Contracts and consumer protection

It depends on what you buy and from whom. A freehold unit purchased from a licensed condominium developer is a “contract-controlled” transaction: regulations prescribe mandatory contract content - property description and area, price and payment schedule, handover deadlines, defect liability, refund terms on developer default - and any clause contradicting the mandatory rules is void even though you signed it. Nationality is irrelevant; a foreign buyer holds the same statutory rights as a Thai one.

Step off that island and the water gets deeper. Leasehold contracts - including “leasehold condos” sold where the foreign quota is full - are not contract-controlled at all, which is why they are routinely drafted in the seller's favour. Unlicensed private projects depend on the developer's goodwill. And private resales between individuals rest mainly on the general civil law and whatever your lawyer negotiated. The legal structure of the deal, not the polish of the brochure, determines your protection - a theme that runs through our leasehold guide.

Not automatically. Thailand's Unfair Contract Terms Act lets a court declare an excessively one-sided clause unenforceable, or enforce it only to a reasonable extent - and it applies with full force to standard-form contracts signed by foreigners. Classic candidates for trimming: unilateral developer rights to change the price or terms, total exclusions of the strong party's liability, disproportionate one-way penalties, and clauses forfeiting every payment on any buyer cancellation regardless of fault. Courts have also been unsympathetic to rental deposits that vanish automatically - Thai law treats a deposit as security for actual loss, not a penalty.

Two sober caveats. A clause is not void until a court says so; until then the seller will rely on the text, and you will be the one paying lawyers to test it. And the Act trims unfairness - it does not rewrite the specialised rules on foreign ownership, lease registration or quotas. Prevention beats remedy: negotiate even “non-negotiable” forms, and walk away from a counterparty who refuses to delete the indefensible.

The Thai version. Bilingual contracts are standard in foreigner transactions, and registration documents at the Land Office are in Thai script in any case - but where the versions diverge, the Thai text governs. The English column is, legally speaking, a courtesy.

The consequence is procedural: the review that protects you is a review of the Thai text, performed by an independent lawyer whose fee you pay and whose loyalty is not split. Asking the seller's office to confirm that the translation is accurate is asking the counterparty to mark their own exam.

Because you are buying square metres, and the metres move. Thai condo prices are quoted per square metre, and saleable area is measured to the centreline of walls shared with neighbours - so the contract area includes half of those walls and is larger than the floor you can stand on. Off-plan contracts then adjust the final price against the official post-construction survey: more area, you pay the difference; less, you are refunded - typically outside a tolerance band of a few per cent.

Read the clause before signing. A fair one is symmetric and gives you the right to rescind and recover your payments if the deviation exceeds the agreed threshold; a clause that surcharges you for extra area but refunds nothing for missing area tells you how the rest of the relationship will go. One knock-on effect foreigners miss: if the measured area pushes the price up, the additional payment must also arrive from abroad with proper bank documentation, or the registration paperwork no longer covers the full price - see our FET guide.

They can, and buyers should act as if they do. Misleading advertising is prohibited under the consumer-protection framework, and Thai practice allows promotional promises - the pool, the gym, the shuttle, the render of the lobby - to be treated as part of the bargain. The evidentiary habit costs nothing: keep the brochure, screenshot the listing, save the correspondence, from first contact to handover.

If the delivered project falls short, escalate in order. A written demand to the seller with a clear deadline comes first; most disputes die here, because a documented claim is awkward to ignore. Next, a complaint to the consumer protection board - free, with mediation, and the board can support proceedings on a consumer's behalf. Court is the last resort, and the file you kept from the start is what makes it a credible one. Time matters at every step: raise claims promptly, in writing, while the events are fresh.