Making a will in Thailand: passing on a property

Picture a Tuesday morning in a law office in Sathorn: a dated sheet of paper, the testator signing, then two witnesses, present together, signing in turn. This is the ordinary written form under Thailand’s Civil and Commercial Code, one of the five it provides for. What passes on afterwards depends less on the paper than on the property itself: a freehold apartment, a plot of land, a lease or a usufruct do not follow the same path. How these forms of ownership compare is the subject of our article on freehold, leasehold or a company; this one looks at the will itself, and what it makes possible. Texts checked on 27 October 2026; three points that the texts leave open are flagged at the end of the article.

Which forms of will does Thai law recognise?

Five. Section 1655 of the Civil and Commercial Code admits a will only in one of the forms set out in the chapter that follows. For the ordinary written form, section 1656 requires a dated document, signed by the testator before at least two witnesses present at the same time, who then sign to attest the signature; an addition or deletion is valid only if it observes the same form. The holograph will of section 1657 has different requirements: it needs no witnesses, provided it is written, dated and signed entirely in the testator’s own hand, and any alteration is valid only if it is written and signed in that same hand.

Two forms go through the authorities. In the will by public document under section 1658, the testator declares their wishes to a district officer in the presence of two other witnesses; the officer records them, reads them back, then signs, dates and affixes the official seal. In the secret will under section 1660, the document is sealed, signed across the seal, then presented to the officer and the witnesses, who annotate and sign the envelope. The fifth form, the oral will, is reserved by section 1663 for exceptional circumstances: imminent danger of death, an epidemic, war.

A few rules apply to all of them. A will made by a person under fifteen is void (section 1703). The person who writes the will and the witnesses cannot be beneficiaries, nor can their spouses (section 1653), and section 1670 bars minors and persons declared incompetent, among others, from acting as witnesses. A will can be revoked at any time, in whole or in part (section 1693). Where it is revoked by a later will, that will must follow a legal form (section 1694); section 1695 also provides for intentional destruction or cancellation by the testator, and section 1697 deals separately with incompatible provisions in two successive wills.

Your own country’s law may also have a say. Whether, and in what form, a will made in Thailand is recognised where you live or in your country of nationality depends on that country’s rules, which this article does not set out; they are checked with a professional there, in coordination with a Thai lawyer.

Who inherits when there is no will?

Section 1629 lists six classes of statutory heirs, and only six: descendants; father and mother; full brothers and sisters; half-brothers and half-sisters; grandparents; uncles and aunts. Their order of priority and how they share are governed by the sections that follow. The surviving spouse inherits under rules of their own, set by section 1635: the share of a child when inheriting alongside descendants, half against parents or full brothers and sisters, two thirds against the classes that follow, and the whole estate where there is no other heir. The Code speaks of spouses by marriage; where an heir is a spouse, the Department of Lands asks for the marriage certificate.

A will allows matters to be settled differently. The Code leaves everyone free to dispose of their property for after their death (section 1646), and in the sources we consulted we found no provision reserving a fixed share of the estate for children. The estate comprises all the property, rights and obligations of the deceased, except those purely personal to them (section 1600), and heirs are liable for its debts only up to the value of what they receive (section 1601).

Which law applies to a property located in Thailand?

Two systems meet here. On the Thai side, the Conflict of Laws Act B.E. 2481 (1938) subjects succession to immovable property to the law of the place where it is located (section 37), and succession to movable property to the law of the deceased’s domicile at the time of death (section 38). Capacity to make a will, its form, its effects and its revocation fall under separate conflict rules (sections 39 to 42).

The other system is that of the reader’s own country. The law of the country where the deceased lived, or of which they were a national, may also bear on the estate: on movable assets, on the form of the will, on any share that some countries reserve for children, and on tax. Its rules vary from one country to the next.

This article does not set them out. They are checked with a professional in the country concerned, in coordination with a Thai lawyer, a step that matters all the more for those who divide their year between two countries.

On the Thai side, inheritance tax, in force since 1 February 2016, applies only to the portion exceeding THB 100 million (£2,245,200) per heir and per deceased, at a rate of 10%, or 5% for an ascendant or descendant. What the spouse receives falls outside its scope, and a non-resident foreigner is liable only for assets located in Thailand. Any tax due in the reader’s own country follows that country’s rules, to be checked with a professional there.

