Buying together does not go wrong at the purchase. It goes wrong when one of you wants out
At the purchase everybody agrees. Nobody could afford it alone, so you pool the deposit, split the instalments, and end up in a house none of you could have bought singly.
That was never the problem. It starts five years later, when one of you is getting married and wants their capital back, or moves to another province, or can no longer manage the payments.
At that moment the only thing determining whether it ends well is whether you ever agreed what would happen in exactly that situation.
And almost every pair who ends up in a dispute over a house never agreed it, because at the time it felt like an accusation of bad faith.
So this is not an argument against buying together. It is what the law already gives each of you, and what has to be on paper before the transfer.
What the law already grants co-owners
Once two or more names sit on the same title deed, you have co-ownership under the Civil and Commercial Code, which comes with its own rules whether or not you have read them.
Without stated shares, the law presumes them equal. Section 1357 presumes that co-owners hold in equal shares.
This is the largest trap for people contributing unequally. If you put in seventy and the other person thirty, but nothing records the split, the legal starting point is half each.
That does not mean it cannot be proved otherwise. It means the burden of proving it falls on you, on a day when the relationship has already broken down.
Each of you can sell your own share without anybody's permission. Section 1361 provides that a co-owner may dispose of, mortgage or create an encumbrance over their own share.
But the property itself may only be disposed of, pledged, mortgaged or encumbered with the consent of all the co-owners.
Read those two sentences slowly, because they mean your sibling or friend can sell their share to a stranger and you cannot stop them, while you equally cannot sell the whole house without their agreement.
The result is that you may end up co-owning with somebody you never chose, and both sides are locked in place.
Anybody can demand partition, and you can only contract that away ten years at a time. Section 1363 gives each co-owner the right to demand partition, unless a juristic act prevents it or the purpose of the co-ownership is permanent in nature.
And that right cannot be excluded by agreement for more than ten years at a time.
So a clause saying you will never sell is enforceable for no more than ten years at a stretch.
If it cannot be divided, it ends in a sale. Section 1364 provides that division is made either by dividing the property itself between the co-owners, or by selling it and dividing the proceeds.
A house cannot be cut in half, so the real options are one party buying the other out, or selling the whole and splitting the money.
Costs are shared proportionally. Section 1362 requires co-owners to contribute according to their shares towards management, taxes and preservation of the property.
Everybody may use it, without infringing the others. Section 1360 says as much, which reads well and is very hard to apply, because a house has a fixed number of bedrooms.
Which is why who lives there, who does not, and what the one who does not gets in return has to be written down rather than left to section 1360 to settle.
Three things co-buyers rarely learn until late
First, if one of you dies, that share goes to their heirs rather than to you.
This is what shocks friends who bought together most, because you suddenly co-own with a parent, a sibling or a spouse of your friend, who may not know you and has no reason to honour any arrangement you had.
Protection has two layers. The first is a will from each of you naming where the share goes. The second is a clause in your agreement giving the surviving co-owners the right to buy that share from the heirs before any outsider, with the valuation method and a deadline stated.
What the heirs then face at the Land Office is covered in inherited land, the estate administrator and the transfer.
Second, borrowing jointly and owning jointly are separate things.
People assume a co-borrower is automatically an owner, which is not necessarily so. The names on the loan and the names on the deed are different records, and both need checking.
More importantly, every co-borrower is liable to the bank for the whole debt rather than for their share. If the other person stops paying, the bank can pursue you for all of it.
What a co-borrower takes on is set out in the joint home loan and co-borrower guide, worth reading before signing anything.
Ask the bank directly, too, how being a co-borrower here will be counted when you later apply for a loan on a house of your own. The rules for a second home are in buying a second home, LTV and tax.
Third, selling your share out of a mortgaged house is not as simple as the law makes it sound.
Section 1361 grants the right, but in practice a house still being paid off has a bank as mortgagee, and changing who holds title or who borrows goes through the bank.
The route that actually works is that whoever stays refinances in their own name and pays the other party out, which depends entirely on whether they qualify alone.
If they do not, the remaining option is selling the whole house. So have that conversation on day one, rather than on the day somebody announces they are leaving.
