Usufruct (sitthi kep kin): Definition

Reviewed by Wichuda Atthamethakon, LL.M., Thai Bar Licence 3149/2556, for ThaiLawOnline, a Thai law firm acting for foreigners since 2006.

Last updated on 6 November 2026

Full guide: Usufruct in Thailand: Meaning, Registration and Cost

Real right under Sections 1417-1428 of the Thai Civil and Commercial Code giving the usufructuary (ผู้ทรงสิทธิเก็บกิน) the right to possess, use and take the fruits of another person’s immovable property, including collecting rents (section 1417), either for the usufructuary’s life or for a fixed term. A fixed term cannot exceed thirty years, though it can be renewed (section 1418, applying section 1403 paragraph 3), and every usufruct, whether for life or for a fixed term, always ends on the usufructuary’s death (section 1418). A juristic person, which has no lifetime, can therefore hold one only for a fixed term of up to thirty years. The usufruct is registered on the land title at the Land Department and is a common structure for foreigners married to Thai nationals.

Full guide: usufruct agreement in Thailand

How usufruct compares with the French and Quebec usufruit

Usufruct (known in Thai as สิทธิเก็บกิน, or sitthi kep kin) is a real property right under Thai law. It gives one person the right to possess, use, and collect income from property owned by someone else. The Thai Civil and Commercial Code (CCC) covers this in Sections 1417 to 1428.

By its nature, a usufruct is temporary and often arises from family relationships. Civil Law traditionally divides property rights into three components:

A usufruct gives the holder (the usufructuary) the rights of Usus and Fructus together. This lets them use and benefit from the property. However, it does not grant the right of Abusus; the usufructuary cannot sell or destroy the property.

Note: Terms like “leasehold” or “freehold” are common in other legal systems. However, they are not exact terms in Thai Civil Law and should not be confused with usufruct.

If You Already Know the French or Quebec Usufruit

Usufruct is not a Thai invention and it is not exotic. It is the same institution French, Belgian, Swiss and Quebec lawyers call usufruit, and the Thai Civil and Commercial Code (Book IV, Property) drew it from the same European sources. If you grew up with that vocabulary, most of what you know carries over. Four differences are worth knowing before you register one here.

Duration. Under Thai law a usufruct runs for the life of the usufructuary, or for a fixed term that cannot exceed 30 years (Section 1418). French law is close: the usufruit ends at the usufructuary’s death (article 617 of the Code civil) and is capped at 30 years when it is granted to a legal person (article 619). Quebec is the outlier, allowing a term of up to 100 years (article 1123 of the Code civil du Québec).

It still does not pass to your heirs. This is the same in all three systems and it surprises people every time. The usufruct dies with the usufructuary. If you want an interest your children can inherit, look at a superficies over the house or a Sap Ing Sith right, not a usufruct or an ordinary lease, which the Supreme Court treats as personal to the tenant and ended by the tenant’s death (Decision 3254/2545). See what happens to a usufruct when someone dies.

Registration does more work here. In Thailand the usufruct becomes a real right binding the land, and every later buyer, only once it is registered on the title deed at the Land Office. Unregistered, it binds only the person who signed it. However well the agreement itself is drafted, nothing in it substitutes for that entry on the chanote.

How it usually arises. In France the usufruit most often comes into being by operation of law, above all through the surviving spouse’s option over the estate (article 757), or by a deliberate démembrement de propriété for tax reasons. In Thailand it is almost always contractual, and the reason is specific: a foreigner cannot own land, so a usufruct is how they secure the right to live on and profit from land held in a Thai name. Thai law also has no equivalent of the French quasi-usufruit over consumable property (article 587).

Related Terms

• Usufructuary (ผู้ทรงสิทธิเก็บกิน): the person holding the usufruct. Entitled to use the property and take its fruits, but must preserve its substance and return it at the end of the term.
• Usus: the Roman-law right to use a thing without taking its fruits. In Thai law it is absorbed into usufruct and into the right of habitation (CCC Sections 1402 to 1409).
• Fructus: the right to collect the natural and civil fruits: crops, rents, interest, offspring of livestock, without diminishing the property. Usus plus fructus is what a usufruct grants.
• Abusus: the right to consume, alter, destroy or transfer the thing. This is the one right a usufruct never transfers, which is why the owner remains the owner.
• Naked owner: the owner whose title is burdened by the usufruct. Retains abusus but no current right of use. When the usufruct ends, full ownership consolidates automatically.

Last reviewed: 27 September 2026. Civil and Commercial Code sections 1402, 1403, 1409, 1417, 1418 and 1428 were read in Thai.