Section 1490 — Which debts are joint debts
Statutory text (Thai original)
หนี้ที่คู่สมรสเป็นลูกหนี้ร่วมกันนั้นให้รวมถึงหนี้ที่คู่สมรสฝ่ายใดฝ่ายหนึ่งก่อให้เกิดขึ้นในระหว่างสมรสดังต่อไปนี้
(๑) หนี้เกี่ยวแก่การจัดการบ้านเรือนและจัดหาสิ่งจำเป็นสำหรับครอบครัว การอุปการะเลี้ยงดูตลอดถึงการรักษาพยาบาลบุคคลในครอบครัวและการศึกษาของบุตรตามสมควรแก่อัตภาพ
(๒) หนี้ที่เกี่ยวข้องกับสินสมรส
(๓) หนี้ที่เกิดขึ้นเนื่องจากการงานซึ่งคู่สมรสทำด้วยกัน
(๔) หนี้ที่คู่สมรสฝ่ายใดฝ่ายหนึ่งก่อขึ้นเพื่อประโยชน์ตนฝ่ายเดียว แต่อีกฝ่ายหนึ่งได้ให้สัตยาบัน
Verbatim from the Royal Gazette / Office of the Council of State
English translation
Debts for which the spouses are jointly liable include the following debts incurred by either spouse during the marriage:
(1) debts concerning the management of the household and the provision of necessaries for the family, the maintenance and medical treatment of members of the family, and the education of the children, as is appropriate to their condition in life;
(2) debts connected with the marital property;
(3) debts arising from a business carried on by the spouses together;
(4) debts incurred by one spouse for that spouse's own benefit alone, but ratified by the other.
ThaiLawOnline translation, written from the Thai original and verified
Firm annotation
Section 1490 is what creditors use to reach a non-borrowing spouse's share of marital assets. Three categories of "family debt": (1) household necessaries — groceries, school fees, medical care; (2) joint-property debts — mortgage on marital home; (3) professional debts that benefit the family — business loans where the household benefited from the income. Personal-use debts (gambling losses, individual luxury purchases) remain individual unless ratified by the other spouse. Recent SC decisions interpret "benefit to family" broadly when applied to business borrowing.
Why this matters in practice
For lawyers: a creditor must prove the debt was for family benefit or marital property management to reach Sin Somros; a purely personal debt of one spouse cannot be satisfied from marital property without the other's consent. For clients: debts taken out for running the household or for joint business ventures bind your Sin Somros; purely personal debts of your spouse do not automatically bind you.
Legislative history
Section 1490 has applied since the B.E. 2519 revision of Book 5. The Marriage Equality Act (No. 24, B.E. 2567), in force 22 Jan 2025, extended the joint-debt regime to all married couples regardless of gender.
Supreme Court decisions interpreting this section
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Supreme Court Judgment No. 7631/2552 (2009)
A spouse who witnesses a loan agreement is taken to have ratified it, converting the debt into a joint marital obligation.
Where one spouse borrowed money and the other signed as a witness to the loan agreement, the court held the witnessing spouse had ratified the debt, rendering it a joint marital debt enforceable against Sin Somros.
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Supreme Court Judgment No. 6686/2552 (2009)
A debt is a joint marital obligation if the circumstances reasonably indicate the borrowed funds were applied for the benefit of the family.
Where one spouse borrowed a large sum from a third party and it was reasonably inferred the funds were used for family benefit and to extend credit to the family, the debt was classified as a joint marital debt enforceable against Sin Somros.
Curated decisions with case numbers verified against the Supreme Court database. English renderings are the firm's editorial translation for study.
Cited in 72 Supreme Court decisions (1958 to 2025)
Selected citing decisions
- Decision 4155/2567 (2024)
- Decision 4008/2567 (2024)
- Decision 2794/2567 (2024)
- Decision 1486/2567 (2024)
- Decision 3803/2565 (2022)
- Decision 3801/2565 (2022)
- Decision 8820/2561 (2018)
- Decision 14281/2558 (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
- Section 1445 10
- Thai CPC s. 142 9
- Section 1489 8
- Thai CPC s. 223/2 8
- Thai CPC s. 287 5
- Section 1474 3
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. These figures are computed by us and are not official court statistics.
Related guides on ThaiLawOnline
Cite this section
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Plain citation
Civil and Commercial Code, s. 1490 (Thailand) -
Academic citation
Civil and Commercial Code (Thailand), s. 1490. ThaiLawOnline, https://www.thailawonline.com/thai-civil-code/section-1490/ (accessed 8 August 2026). -
Thai citation
ป.พ.พ. มาตรา 1490 -
Permalink
https://www.thailawonline.com/thai-civil-code/section-1490/ -
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<blockquote cite="https://www.thailawonline.com/thai-civil-code/section-1490/"><p>Debts for which the spouses are jointly liable include the following debts incurred by either spouse during the marriage: (1) debts concerning the management of the household and the provision of necessaries for the family, the maintenance and medical treatment of members of the family,…</p><footer>Civil and Commercial Code, s. 1490 (Thailand) — <a href="https://www.thailawonline.com/thai-civil-code/section-1490/">ThaiLawOnline</a></footer></blockquote>
The Thai text is authoritative. The English is an unofficial translation by ThaiLawOnline, free to reuse with attribution.