What belongs in the agreement, written before the transfer
This document is not the sale contract. It is an agreement between the co-owners themselves. Put it in writing, have everybody sign, and keep a copy each.
- Who contributed how much and what share each holds. State the figures, and register those shares at the Land Office to match. Do not leave section 1357 to presume for you.
- Who pays what each month: instalments, common fees, land tax, insurance and maintenance, paid in a way that leaves evidence.
- What happens if somebody cannot pay: how many months of grace, what the person covering gets in return, and at what point a sale becomes compulsory.
- Who lives in the house, and whether the occupier pays the others for the use of it, and how much.
- Decisions requiring everybody's agreement, such as extensions, renovations above a stated amount, and letting it out.
- The exit when one wants out: a right of first refusal for the others, the valuation method, and the deadline for completing payment.
- If you cannot agree a price: how many independent valuers and whether you take the average or the midpoint.
- If one of you dies: the survivors' right to buy that share from the heirs, on the same valuation method.
- If it is let: how the income is split, who files the tax, and who handles the tenant.
The clause that makes the whole document work is the valuation method, because on the day it matters, the one leaving and the one staying will never see the same value.
What works is agreeing in advance that two independent valuers, one chosen by each side, produce figures and the average is used.
Write in a deadline too, such as completing payment within six months of the price being fixed, failing which the house is sold. An agreement with no deadline is an agreement that can be stretched indefinitely.
Three things to do from day one, long before any argument
Always transfer by bank. Never pay the deposit or the instalments in cash. Have everybody transfer into the same account every month, however inconvenient.
Because on the day you have to prove who paid what across eight years, transfer records are evidence and recollection is not.
Open an account for the house alone. Everybody pays into it, and every instalment and household cost is paid out of it.
This makes a missed payment visible immediately without anybody having to chase, which is the role that destroys the relationship fastest.
Revisit the agreement every couple of years, because lives change. Whoever was single at the purchase may be married, and whoever worked in Bangkok may have moved home.
Picking the document up while nothing is wrong is far easier than opening it for the first time when something already is.
When not to buy together at all
Some situations deserve a plain answer, which is not to do it.
If one of you cannot get a loan alone and the other is being used to make the application succeed, that is not buying together. It is one person carrying the risk for another with nothing in return.
If the other party refuses to write anything down because we trust each other, treat that as the answer. Somebody intending to honour an agreement has no reason to fear writing it out.
And if you cannot say what happens when the other person wants out in year three, that means today is not the day to sign.
Frequently asked questions
Do we have to state the shares when buying with siblings or friends?
Yes, because section 1357 presumes equal shares where nothing is stated. Whoever contributed more would have to prove it later.
Can a co-owner sell their own share?
Yes, under section 1361, without anybody's permission. Selling the whole property requires the consent of every co-owner.
Can we agree never to sell?
No. Section 1363 gives every co-owner the right to demand partition, and that right can only be excluded by agreement for ten years at a time.
What if we cannot agree who stays?
Section 1364 allows division of the property itself or a sale with the proceeds divided. A house cannot be divided, so it comes down to a buyout or a sale.
If a co-owner dies, does their share pass to the rest of us?
No, it passes to their heirs. Make wills and write a right of first refusal from the heirs into the agreement from the beginning.
If a co-borrower stops paying, who does the bank pursue?
Any co-borrower, for the whole amount, because co-borrowers are liable in full rather than by share. Understand that obligation before signing.
How do we set a buyout price without arguing?
Agree the method in advance: two independent valuers, one chosen by each side, and take the average, with a deadline for completing payment.
In short
- Trouble starts when somebody wants out, not at the purchase, so agree the exit first.
- Without stated shares, section 1357 presumes them equal.
- Anybody may sell their own share without permission, but selling the house needs everyone.
- The right to demand partition can only be excluded ten years at a time.
- A deceased co-owner's share goes to their heirs, not to the survivors.
- Co-borrowers are liable to the bank in full, not in proportion.
- Always pay by bank transfer, and fix the valuation method and deadlines on day one.