Who gets the house after a divorce in Thailand?
If the house was bought during the marriage it is marital property as a rule, and on divorce it is divided equally, whichever name is on the title deed. That answers half the problem. The other half is the loan still outstanding, which does not get divided along with the house.
The sentence to hold on to is this: the bank is not a party to your divorce. An agreement recorded with the divorce registration saying one of you takes the house and the payments binds the two of you. It does not bind the lender. While your name remains on the loan agreement the bank can pursue you for the full amount, and if the other person stops paying, the credit record damaged is yours as well.
This is where people go wrong most often, and it is a mistake with no immediate consequence. It shows up two or three years later, when an application for a new mortgage is declined.
Is your house marital property or personal property?
Before discussing division you need to know which category the house falls in, because the two are treated entirely differently.
| Category | Examples | On divorce |
|---|---|---|
| Marital property | A house bought during the marriage with income earned during the marriage, in either name | Divided equally between the two |
| Personal property | A house owned before the marriage was registered, or acquired during it by inheritance or by gift | Belongs entirely to that spouse, not divided |
| Personal property with marital money in it | A house acquired before marriage but paid down, or extended, with money earned during the marriage | The house stays personal property, but the payments or improvements funded with marital money are a claim that can be made |
There is one rule worth knowing, and it helps whoever is not on the title deed. Where it is in doubt whether an asset is marital property, the law presumes that it is. The burden of proof therefore falls on the spouse arguing it is personal, not on the one arguing it is shared.
The other common misunderstanding is treating the title deed as the final word. It is not. The deed records who holds registered ownership; it does not decide which category the asset falls into. A house registered in the husband's sole name but bought during the marriage is still marital property to be divided.
What if you never registered the marriage?
Then this is entirely different. Without a registered marriage the marital property rules simply do not apply. Twenty years of living together does not create marital property by itself.
What remains available is a claim to co-ownership on the basis that you built the asset together, and that has to be proved with evidence rather than described as a length of time. The evidence that works is whatever shows your money went into the property: transfer slips for the deposit, instalments debited from your account, receipts for extensions, a consistent record of payments.
The blunt advice for unregistered couples is to put both names on the deed on transfer day, or to sign a written agreement between yourselves recording who contributed what and holds what share. Done while things are good it takes ten minutes. Done after the relationship ends it takes a year in court.
A house still being paid off: three routes out
Once you know the house is marital property, the question becomes what to do with the house and the debt attached to it. In practice there are three routes, each with a different condition to clear.
| Route | What has to happen | The catch people miss |
|---|---|---|
| Sell and split the proceeds | Sell, clear the bank on transfer day, divide what is left | The simplest and cleanest, but you have to agree on price and timing. If one of you will not sign, it does not sell |
| One of you takes the house | Whoever stays refinances into their sole name, then ownership is transferred | They have to qualify alone, which is the real hurdle: the loan was underwritten on two incomes, and one may not be enough |
| Keep holding it together for now | No division yet; one lives there and keeps paying, under a written agreement | The riskiest route, because both remain tied to the same debt and any future sale needs both signatures forever |
The second route deserves expanding, because it is the one most often chosen and most often botched. Say two people borrowed jointly, and agree that she keeps the house and the payments. What actually has to happen is that she applies for a new loan in her sole name, the bank approves it, that money settles the original loan, and then ownership is transferred at the land office.
If those steps do not happen, what you have is a piece of paper saying she took the house, and a loan agreement with both names still on it, which means that as far as the bank is concerned nothing has changed. So agree at the outset what happens if she cannot refinance alone within a set number of months: that you revert to selling and splitting. Write that condition down.
Who is liable for the remaining debt?
Separate two things that get discussed as if they were one.
Between the two of you, the divorce agreement is enforceable. If it says the other person covers all the instalments and they do not, and you end up paying, you can recover from them under that agreement.
Between you and the bank, the divorce agreement has no effect at all. The bank contracted with two joint borrowers and was not a party to your divorce record, so it may demand the full amount from either of you.
The practical consequence is that while your name stays on the loan, that debt counts against you when you apply for new credit, and if the other person falls behind, your record suffers at the same moment. Many people discover this only when a new mortgage application is refused and nobody explains why.
If you are currently joint borrowers and about to separate, read how joint borrowing works in taking a joint home loan and what to know before signing, and if the answer is for one of you to refinance, the steps and documents are in refinancing a home loan: when it pays and what to prepare.
Ten minutes to spend before signing anything
What drags these things out is not the law. It is that neither side has the same numbers in front of them. Put these four on the table before discussing who gets what.
