class excludes the lower ones, except that parents inherit alongside descendants.
Do parents inherit if the deceased had children in Thailand?
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.
Does an adopted or illegitimate child count as a descendant under Section 1629?
An adopted child counts as a descendant of the adoptive parent. A child born outside marriage is always a descendant of the mother, and becomes a descendant of the father once the father registers legitimation, marries the mother, or a court declares paternity. For inheritance, Section 1627 also counts a child the father has acknowledged, which the courts accept from conduct such as supporting the child and giving the child his surname.
See also: statutory heir, intestacy, legitimation, adoption, and the guides on dying without a will in Thailand and whether a foreigner can inherit land.
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