THAI LAW - Passports, your personal property

THAI LAW - Passports, your personal property

Thai law

                            Over the years I have seen many times the people who were cheated or had suffered losses due to fraud or a scam going to a police station with the offender to sort out their problem. Normally the police will try to get them to compromise with each other by being the middle man, they will try to negotiate between the two parties and ask if or when the offender can pay back the amount owed whilst scheduling another meeting at a future date to check on the situation. After the negotiations on the condition of the agreement on both parties the case will be dropped for a while and the police will ask you to pay back the money owed in a future date normally a week to two weeks. This is always the case with the police including other situations such as accidents etc. not just fraud or cheating cases. After all this the police will tell you that you will have to leave your original passport with the police until the time that you pay back the sum when the passport will be returned.

                            One such case concerned three parties’ two men and one woman, the two men being business partners and the woman being the girlfriend of one of the partners. The lady was brought to the police station by the business partner of her boyfriend and was accused of cheating nine million baht from him. She argued that she did not have anything to do with it or any of the money at all and claimed it was all concerning her boyfriend. But the business partner argued that they had sometimes transferred company funds to her bank account in Singapore, on realizing this woman became scared but still stuck to her story. The lady said to the police that she would try to talk to her boyfriend about how to pay back the money he owed but it would be difficult as he was arrested regarding another case.

                            At that time the police said that if you are planning to pay him back can you give me your passport and then come back to talk with each other again about the plan. After this agreement and handing the passport over, at the next scheduled meeting she found out that the business partner had no evidence whatsoever of sending money to her account. After this she should have been let go with no legal obligations whatsoever but this was not the case at all. Because the business partner did not drop the case and kept trying to find a way to take the case to court and would not stop until the police allowed him to do so. The legal proceedings took a very long time, in fact almost 3 years during which the lady could not travel abroad due to her passport being property of the court. At the end of the case the defendant was found to be innocent which was the case since the start but because of her passport being in the hands of the police it she was dragged into a long and drawn out process. Unless there is evidence of your wrongdoing, then under Thai law, the police have no authority to retain your passport.

Thai law

                            If you wish to settle a similar case quickly then please go ahead and try to make a compromise with the other party with the help of the police and schedule another appointment at the station at a later date. But make sure that you do not hand over your passport, if it is like the above story then if there is no evidence you are free to go, you can fly out of the Kingdom, you can work normally and do everything you would normally do. But if you give your passport over to the police then it is like you are saying that you are the guilty person and you are agreeing that you have to pay back the necessary amount to the other person. Your passport is your personal property which should be on you at all times similar to a Thai citizens ID card, for something like this the police cannot force you to hand it over and they have no legal authority to make you.

THAI LAW - Passports, your personal property

THAI LAW - Flood and Insurance

THAI LAW - Flood and Insurance  

Thai law

                            Thai law | At this time if there is anyone not talking about the flood situation here in Thailand it would seem to be that those people are not in trend right now. Because our main office is located in the heart of Bangkok we have seen many things affect the capital from the last few years and this year again it is no different. From the yellow shirt protest which closed down the main airport three years ago to the red shirt protest two years ago in the Ratchaprasong area, but this year it did not come from any colour but from nature itself. As many people can attest the power of nature is more powerful and devastating than that a human protest with many lives and homes being swept away. Because of the severity of the situation we will be forced to close the main office for some time, but even while we are still running there are few people left let alone out and about in this part of the city. In fact only around a tenth of the usual amount of people are still here, this has made traffic scarce and you can travel on a road in any direction and a trip that would take you hours before would only take five minutes right now.

Thailand law

                            So the topic we will discuss today is insurance from the flood situation happening now, especially regarding motor vehicles. If you look at the local news on the television or even on newspapers you will have seen many flooded cars and motorbikes on the streets on Bangkok. Most owners will have insurance but I have to tell you that maybe they will not cover your vehicle because of the extensions in their insurance policy. Even if they do have to cover something they will try to find ways around it, an example is this if a car engine is damaged by the flood for a long time and the engine develops rust and cannot function properly. The insurance company will consider only repairing the engine with the smallest amount of money possible, they will never allow a full engine change. Many things like this will happen in the coming months as the insurance companies will be responsible for a huge number of flooded cars, and you will see the extensions of your insurance policy that you have never seen before. Under Thai law, an insurance company is obligated to honour their agreement with you to the letter.  Failing this they can be taken to court.

Thai law

                            It will be a hard process to go through from the insurance companies saying no to fix your vehicle in the proper way. This is the main reason that insurance companies do not grow fast in Thailand, because the insurance companies will always try to say no and if they are obligated to pay they will make it very hard to do so making the customers not happy with the service they have paid for. Another thing you should know is that if you have an old car the parts they will use to repair your vehicle will either be second hand parts or parts from a copy brand not the original parts from the manufacturer. They will try to do everything they can to reduce costs. We have the experience in the court where an insurance company did not want to pay more than two hundred thousand baht when they were legally obliged to.  If you ask to claim that much money from them the company will fight with you in the Thai court, they have their own lawyers, who they will use to delay and play with you for up to three to seven years.

Thai law

                            This is the good chance for you to learn a lesson about the insurance companies here in Thailand. You have to make sure that the insurance policy that you take out for yourself is proper, with too many extensions so the insurance companies have to pay up and cannot get out of it so easily. You need to read through the agreement thoroughly if needed you can make amendments for some of the extensions by paying a premium, if you leave it until the situation happens it will already be too late.

