Section 1471: Sin Suan Tua, separate property
Statutory text (Thai original)
สินส่วนตัวได้แก่ทรัพย์สิน(๑) ที่ฝ่ายใดฝ่ายหนึ่งมีอยู่ก่อนสมรส(๒) ที่เป็นเครื่องใช้สอยส่วนตัว เครื่องแต่งกาย หรือเครื่องประดับกายตามควรแก่ฐานะ หรือเครื่องมือเครื่องใช้ที่จำเป็นในการประกอบอาชีพหรือวิชาชีพของคู่สมรสฝ่ายใดฝ่ายหนึ่ง(๓) ที่ฝ่ายใดฝ่ายหนึ่งได้มาระหว่างสมรสโดยการรับมรดกหรือโดยการให้โดยเสน่หา(๔) ที่เป็นของหมั้น
Verbatim from the Royal Gazette / Office of the Council of State
English translation
Sin Suan Tua consists of: (1) property belonging to either spouse before marriage (2) property for personal use, dress or ornament suitable for station in life, or tools necessary for carrying on the profession of either spouse (3) property acquired by either spouse during marriage through a will or gift (4) Khongman.
This English translation is provided for reference only and has not yet been firm-verified. Always rely on the Thai original.
Firm annotation
Section 1471 defines what each spouse keeps individually. Four categories: (1) pre-marriage property; (2) inheritances received during marriage (default unless will says "to both"); (3) gifts during marriage where the giver specifically said "for X only"; (4) personal-use items (clothes, professional tools). A foreigner who marries with substantial pre-marriage wealth should keep records (bank statements, property deeds, valuation certificates from before the wedding date), without proof, the §1474 presumption that contested assets are Sin Somros applies.
Why this matters in practice
For lawyers: document pre-marital asset ownership carefully (bank statements, title deeds dated before marriage) to distinguish Sin Suan Tua from Sin Somros in divorce proceedings. For clients: keep records of inheritances and gifts received during marriage; without documentation, a court will presume marital property under §1474.
Legislative history
Sin Suan Tua was introduced when Book 5 was revised in B.E. 2519, replacing the earlier concept of 'sin doem' (original property). The Marriage Equality Act (No. 24, B.E. 2567), in force 22 Jan 2025, made no substantive change to §1471 but the regime now applies equally to all spouses.
Supreme Court decisions interpreting this section
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Supreme Court Judgment No. 13964/2558 (2015)
Pre-marital land is separate property, but structures built on it during marriage with marital funds are marital property if the landowner consented.
Land held by one spouse before marriage was Sin Suan Tua under §§1471(1) and 1472; structures built on that land during marriage using marital funds were, however, marital property — where the landowner had consented to the construction, the other spouse acquired a share in those improvements.
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Supreme Court Judgment No. 4982/2541 (1998)
A gift received during marriage without a written designation as marital property is automatically separate property under §1471(3).
Land received as a gift during marriage, without any written declaration that it was to be marital property, is classified as Sin Suan Tua (separate property) under §1471(3); the donee spouse's creditors cannot levy on it as marital property.
Curated decisions with case numbers verified against the Supreme Court database. English renderings are the firm's editorial translation for study.
Cited in 41 Supreme Court decisions (1967 to 2025)
Selected citing decisions
- Decision 1478/2565 (2022)
- Decision 186/2565 (2022) Land Given by One Spouse to the Other Without 'Sin Somros' Designation Becomes the Recipient's Separate Property
- Decision 7640/2560 (2017)
- Decision 8803/2559 (2016)
- Decision 13964/2558 (2015)
- Decision 12346/2558 (2015)
- Decision 4961/2558 (2015)
- Decision 4403/2558 (2015)
This list is selected automatically, weighted towards judgments that turn on this section rather than ones that merely recite it when passing sentence. It has not yet been reviewed by the firm.
Most often cited alongside
Sections that appear in the same judgments as this one most often. The figure is the number of decisions.
Counted across the firm's corpus of 83,652 Supreme Court decisions, 1921 to 2026. The count is complete; the stated year range trims rare outliers so it describes where the citations actually sit. These figures are computed by us and are not official court statistics. How we count these, and what we measured
Related guides on ThaiLawOnline
Cite this section
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Plain citation
Civil and Commercial Code, s. 1471 (Thailand) -
Academic citation
Civil and Commercial Code (Thailand), s. 1471. ThaiLawOnline, https://www.thailawonline.com/thai-civil-code/section-1471/ (accessed 8 August 2026). -
Thai citation
ป.พ.พ. มาตรา 1471 -
Permalink
https://www.thailawonline.com/thai-civil-code/section-1471/ -
Embed on your site
<blockquote cite="https://www.thailawonline.com/thai-civil-code/section-1471/"><p>Sin Suan Tua consists of: (1) property belonging to either spouse before marriage (2) property for personal use, dress or ornament suitable for station in life, or tools necessary for carrying on the profession of either spouse (3) property acquired by either spouse during marriage…</p><footer>Civil and Commercial Code, s. 1471 (Thailand) — <a href="https://www.thailawonline.com/thai-civil-code/section-1471/">ThaiLawOnline</a></footer></blockquote>
The Thai text is authoritative. The English is an unofficial translation by ThaiLawOnline, free to reuse with attribution.