How to Check if Someone Owns Land or Property in Thailand

How to Check Land or Property Ownership in Thailand?

If you're looking to verify whether someone owns land (or property) in Thailand, you will need to physically visit or send someone to visit the local Department of Lands Office for the specific area concerned. Property deeds and ownership records in Thailand are kept exclusively in paper format at the local, sub-provincial level, and digital databases do not exist for ownership verification.

How Do You Access Property Deeds from a Local Land Office?

The process for accessing property deeds can vary significantly depending on your specific local land office. Each land office may have its own set of requirements based on the case or reason for your inquiry, such as verification for legal purposes or personal checks. To get accurate details on what is required, including necessary documentation like the Chanote number, you should directly contact the land office involved.

Can a Background Check Include All Property and Land Owned by a Person in Thailand?

A background check can reveal addresses linked to an individual, but those addresses alone do not confirm ownership. As explained above, property and land ownership records are stored in paper format at local land offices. To check for property ownership across the entire country, you would need to visit every provincial land office and manually go through their records. Since there are thousands of land offices, this is clearly not a practical option.

Are There Any Online Resources to Check Land Boundaries?

Thailand offers a useful online resource: LandsMaps.DOL.go.th. Here, you can find information like GPS coordinates, land size, and boundary markers by entering the Chanote number. However, this site does not provide ownership details, as those are only available offline at the relevant land office.

Is There a National Land Registry in Thailand?

Thailand does not have a centralised national land registry in the way some other countries do. Ownership records, including current and historical data from the Chanote (land title deed), are stored locally at individual land offices and are only accessible in person. While online tools like LandsMaps.DOL.go.th allow you to check boundary lines, coordinates, and land sizes, they do not display current ownership or transfer history. That kind of information remains entirely offline and decentralised.

Can Foreigners Own Land in Thailand Through a Thai Company?

Foreign nationals are largely restricted from owning land in Thailand, with only rare exceptions. As a workaround, some individuals have historically set up Thai companies as holding entities to retain control over land or property. While this practice has come under greater scrutiny in recent years, it remains a notable method in certain situations. The key advantage from an investigative standpoint is that Thai company registration records are digitised. This means that if the person in question is, or has been, listed as a director of a Thai company, those records can be identified through a digital directorship search. This approach can reveal ties to property holdings when direct land ownership cannot be easily established.

How Can I Find Addresses in Thailand Using Google Maps?

Finding specific addresses in Thailand using Google Maps can be challenging. Street numbers often do not match accurately, and villages or less-populated streets might be difficult to locate on the map. GPS coordinates or a registered Google business listing greatly simplify locating a property. In practice, locating an address often involves physically checking street signs, house number sequences, or interviewing locals directly.

What Can Background Checks in Thailand Include?

A thorough background check can cover a range of details, including marriage and divorce history, family connections, employment history, criminal history, and online presence checks (such as dating sites and social media). However, it cannot include all land/property owned by the individual within Thailand, as this information is not stored in a central database.

For further details, visit our background checks service page.