Section 728: Notice before enforcing a mortgage, and the 60 day period
Statutory text (Thai original)
เมื่อจะบังคับจำนองนั้น ผู้รับจำนองต้องมีหนังสือบอกกล่าวไปยังลูกหนี้ก่อนว่าให้ชำระหนี้ภายในเวลาอันสมควรซึ่งต้องไม่น้อยกว่าหกสิบวันนับแต่วันที่ลูกหนี้ได้รับคำบอกกล่าวนั้น ถ้าและลูกหนี้ละเลยเสียไม่ปฏิบัติตามคำบอกกล่าว ผู้รับจำนองจะฟ้องคดีต่อศาลเพื่อให้พิพากษาสั่งให้ยึดทรัพย์สินซึ่งจำนองและให้ขายทอดตลาดก็ได้ ในกรณีตามวรรคหนึ่ง ถ้าเป็นกรณีผู้จำนองซึ่งจำนองทรัพย์สินของตนไว้เพื่อประกันหนี้อันบุคคลอื่นต้องชำระ ผู้รับจำนองต้องส่งหนังสือบอกกล่าวดังกล่าวให้ผู้จำนองทราบภายในสิบห้าวันนับแต่วันที่ส่งหนังสือแจ้งให้ลูกหนี้ทราบ ถ้าผู้รับจำนองมิได้ดำเนินการภายในกำหนดเวลาสิบห้าวันนั้น ให้ผู้จำนองเช่นว่านั้นหลุดพ้นจากความรับผิดในดอกเบี้ยและค่าสินไหมทดแทนซึ่งลูกหนี้ค้างชำระ ตลอดจนค่าภาระติดพันอันเป็นอุปกรณ์แห่งหนี้รายนั้นบรรดาที่เกิดขึ้นนับแต่วันที่พ้นกำหนดเวลาสิบห้าวันดังกล่าว
Verbatim from the Royal Gazette / Office of the Council of State
English translation
In order to enforce a mortgage, the mortgagee must first serve a written notice on the debtor requiring payment within a reasonable time, which must not be less than sixty days from the day on which the debtor receives that notice. If the debtor neglects to comply with the notice, the mortgagee may bring an action in court for a judgment ordering the seizure of the mortgaged property and its sale by public auction.
In the case under paragraph one, where the mortgagor has mortgaged their own property to secure a debt which another person must pay, the mortgagee must send that notice to the mortgagor within fifteen days from the day on which the notice was sent to the debtor. If the mortgagee does not do so within that period of fifteen days, that mortgagor is discharged from liability for the interest and compensation owed by the debtor, and for the accessory charges attaching to that debt, arising from the day on which the period of fifteen days expires.
ThaiLawOnline translation, written from the Thai original and verified
Firm annotation
Thailand reformed §728 in 2014 (Act No. 20, B.E. 2557) and tightened it again in 2015. The current notice period that has crystallised in Supreme Court practice is at least 60 days. A notice that gives less than 60 days, or no notice at all, makes the subsequent foreclosure action premature and the court will dismiss it. The notice must be served at the address last recorded in the mortgage register; e-mail or LINE messages are not sufficient under existing case law.
Why this matters in practice
Lawyers: The written notice is a mandatory procedural prerequisite — failure to give it renders a foreclosure action premature and dismissible. The notice does not need to itemise the debt in precise detail; it need only call upon the debtor to pay within a reasonable time. The reasonable time is assessed on the facts. Delivery to the contractually agreed address or any address where the debtor may be found is sufficient. Laypeople: Before a bank can take your mortgaged property, it must first send you a formal written demand giving you a reasonable chance to pay. If you receive such a notice, act quickly — seek legal advice and attempt to negotiate.
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. 7151/2544 (2001) ★ Landmark
A Section 728 foreclosure notice is valid if it calls on the debtor to pay within a reasonable time; it need not specify the exact amount of debt outstanding.
Section 728 does not prescribe what the notice must contain — it only requires a letter to be sent to the debtor requiring payment within a reasonable time. The notice need not specify the precise outstanding balance or list every component of the debt.
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Supreme Court Judgment No. 5553/2542 (1999)
The time given in the Section 728 foreclosure notice must be objectively reasonable; an unreasonably short period may invalidate the notice.
Section 728 requires the mortgagee who wishes to foreclose to give written notice to the mortgagor as debtor, fixing a reasonable time for payment. The time given must be objectively reasonable in the circumstances — a notice fixing an unreasonably short period may be defective.
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Supreme Court Judgment No. 938/2542 (1999)
Delivery of a Section 728 notice to the contractually agreed address is effective even if not personally received by the mortgagor.
Where the mortgage contract stated that notices sent to the mortgagor's address as specified in the contract were deemed effectively delivered, dispatch of the Section 728 notice to that address was valid even if not personally received by the mortgagor.
Curated decisions with case numbers verified against the Supreme Court database. English renderings are the firm's editorial translation for study.
Cited in 60 Supreme Court decisions (1957 to 2025)
Selected citing decisions
- Decision 3881/2568 (2025)
- Decision 2710/2568 (2025) Mortgage Foreclosure After 2014 Amendment Requires 60-Day Default Notice — Even on Pre-Amendment Mortgages
- Decision 181/2568 (2025)
- Decision 4777/2564 (2021)
- Decision 10808/2559 (2016)
- Decision 2737/2559 (2016)
- Decision 9075/2551 (2008)
- Decision 6829/2551 (2008)
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
How much advance notice must the bank give before it can seize my mortgaged property?
The law requires 'a reasonable time' — there is no fixed number of days. What is reasonable depends on the facts, including the size of the debt, the financial situation of the debtor, and prevailing practice. Courts have accepted notice periods of 30 days as reasonable in many cases, but the notice must always be in writing.
Related guides on ThaiLawOnline
Cite this section
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Plain citation
Civil and Commercial Code, s. 728 (Thailand) -
Academic citation
Civil and Commercial Code (Thailand), s. 728. ThaiLawOnline, https://www.thailawonline.com/thai-civil-code/section-728/ (accessed 8 August 2026). -
Thai citation
ป.พ.พ. มาตรา 728 -
Permalink
https://www.thailawonline.com/thai-civil-code/section-728/ -
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<blockquote cite="https://www.thailawonline.com/thai-civil-code/section-728/"><p>In order to enforce a mortgage, the mortgagee must first serve a written notice on the debtor requiring payment within a reasonable time, which must not be less than sixty days from the day on which the debtor receives that notice. If the debtor neglects…</p><footer>Civil and Commercial Code, s. 728 (Thailand) — <a href="https://www.thailawonline.com/thai-civil-code/section-728/">ThaiLawOnline</a></footer></blockquote>
The Thai text is authoritative. The English is an unofficial translation by ThaiLawOnline, free to reuse with attribution.