THAI LAW ,THAILAND LAW- Agents and Clients
Actual Case:
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| Thai Law |
Thai law,Thailand law | Quite recently I had been given a case about a dispute
regarding the sale of a condominium unit owned by a foreigner. The owner, who
had just returned from overseas on getting news that there was a prospective
buyer was not happy with the deal as money had already changed hands without
his approval. Also he had not met anyone at all face to face and did not have
all the details of the case. Having been in contact with his assistant and the
juristic person at the condo he had seen a copy of the sales contract and had
some idea about the details of the agreement to be made.
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| Law Firm Thailand |
But he had constantly stressed that he wanted a certain
amount net after deducting taxes and fees to take home with him as he was
planning to leave the country. What he did not know was that secretly his
assistant was the one making the deal to sell the condominium; he had gotten in
contact with an agent who found another foreign client who was interested.
Usually in the case of property sale and purchase an agents commission is
usually around 3 – 4% but as the secretary was the one negotiating the deal without
the knowledge of the owner he wanted his own commission of 3%. This is fraud
under Thai law.
After being pressured to quickly agree to the deal by his
assistant the owner signed the contract documents and then sent them back, the
assistant used these to confirm the owner’s compliance and set the deal in
motion. What the owner later discovered was that there would be specific
business tax and income tax which would need to be paid to the amount of around
one million Thai baht that wasn’t included in the deal. The buyer then
transferred the deposit amount which was split in three between the agent,
assistant and the owner. Not knowing who had taken his money or why the owner
stopped the deal and wanted to know what was going on.
After returning to the Kingdom of Thailand a meeting was
setup and all parties were asked to attend except for the buyer as he was not
in the country at the time. The agent who did not why the deal was stopped and
what was going on was made to look like the wrong party who had stolen the
money transferred from the buyer, but this was not the case. The agent was an innocent
party and only took money which was rightfully theirs as it was commission from
the sale. When we were asked to explain the details to them and fill them in we
discovered that the secretary was the one in the wrong, he had no right to
anything from the deal and from the emails there was incriminating evidence
against found against him.
Using this news the assistant was asked to return the money
or charges would be pressed against him both by the buyer and the seller, the
owner then made a new agreement with the agent and the buyer excluding the
assistant and using his share to pay for the outstanding tax before the
transfer could be complete. Whenever you want to make an agreement with anyone
you should always keep evidence, sometimes emails, contracts or various other
proof can help tie the other party to comply with their end of the bargain. By
protecting yourself you will make sure that you will not lose a lot of time and
money at the end of the story like the one from this case.
THAI LAW ,THAILAND LAW- Agents and Clients
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