Book 5: Family

Section 1533: Marital property divided equally

Amended by Act No. 24 B.E. 2567 (Marriage Equality), in force 22 January 2025 Gendered terms (husband/wife) replaced with gender-neutral 'spouse'; the rule applies equally to same-sex married couples.

Statutory text (Thai original)

เมื่อหย่ากัน ให้แบ่งสินสมรสให้คู่สมรสแต่ละฝ่ายได้ส่วนเท่ากัน

Verbatim from the Royal Gazette / Office of the Council of State

English translation

On divorce, the marital property shall be divided equally between the spouses.

ThaiLawOnline translation, written from the Thai original and verified

Firm annotation

Section 1533 is part of Book 5 (Family) of the Thai Civil and Commercial Code. This entry is awaiting firm-authored commentary; the statutory text above is verbatim from the Office of the Council of State (OCS Krisdika) Thai source, with the English translation from the FAO/UN FAOLEX repository. Always rely on the Thai original for legal proceedings.

Core section

Why this matters in practice

For lawyers: compile a complete inventory of all Sin Somros before filing for divorce; assets deliberately disposed of by one spouse to defeat division may be traced and valued. For clients: on divorce, you are entitled to exactly half of all marital property — any asset acquired during the marriage (with limited exceptions) must be included in the pool.

Legislative history

Section 1533 has applied since the B.E. 2519 revision. The Marriage Equality Act (No. 24, B.E. 2567), in force 22 Jan 2025, extended the equal-division principle to all divorcing couples regardless of gender.

  • division of Sin Somros
  • equal split
  • divorce
  • marital property division

Supreme Court decisions interpreting this section

  1. Supreme Court Judgment No. 566/2556 (2013)

    A property settlement agreement on divorce requires no special form beyond general contract requirements and may be made separately from the divorce registration.

    A property division agreement between spouses may be made at the time of registering the divorce (with or without the registrar's note) or separately in writing; no specific form is required beyond general contract law.

    Read the full decision (deka.in.th)

  2. Supreme Court Judgment No. 960/2552 (2009)

    On divorce, each spouse is entitled to half the net equity in mortgaged Sin Somros after deducting the outstanding debt.

    Land and a townhouse purchased jointly during the marriage and subject to a continuing mortgage were Sin Somros; on divorce each spouse was entitled to half the net equity after deducting the outstanding mortgage balance.

    Read the full decision (deka.in.th)

Curated decisions with case numbers verified against the Supreme Court database. English renderings are the firm's editorial translation for study.

Cited in 47 Supreme Court decisions (1954 to 2025)

Selected citing decisions

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

Frequently asked questions

Can a court give one spouse more than 50% of marital property on divorce?

The default under §1533 is an equal 50/50 split. However, if one spouse has dissipated or deliberately disposed of Sin Somros to reduce the pool, the court may adjust the division so the innocent spouse receives their rightful half of the original pool. Courts do not generally deviate from 50/50 based on moral fault alone.

Related guides on ThaiLawOnline

Cite this section

  • Plain citation Civil and Commercial Code, s. 1533 (Thailand)
  • Academic citation Civil and Commercial Code (Thailand), s. 1533. ThaiLawOnline, https://www.thailawonline.com/thai-civil-code/section-1533/ (accessed 8 August 2026).
  • Thai citation ป.พ.พ. มาตรา 1533
  • Permalink https://www.thailawonline.com/thai-civil-code/section-1533/
  • Embed on your site <blockquote cite="https://www.thailawonline.com/thai-civil-code/section-1533/"><p>On divorce, the marital property shall be divided equally between the spouses.</p><footer>Civil and Commercial Code, s. 1533 (Thailand) — <a href="https://www.thailawonline.com/thai-civil-code/section-1533/">ThaiLawOnline</a></footer></blockquote>

The Thai text is authoritative. The English is an unofficial translation by ThaiLawOnline, free to reuse with attribution.

This is educational reference, not legal advice. Consult a qualified Thai lawyer before relying on any provision.

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