What each form of tenure passes on

The will names who receives; the title to the property decides what can be received. The forms of tenure themselves are compared in our guide to ownership and price. For land, the Land Code makes acquisition by a foreigner subject to a treaty (section 86), and the Department of Lands states that no such treaty has existed since 1970; section 93, however, opens a route for a foreign statutory heir, with the permission of the Minister of the Interior and within the limits of section 87, namely 1 rai for a residence. For an apartment, the Condominium Act provides for foreign ownership within a quota of 49% of the floor area of the units in each building.

Apartments. A law review published by Thammasat University (2019) distinguishes two situations: the heir who meets one of the conditions of section 19 but whose unit would take the building over its quota (section 19 quinquies), and the heir who meets none of them (section 19 septies), who must sell within one year. How notice is given, and how much has to be sold, differ from one situation to the other.

Land. The section 93 procedure, open to the statutory heir, involves a 30-day public notice; the Department of Lands sets a target processing time of 66 days for it. Where permission is not granted or the limits are exceeded, the land must be disposed of within a period set by the Director-General, of between 180 days and one year.

What actually happens after a death?

A will does not, on its own, change the name on a title deed. An heir, any interested person or the public prosecutor may ask the court to appoint an administrator of the estate, in particular when an heir is outside the Kingdom (section 1713); the will may also name one (section 1715). Section 1718 excludes minors, persons declared incompetent and bankrupts; nationality is not among the grounds. According to an estimate by a Bangkok law firm, ThaiLawOnline, an uncontested application takes three to six months, followed by around a month for the certificate that no appeal has been lodged; in practice, banks and land offices ask for an order from a Thai court rather than a foreign document.

For land, the heir may also apply for registration at the land office, which publishes a 30-day notice (section 81 of the Land Code). Transfer fees on inheritance are 2% of the government appraised value, reduced to 0.5% between ascendants and descendants or between spouses, according to the Department of Lands. A foreign death certificate, will and marriage certificate are submitted there translated into Thai and certified. Entry into force of the Apostille Convention for Thailand is scheduled for 28 February 2027, for the public documents it covers and in relations with the states to which the accession will be opposable; an apostille authenticates a signature, the capacity of the signatory and a seal, not the content of a document. Finally, section 1754 sets time limits for certain inheritance claims, whose starting point varies with the claimant’s status and the type of claim; how they interact with the statutory exceptions is examined case by case.

What separates a prepared estate from an unprepared one?

One will per country. ThaiLawOnline, RSM Thailand and DFDL describe as good practice a Thai will limited to assets located in Thailand, alongside the will made in the country of residence. These are law firms’ recommendations, to be weighed against each person’s circumstances.

A carefully bounded revocation clause. A formula such as ‘I revoke all my previous wills’, placed in a will made later abroad, can reach the Thai will, ThaiLawOnline points out; it suggests limiting the revocation to assets located outside Thailand, and the reverse in the Thai will.

Well-chosen witnesses. Two people who are eligible under Thai law, and who are neither beneficiaries nor the spouses of beneficiaries: it is the simplest condition to meet, and the costliest to forget.

A complete file. The title deed, the purchase contract, proof of the transfer of funds, the marriage certificate and their translations: these are the documents the heirs will have to gather, and they are easier to assemble during the owner’s lifetime.

When we model the case of Margaret and David, an apartment in Langsuan

Placing a residence in its neighbourhood with our database

Our records place each residence we track in its sub-district, with its year of completion where known: a way to explore a building and its surroundings, as we did for Bangkok’s prime neighbourhoods. They replace neither the title deed number nor the land description, which alone identify a property in a legal document. To find a residence and its neighbourhood, start with the map.

Three points the texts leave open

The language of the will. DFDL (2011) writes that a will need not be drawn up in Thai; RSM Thailand (2025), that it must be, or else be accompanied by a Thai translation. We found no language requirement in the sections of the Code we consulted; the documents submitted to the land office, for their part, are translated and certified.

A lease on the death of the lessee. The traditional reading, under which the lease ends, stands against Tilleke & Gibbins’ analysis of the 2016 judgment, which draws distinctions according to the term and clauses of the lease; academic commentary from 2023 calls for the rule to be revisited.

An apartment received by a foreign heir. The sources consulted agree on the distinction between sections 19 quinquies and 19 septies, but not on how notice is given, nor on the case of heirs who fall within the imported-currency category, whom Tilleke & Gibbins describes as entitled to keep the unit.

What you can do now

Take stock of what you hold in Thailand, title by title: freehold, a lease, a usufruct or a right of superficies do not pass on in the same way. Reread the revocation clause in your existing wills. Then bring the professional who drew up your will at home and a Thai lawyer together on a single question: how your documents fit together.