the story below does not ring completely true.
the wife cannot transfer ownership of assets that are not in her name.
the husband would not honour her debts because theyre not in his name nor has she incurred the debt as a married person.
there must be more to the story than has been revealed, otherwise it cannot happen like that.
i suspect the husband was in on the loss too.
eko2248 wrote:What’s in a Name?
It is commonly believed that once a farange legally marries a Thai lady, thereafter his written approval will be required at any time she wishes to buy, sell, mortgage, transfer or otherwise dispose of or compromise family assets. Since a legal marriage gives each spouse a claim to half of all family assets, this injunction seems to be a reasonable safeguard for those farange husbands who have put all their Thai assets in their wives’ names. They have accepted that should the marriage subsequently fail, they will lose half their investment. But retain half.
But be warned. Things do not always work out as one expects.
Take the case of a Brit who had been married to a Thai lady for 12 years. During that time he invested 8.0 million in land & house, 3.7 million in 2 cars and 2 motorcycles (2 being 1500 plus cc type choppers and 2 being Honda mopeds) and over 5.0 million in 2 bank accounts. A total savings/investment of 16.7 million. Then during the next 4 years things changed. Later he learnt that she had started to gamble – unfortunately not successfully, and in doing so began to lose money. His/their money. First the cash simply disappeared. Then he learnt that the motorcycles had suddenly been used as collateral for a 2 million baht loan. Finally, he discovered that his house was to be repossessed, as she had taken out a 5.0 million baht loan against which she had made no installment payments for 13 months. Unpaid interest on that loan had been accumulated – first at 7.5% then at 15.0% so now stood at 766,000 baht.
So how was this possible when he had never been consulted and had never signed giving his approval to these borrowings?
The simple answer was because she had never changed her name when she married him. Thus she continued to hold her national ID card in her maiden name which showed that she was a single lady.
The Lenders – predominantly the Bank, believed that she was a single Thai lady and did not ask any further questions or require any additional paper work. In fact, they did not even ask how she intended to repay the debt or what her source of monthly income was. If it did come up in conversation she simply lied.
The money she borrowed she lost. So over 4 years she had reduced 16.7 million baht to 2.9 million. When he finally learnt the truth, her behavior had of course killed the marriage but worse was to come. He had to pay 2.0 million to clear the charges against the 4 motorcycles. He had to pay 6.8 million to reclaim his house. Then she asked the court that he pay her half of the remaining 2.9 million baht of net assets as her property settlement upon Termination of the Marriage. Clearly she needed some money to settle other gambling debts because her life was at risk.
Now what are the lessons to be learnt from this sad tale?
First, make sure your name appears as co-owner of every bank account that you create during the marriage AND that your signature is required for every withdrawal.
Second, check your spouse’s ID. If it is still in her maiden name or if it shows that she is a single person ask her why and if there are not very strong reasons why that should be the case, insist that she change it so that her status is that of a Married lady and her Family name at least includes your family name. This can be easily done by hyphenating the two family names. When a Thai girl marries, current rules gives the girl the right to choose if she wants to be shown as Miss or Mrs. And if she wants to continue to use her maiden name, there is no compulsion for her to change it. But unless she does change her Status or her Family Name, or both, Thai lenders have no reason why they should require the approval of a second person before giving her the requested loan.
Three, make sure you obtain and hold all title documents – chanotes, green books etc and then store them away where she can not get access to them. This is not foolproof as copies can be obtained, so still be wary.
What’s in a name? Huge risk if the name allows her to steal family assets which you paid for. Be warned and protect yourself. If unsure seek advice. The cost of doing so may result in major avoidance of loss in the future.
