Section 535: Revocation of gift for ingratitude
Statutory text (Thai original)
การให้อันจะกล่าวต่อไปนี้ ท่านว่าจะถอนคืนเพราะเหตุเนรคุณไม่ได้ คือ(๑) ให้เป็นบำเหน็จสินจ้างโดยแท้(๒) ให้สิ่งที่มีค่าภาระติดพัน(๓) ให้โดยหน้าที่ธรรมจรรยา(๔) ให้ในการสมรส
Verbatim from the Royal Gazette / Office of the Council of State
English translation
The following gifts are not revocable for ingratitude: (1) Gifts purely remuneratory (2) Gifts encumbered with a charge (3) Gifts made in compliance with a moral duty (4) Gifts made in consideration of marriage
This English translation is provided for reference only and has not yet been firm-verified. Always rely on the Thai original.
Firm annotation
Section 535 (the ingratitude grounds are in §531) is the most-litigated exit from a completed gift. Practical pitfalls: (1) only the donor personally can revoke during life, heirs can revoke only if the donee killed the donor or prevented the revocation (§532); (2) the action must be brought within 6 months of knowledge of the ingratitude and 10 years of the act; (3) third-party transferees may be protected if they took for value in good faith. Common context: parents who deeded land to a child who later refuses to support them.
Why this matters in practice
Lawyers: When advising on revocation of a gift for ingratitude, first check whether the gift falls into one of the four exempt categories. A gift of encumbered property (e.g. mortgaged land) is subject to the exception under subsection (2) — the charge must have existed at the time of contracting. Laypeople: Gifts given as a reward for services, in contemplation of marriage, or as a moral obligation cannot be taken back even if the donee later behaves badly.
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. 320/2538 (1995) ★ Landmark
For the encumbered-gift exception under Section 535(2) to apply, the charge on the property must have existed at the time the gift contract was entered into.
A gift of land that was already mortgaged at the time of the gift constitutes a gift of encumbered property under Section 535(2). The charge must have existed at the time the gift agreement was made for the exception to apply.
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Supreme Court Judgment No. 10344/2551 (2008)
A gift subject to a condition (such as a right of residence for the donor) may qualify as a gift with a charge under Section 535(2), making it irrevocable for ingratitude.
Parents who gave land to a child with a condition that the parents retained the right to reside during their lifetime — when the child refused to honour that condition — the court considered whether the gift was subject to a charge that would preclude revocation for ingratitude.
Curated decisions with case numbers verified against the Supreme Court database. English renderings are the firm's editorial translation for study.
Cited in 22 Supreme Court decisions (1960 to 2009)
Selected citing decisions
- Decision 3384/2552 (2009)
- Decision 10344/2551 (2008) A Gift With a Reserved Usufruct is a Burdened Gift — Cannot Be Revoked for Ingratitude Under Section 535
- Decision 4475/2551 (2008)
- Decision 818/2546 (2003)
- Decision 5126/2545 (2002)
- Decision 5791/2540 (1997)
- Decision 3880/2540 (1997)
- Decision 9327/2538 (1995)
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. 535 (Thailand) -
Academic citation
Civil and Commercial Code (Thailand), s. 535. ThaiLawOnline, https://www.thailawonline.com/thai-civil-code/section-535/ (accessed 8 August 2026). -
Thai citation
ป.พ.พ. มาตรา 535 -
Permalink
https://www.thailawonline.com/thai-civil-code/section-535/ -
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<blockquote cite="https://www.thailawonline.com/thai-civil-code/section-535/"><p>The following gifts are not revocable for ingratitude: (1) Gifts purely remuneratory (2) Gifts encumbered with a charge (3) Gifts made in compliance with a moral duty (4) Gifts made in consideration of marriage</p><footer>Civil and Commercial Code, s. 535 (Thailand) — <a href="https://www.thailawonline.com/thai-civil-code/section-535/">ThaiLawOnline</a></footer></blockquote>
The Thai text is authoritative. The English is an unofficial translation by ThaiLawOnline, free to reuse with attribution.