THAI LAW - Flood and Insurance

THAI LAW - Insurance in Thailand

THAI LAW - Insurance in Thailand

             

Thai law

             Thai law | As a foreigner in Thailand you can easily apply for and gain life insurance, but you are required to have a work permit or barring that a long term visa of some sort such as a Non immigration O which is the visa for marriage, retirement or family members. There is a myriad of choices and policies to choose from which can be daunting especially with the different information and language barriers encountered. 

Thai law

            There are two types of insurance here in Thailand; life insurance and non-life insurance which include possessions, cars and property. When you take out insurance on say a property, if it were to be damaged or destroyed then the insurance company will compensate you for the amount of the property or damage. One factor that should be considered is to only take out insurance equal to the value of the property being insured. This is because if you take out an insurance policy of five million baht on your house but the real value is only one million you will only be compensated up to one million baht while paying the extra premium of the five million. The chance of losing large property such as a house is slim, there has to be a catastrophic event such as fire, an earthquake or large storm. Usually only a part of the property will be damaged such as the roof and as such it is not uncommon for people to take out insurance to the amount where large repairs may be compensated, but not insure for the entire property.

Thailand law

             With regards to road accidents the Thai system does not use the words right or wrong, but rather the wrong party is considered to have committed the act by negligent means. If you are involved in a traffic accident and are the victim then under Thai law you have the opportunity to sue the negligent party for one year. Damages incurred on the car, medical expenses, work compensation and any concerned expense such as the rental fees of a replacement car can all be requested. Please also not that if no party is found to be negligent and the police become involved then normally they will deem one party negligent. But if they cannot determine the wrongful party they will consider both parties to be negligent and drag both parties to court by submitting a criminal case between the two parties to settle the dispute. Usually the insurance company in this situation will compensate the party not at fault first and then wait for reimbursement from the party at fault or their insurance company if they have one.

Thai law

              Thai people tend not to worry so much about insurance, they are usually adventurous and take a “whatever happens solve it later approach”. This isn’t the same mentality shared by foreigners, especially if they are residing overseas long term. Thai insurance companies do not have the best reputation and are not as effective as they should be. This is because it is always difficult for them to pay compensation, say if a case for compensation of a car cannot be negotiated for less than two hundred thousand baht. Then they will let you take the case to court and sue them for fulfilling obligations, dragging the case out until the court orders them to pay up, this will of course waste the clients time and money to follow up. Insurance has its uses and it can help you out when it is needed but you have to be wary and think it through on which one is the best for you.

THAI LAW - Insurance in Thailand

THAI LAW - Call Center Scam

THAI LAW - Call Center Scam

Thai law

               Thai law | Most people have heard about call centre scams which are not unique to Thailand. You may already have been contacted by them, either here in Thailand or other countries. It is so easy to set up a ‘dummy’ business and use it to extort money from another country. There’s nothing wrong with the principle of a call centre.  They were set up to provide a service to a company’s clients and have worked well in that role.  The system is designed to queue incoming calls which are then answered one by one by an operator(s) until they are complete. Indeed they are used quite legitimately in Thailand by such companies as AIS, telephone directory and even the police.

             The scam usually involves groups of people both local and foreign.  They will call targets with the aim of getting them to invest in fake companies that deals in valuable resources such as gold, oil, diamonds etc. They will promise large returns on your investment.  On closing the deal, they will ask for the transfer of cash to them which will never be seen again.  Common targets are senior citizens from Europe, Australia, USA and other developed countries. Senior citizens and retirees are often thought to have savings tucked away and are the ‘soft target’.  The callers will show themselves to be extremely successful in a high value market and one jump ahead of all their competitors.  They will be aggressive and bullish to convince the target that this is an opportunity not to be missed. They will not allow time for the target to ask questions and promise almost anything including ridiculous bargains but of course these promises are never kept.  They will underline the importance of investing now as tomorrow will be too late.

              Operations of this nature should be reported to the police and they will be dealt with under Thailaw.

Thai law

               The Thai police sometimes call these operations a “Boiler Room” scam as it is usually set up in a clandestine area such as a home or apartment building with the scammers working at night to coincide with the different time zones. Most of the time the people who set up these companies are gangsters who will try to declare themselves as a one hundred percent legitimate business with a good looking website and advertising, when actually they do not have a business at all so they only try to deceive you into paying them money for free. When they are finally caught and arrested the police usually do not have enough evidence to convict them abroad and the victims never come to Thailand to be a witness in Thai court or give evidence or money transfer. They will be convicted in Thai court and usually receive a six month sentence maybe even less and will have to pay a fine; these punishments are minimal compared to the damage they have caused, if any of the convicted are foreigners then the immigration department will choose to deport them back to their own country and they will be put on Thailand blacklist for re entry.

               If you are contacted on whatever basis listen to them first, if they keep talking like a salesman constantly asking you to buy something without proof of a real product beware. Do not trust them and believe everything that they say because they will try to steal the money from you, please understand that they are not the real article. Always check through trusted sources and consider researching about their company to make sure they are legitimate. Be safe and protect yourself and it will save you in the end.

THAI LAW - Call Center Scam