The seller is one person holding several separate deeds. Is that better or worse than several sellers?

Generally better, and materially so. One counterparty means one negotiation, one set of capacity checks and one payment structure, instead of a chain in which any single holdout can strand the project. What it does not mean is one legal position: each deed still has to be checked separately, because grade, encumbrances, access and permitted use can differ parcel by parcel even under common ownership. Treat it as one commercial negotiation and several legal investigations.

Can we rely on the copies of the deeds the seller has given us?

No. Copies show you what to ask about; they do not tell you the current position. Registered rights change and encumbrances are recorded at the Land Office, so verification has to be done against the official record, not against the seller's paperwork. The gap between the two is precisely where problems live, and it is also where a seller who is not being straight with you will be exposed.

What kind of finding actually stops a project rather than just costing money?

In our experience three do. No registered legal access to a public road, where the only route in depends on a neighbour's goodwill rather than a registered right. A title grade that your lender will not accept as security, which can be fatal to the financing even where ownership is not in doubt. And a land classification or permitted-use restriction that is incompatible with what you intend to build. Most other findings — mortgages, arrears, boundary discrepancies — are price or structure problems rather than stop signs.

How long should diligence take?

It depends much more on the number of parcels and the state of the records than on the total area. What usually stalls it is not the legal analysis but three practical things: obtaining current official records for every parcel, getting a survey scheduled and completed, and third parties in occupation who have to be identified and dealt with. Build the timetable around those three rather than around the lawyers.

The seller wants a large deposit before we complete our checks. How should we handle that?

Never pay ahead of what you can secure or register. Where a seller needs commitment before diligence is finished, the structure should reflect that — an option or a conditional agreement with the deposit held on terms, milestones tied to verification steps, and clearly drafted conditions for return if a defect is found. A deposit paid on trust, against nothing registered and no conditions, is the single most common way foreign sponsors lose money on Thai land.

Should we check the neighbours as well as the site?

Yes, for a project site. Occupation and use patterns around the boundary tell you about access, encroachment and future objections. For a project that needs approvals or generates any nuisance, the surrounding community is a live risk factor, not background — and it is far cheaper to understand it before the deposit than to discover it during permitting.

Land Due Diligence for a Project Site in Thailand: Clearing Multiple Title Deeds Before You Commit

You have a site and a seller. Now what?

Large project sites in Thailand are rarely one clean rectangle. They are assembled — several deeds, sometimes several grades of title, occasionally several histories of subdivision — and the price is usually agreed before anybody has looked at the register.

This guide sets out what has to be verified, in what order, and which findings are price problems versus which are stop signs.

It is written for the developer, project sponsor or EPC land manager, and the CFO who has to sign the option or release the deposit.

General information only, not advice on a specific matter. Fees, taxes and registration requirements should be confirmed for your specific transaction. This guide deals with whether a parcel is clean; whether a foreign-owned entity may hold it, and by what route, is a separate question — see our foreign property guide.

1. One owner, seven deeds — what that actually means

Common ownership is good news commercially: one negotiation, one capacity check, one payment structure, and no single holdout able to strand the site.

It is not good news legally, in the sense that it changes nothing about the work. Each parcel is investigated on its own. Grade of title, encumbrances, access, permitted use and boundary position can all differ between parcels that have sat under the same name for decades — commonly because they were acquired at different times, by different routes, or subdivided from different parents.

Treat it as one commercial negotiation and several legal investigations.

2. Read the title before you read the price

Thai land is held under documents of different grades, and the grade determines what you can safely do with the parcel — transfer it, mortgage it, or offer it as security to a lender.

Two consequences that decide projects:

Financing. A lender may decline to take security over a weaker title document. Ownership can be genuine and the project still fail to fund.
Time. Upgrading or regularising a title document is possible in some circumstances but is not a step you can assume, budget or schedule reliably.

Check the subdivision history too. A parcel that was recently split from a larger holding carries the history of that parent — including anything registered against it at the time.

3. Encumbrances a site visit will never show you

Standing on the land tells you almost nothing about who has rights over it. What has to come from the official record:

Mortgages and other registered security
Seizures or execution measures registered by creditors
Servitudes and rights of way benefiting or burdening the parcel
Registered leases, which can survive a sale
Usufructs, superficies and habitation rights
Restrictions attached to how the land was originally granted

And separately from the register: third parties in occupation. Tenants, farmers under informal arrangements, and long-term occupiers are not always visible on paper. Identify them before the deposit — dealing with occupation after you own the land is slower, costlier and less certain.

4. Legal access and utilities

The single most common project-killer we see: the only way onto the site is across someone else's land, without a registered right.

"The neighbour has always let us cross" is not access. It is a permission that can be withdrawn, that will not survive that neighbour selling, and that a lender will not accept.

Verify:

A registered right of way connecting the site to a public road
That the access is physically adequate for construction traffic, not merely legally sufficient
The route for power, water and drainage, and whether it crosses third-party land — and if so, on what registered basis

5. Permitted use and classification

What the seller says the land can be used for is not the test. Zoning and land classification constraints, restrictions attached to the original grant, and environmentally or agriculturally protected designations all override any assurance in a sales discussion.

For any project with an approval pathway, this check belongs before the deposit, not during permitting. It is also the finding most likely to be genuinely fatal rather than merely expensive.

6. Boundaries, area and aggregation

On a multi-parcel site, the total area in the deeds and the area you can actually build on are different numbers.

Re-survey and confirm boundary markers on the ground, parcel by parcel
Look for overlaps and gaps between adjoining parcels, which are common in older subdivisions
Check for encroachment in both directions
Recalculate your capacity figure — setbacks, easements, watercourses and unusable strips reduce the developable area, sometimes materially

A capacity assumption built on deed area rather than surveyed usable area is one of the most expensive errors available on a project site.

7. Seller capacity and payment structure

Verify who can actually sell:

Identity of the registered owner against the person in the room
Where the owner is a company — authority to sell, and any internal approvals required
Where the land was inherited — whether the estate is properly administered and all heirs are accounted for
Marital property status, and spousal consent where required
Whether the same land has been promised to someone else

Then structure payment so that you never pay ahead of what you can secure or register. Options and conditional agreements, deposits held on defined terms, milestones tied to verification steps, and clear conditions for return where a defect is found.

8. A realistic timetable, and what stalls it

Three things stall diligence, and none of them is legal analysis:

Obtaining current official records for every parcel
Scheduling and completing the survey
Identifying and resolving third parties in occupation

Build the timetable around those. If your board timetable assumes diligence tracks the negotiation, expect the deposit to fall due before the answers arrive.

9. What we need from the seller to start

Copies of every title document in the site, front and back
Chain of acquisition for each parcel, and any subdivision history
Identity and authority documents for the seller
Details of any mortgage, lease, servitude or other registered right
Details of anyone in occupation, and on what basis
Any existing survey, site plan or boundary information
Any approvals, applications or correspondence with authorities affecting the land

Summary

Check	Stop sign or price problem?
No registered legal access	Stop sign
Title grade unacceptable to your lender	Stop sign for the financing
Permitted use incompatible with the project	Stop sign
Mortgage or registered security	Price and structure
Third parties in occupation	Price, structure and time
Boundary or area discrepancy	Recalculate capacity before pricing

Diligence is not a formality that runs alongside the deal. On a multi-parcel project site it is the thing that tells you whether there is a deal.

We act for sponsors and developers on project-site acquisition, from title verification through to registration. Initial consultation is free — call +66 92 254 2045 or send us the details.

This guide is published by Suwanvara Law Firm — a Khon Kaen law firm established in 1986. General information only, not legal advice on a specific matter.