You married at the district office. Years later you find out your spouse was still married to someone else on the day you signed the register. Or the person you married turns out to be someone else entirely. Can you simply walk away? No. You need a court.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Annulment in Thailand doesn’t work the way most Western readers expect. Thai law splits defective marriages into two groups. A void<\/strong> marriage (mokha<\/em>) never had legal effect. A voidable<\/strong> marriage (mokhiya<\/em>) is valid until the court cancels it. In almost every case you’ll need a judgment of the Juvenile and Family Court<\/a> before the register changes. The one exception is bigamy, which an interested person can also raise in other proceedings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This guide covers the grounds, who can apply, the deadlines, and what happens to property, inheritance and children. Every rule is tied to a section of the Civil and Commercial Code<\/a>. We use the text as amended by the Marriage Equality Act, in force since 23 January 2025.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The short answer.<\/strong> A marriage is void only for the four reasons listed in Section 1495<\/a>. It is voidable only for the five reasons listed in Section 1503<\/a>. Voidable claims carry short deadlines, some as short as 90 days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Last reviewed: 22 October 2026. We read the cited sections against the Thai text in our annotated Civil and Commercial Code<\/a>. That covers Sections 1448 to 1454, 1457 to 1459, 1494 to 1513, 1538, 1560 and 1598\/32. The Supreme Court<\/a> decisions cited are those summarised on our section pages and case notes, where the source of each is stated.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\nTable of Contents<\/h2>