Section 349: Novation by substitution
Statutory text (Thai original)
เมื่อคู่กรณีที่เกี่ยวข้องได้ทำสัญญาเปลี่ยนสิ่งซึ่งเป็นสาระสำคัญแห่งหนี้ไซร้ ท่านว่าหนี้นั้นเป็นอันระงับสิ้นไปด้วยแปลงหนี้ใหม่ถ้าทำหนี้มีเงื่อนไขให้กลายเป็นหนี้ปราศจากเงื่อนไขก็ดี เพิ่มเติมเงื่อนไขเข้าในหนี้อันปราศจากเงื่อนไขก็ดี เปลี่ยนเงื่อนไขก็ดี ท่านถือว่าเป็นอันเปลี่ยนสิ่งซึ่งเป็นสาระสำคัญแห่งหนี้นั้นถ้าแปลงหนี้ใหม่ด้วยเปลี่ยนตัวเจ้าหนี้ ท่านให้บังคับด้วยบทบัญญัติทั้งหลายแห่งประมวลกฎหมายนี้ ว่าด้วยโอนสิทธิเรียกร้อง
Verbatim from the Royal Gazette / Office of the Council of State
English translation
When the parties concerned have concluded a contract changing the essential elements of an obligation, such obligation is extinguished by novation. If a conditional obligation is made unconditional, or a condition is added to an unconditional obligation, or if a condition is changed, it is regarded as a change of an essential element of such obligation. A novation by a change of the creditor is governed by the provisions of this Code concerning transfer of claims.
This English translation is provided for reference only and has not yet been firm-verified. Always rely on the Thai original.
Firm annotation
Section 349 is part of Book 2 (Obligations) 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.
Why this matters in practice
Lawyers: Novation extinguishes all ancillary security (guarantees, mortgages) unless the surety or security-provider consents to continue. This is the most critical practical consequence — check carefully whether a debt restructuring agreement contains sufficiently essential changes to constitute novation and advise guarantors accordingly. Laypersons: If a loan is restructured and the essential terms change, any guarantor who did not agree to the new arrangement may be released from liability.
Legislative history
Part of the original Civil and Commercial Code codification; no major subsequent amendment.
Supreme Court decisions interpreting this section
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Supreme Court Judgment No. 2737/2548 (2005)
Agreeing to reduce and restructure an existing debt into a new instalment loan with a formal loan document changes an essential element of the obligation and constitutes novation under section 349.
The defendant owed the plaintiff 15,467,184 baht. They agreed the plaintiff would reduce the debt by 467,184 baht, and the remaining 15,000,000 baht would be repaid by monthly instalments of 1,000,000 baht, documented as a new loan agreement. The Court held this constituted a change of an essential element of the original obligation and was therefore a novation under section 349. The cheques issued for the monthly instalments were cheques issued for a real and enforceable debt under the new agreement.
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Supreme Court Judgment No. 2675/2548 (2005)
Where the new obligation arising from novation fails to come into existence (here because of an unfulfilled delivery condition), the original obligation survives under section 351.
The debtor agreed to convert a loan debt into a vehicle sale contract. The sale contract included a condition that no sale would be deemed to exist until the vehicle was delivered. Because delivery never occurred, the new obligation arising from novation never came into existence; under section 351, the original loan obligation therefore survived and the debtor's heir remained liable.
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Supreme Court Judgment No. 6788/2552 (2009)
Whether a debt restructuring agreement constitutes novation is a justiciable legal question with direct consequences for guarantors; parties may agree to submit that single question to the court for determination.
The parties had jointly submitted to the court a single legal issue for determination: whether a debt restructuring agreement between the creditor and the principal debtor constituted novation. If it did, the guarantor (defendant 3) would be released. The Court treated this as the sole issue, and the parties' additional arguments outside that agreed issue were inadmissible on appeal.
Curated decisions with case numbers verified against the Supreme Court database. English renderings are the firm's editorial translation for study.
Cited in 71 Supreme Court decisions (1947 to 2025)
Selected citing decisions
- Decision 6631/2568 (2025) Refinancing With a New Lender via Fresh Mortgage is Not Assignment of Claim — No §306 Written Notice Required
- Decision 1389/2561 (2018)
- Decision 13199/2558 (2015)
- Decision 13073/2558 (2015)
- Decision 2462/2558 (2015)
- Decision 9945/2554 (2011)
- Decision 7339/2554 (2011)
- Decision 6473/2553 (2010)
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
Cite this section
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Plain citation
Civil and Commercial Code, s. 349 (Thailand) -
Academic citation
Civil and Commercial Code (Thailand), s. 349. ThaiLawOnline, https://www.thailawonline.com/thai-civil-code/section-349/ (accessed 8 August 2026). -
Thai citation
ป.พ.พ. มาตรา 349 -
Permalink
https://www.thailawonline.com/thai-civil-code/section-349/ -
Embed on your site
<blockquote cite="https://www.thailawonline.com/thai-civil-code/section-349/"><p>When the parties concerned have concluded a contract changing the essential elements of an obligation, such obligation is extinguished by novation. If a conditional obligation is made unconditional, or a condition is added to an unconditional obligation, or if a condition is changed, it is…</p><footer>Civil and Commercial Code, s. 349 (Thailand) — <a href="https://www.thailawonline.com/thai-civil-code/section-349/">ThaiLawOnline</a></footer></blockquote>
The Thai text is authoritative. The English is an unofficial translation by ThaiLawOnline, free to reuse with attribution.