- Today's outstanding balance. Call the bank for it. Not the figure you remember from last month's statement, because this number is the base of every calculation that follows.
- What the house is worth now. Not what you paid, and not the government appraisal. Look at what comparable houses in the same area have actually sold for.
- The real remaining equity. Market value minus the outstanding balance minus estimated selling costs. That figure is what you are dividing, not the price of the whole house.
- Who paid what. Deposit, extensions, whose account the instalments came from. If part of the money was clearly personal property, a gift from parents before the marriage say, gather the evidence now.
With those four on the table, the conversation stops being an argument about who deserves the house and becomes a decision about how to divide one sum of money, which is a conversation that can end.
Traps that come up often
- The other spouse cannot sell or mortgage it alone. Selling, mortgaging or otherwise dealing with marital immovable property requires joint action or the other spouse's consent. Where it has been done without consent the other spouse can apply to have it set aside, but only within a limited period, so it should not be left.
- Do not move out without a written agreement. Moving out does not forfeit ownership, but it puts you in a much weaker negotiating position and turns any later inspection of the property into a confrontation.
- Be careful trading the house against other rights. Giving up the house in exchange for not paying child support, for instance. These are separate matters in law, and a child's rights are not something the parents can bargain away between themselves.
- Keep every payment record. Transfer slips, statements, receipts, from the first day there was a problem, because what cannot be proved did not happen as far as a court is concerned.
- Do not stop paying out of anger. It damages both credit records and does not pressure the other person the way it feels like it should. It only reduces the value of the asset you are both about to divide.
If you decide to sell
Selling during a divorce carries an extra layer of difficulty, because it needs cooperation from two people who would rather not speak. What makes it work is turning everything into numbers and deadlines.
Agree four things in writing: the asking price, the lowest price you will both accept, how long you will try for, and what happens if that period passes without a sale, such as by how much the price drops. Writing those four down at the start removes the argument that would otherwise happen every time an offer arrives.
Then set out which account the proceeds go into and when they are divided. The rule is that the bank is settled on transfer day first, and the remainder is split as agreed. Leaving that unsaid is what turns transfer day into an argument outside the land office.
If you would rather have someone in the middle handling price and viewings, so the two of you do not have to discuss every detail directly, see the house selling service and the condominium selling service. To see what comparable homes nearby are being listed at, see houses for sale and townhouses for sale.
Frequently asked questions
The deed is in my husband's name only. Do I have a claim?
Yes, if the house was acquired during the marriage. As a rule it is marital property to be divided equally. The deed records registered ownership; it does not decide which category the asset falls into.
Does a house bought before the marriage have to be divided?
The house itself is the personal property of the spouse who acquired it and is not divided. But if it was paid down or extended with money earned during the marriage, that portion can be claimed.
Is a house my parents gave me during the marriage marital property?
As a rule it is the personal property of the recipient, unless the deed of gift states that it is given as marital property.
We agreed the other person takes the house. Why is the bank still chasing me?
Because a divorce agreement binds the two of you but not the lender. While your name is on the loan the bank may demand the whole amount from you. Only refinancing out removes you.
Can my spouse sell the house without my consent?
No. Selling or mortgaging marital immovable property requires joint action or consent. If it was done without consent the other spouse can apply to have it set aside, but only within a limited period, so act promptly.
We lived together without registering the marriage. Do I have a claim?
There is no marital property, but you can claim co-ownership on the basis of having built the asset together, provided you can show your money went into it, such as deposit transfers or instalment debits.
What if the other side refuses to sign for a sale?
You can apply to the court to divide the marital property, which takes time and money, so negotiation or mediation is always worth trying first, with the balance, the market value and the equity clearly on the table.
What should I do first?
Get the outstanding balance from the bank, find the market value, and work out the real remaining equity. Those three numbers turn an argument about a house into a decision about a sum of money.
Key takeaways
- A house bought during the marriage is marital property as a rule and divided equally, whatever the deed says.
- Where it is in doubt whether an asset is marital property, the law presumes that it is.
- A divorce agreement does not bind the bank. While your name is on the loan the debt is still yours too.
- Three routes exist: sell and split, one refinances and takes it, or keep holding it jointly. The last is the riskiest.
- If one of you takes it, write down what happens if they cannot refinance alone within a set period.
- Get four numbers first: balance, market value, real equity, and who paid what.
- An unregistered couple can still claim, but on evidence of money contributed, not on years spent together.
- Do not stop paying out of anger. It only lowers the value of the thing you are both dividing.