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Father Died, what to do with his estate


ash123123

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Hi All,
 
Hope that you will be able to off information or advice for the situation that I have.
 
My father passed away unexpectedly at the start of this month and had been living in Thailand for a number of years.
 
We were not close at the end, so I was informed when the foreign and commonwealth here in the UK tracked me down as his next of kin.
 
We have arranged the funeral and this has all taken place now.
 
What I would like to know is information about his estate, and how to tidy things up. This is not about money, but making sure everything is correctly closed off.
 
He would not have had much, so we are talking about his personal items that were in his rented condo, and whatever funds were in bank(s).
 
I don't know if he had a Thai will, and if he did, I don't know if he had a Thai Girlfriend that may have been left things.
 
The funeral director has said they were not allowed to remove any personal items from the condo, as the landlord wants to claim for damages. So they have not been able to see if there was a will somewhere in the condo.
 
I have contacted a number of law firms in Thailand that were listed on the UK government website, and they have all come back with the same, that we would need to spend a lot of money and time to go to court to make me the executor of the estate to then be in a position to close accounts / authorise the sale of his possessions.  Given the amounts that the law firms were quoting all of that would most likely not cover what it would cost to make me the executor.
 
I have also heard from the law firms that if I do not go through the process of becoming the executor, then the personal items will go to the state.
 
So the questions.
 
Do you know if there is any liability passed on to us, his family, to sort out his estate?  We have not agreed or counter signed anything as we were not asked to.
 
The landlord is wanting to claim for damages, again, would we be liable for them when we haven't agreed to be a guarantor.
 
Finally, if we do not go forward, and the state take hold of the possession, but find a Thai will, would the instructions of the will come into effect, or would the state just keep everything.
 
Appreciate that this is a long shot, but as I have not been able to get these answers from anyone else so far I thought I would ask.
 
Many thanks
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34 minutes ago, Ron jeremy said:

Are you aware of his 800,000 baht that could be in a bank account ?

Sorry, are you saying that this is what some people would say to me, or that you think he might had had this amount in his bank?

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27 minutes ago, ash123123 said:

Sorry, are you saying that this is what some people would say to me, or that you think he might had had this amount in his bank?

Yes if he legally resided in Thailand on a retirement visa then a requirement of having that visa is having 800k baht in a Thai bank.

 

Your main problem I am sorry to say is you had no relationship with him before death & have no chance of one now.

The fact that you do not even know if he was married or had a girlfriend, will, etc etc

 

Now I think your too late for any investigative work. Liabilities? I would not worry you a foreigner in another country

cannot be liable for such things

 

Sorry for your fathers passing may he rest in peace

Edited by meechai
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5 hours ago, meechai said:

Yes if he legally resided in Thailand on a retirement visa then a requirement of having that visa is having 800k baht in a Thai bank.

 

Your main problem I am sorry to say is you had no relationship with him before death & have no chance of one now.

The fact that you do not even know if he was married or had a girlfriend, will, etc etc

 

Now I think your too late for any investigative work. Liabilities? I would not worry you a foreigner in another country

cannot be liable for such things

 

Sorry for your fathers passing may he rest in peace

Doesn't the 800,000 baht depend on how many years he has been living here and if was using an agent or not the amount in his bank account may be much less it may just be his state pension

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4 hours ago, vinny41 said:

Doesn't the 800,000 baht depend on how many years he has been living here and if was using an agent or not the amount in his bank account may be much less it may just be his state pension

Nothing to do with how many years he has been here, but if he didn't have the funds or chose not to to leave 800K in the bank, he may well have just paid an agent every year to get his extension.

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10 minutes ago, giddyup said:

Nothing to do with how many years he has been here, but if he didn't have the funds or chose not to to leave 800K in the bank, he may well have just paid an agent every year to get his extension.

I thought there was something called Grandfather rights for anyone that has been in Thailand before October 21, 1998 

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12 minutes ago, vinny41 said:

I thought there was something called Grandfather rights for anyone that has been in Thailand before October 21, 1998 

No idea, but you only said he had been here "for a number of years". It seems less money was required to qualify if you were here before 1998.

Edited by giddyup
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4 hours ago, vinny41 said:

Doesn't the 800,000 baht depend on how many years he has been living here and if was using an agent or not the amount in his bank account may be much less it may just be his state pension

 

17 minutes ago, vinny41 said:

I thought there was something called Grandfather rights for anyone that has been in Thailand before October 21, 1998 

 

14 minutes ago, giddyup said:

No idea, but you only said he had been here "for a number of years". It seems less money was required to qualify if you were here before 1998.

I think you have me confused with the op as I never posted "for a number of years" I have no idea how long the op Father has been living here 

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Just now, vinny41 said:

 

 

I think you have me confused with the op as I never posted "for a number of years" I have no idea how long the op Father has been living here 

OK sorry, so why did you mention the grandfather clause?

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1 minute ago, giddyup said:

OK sorry, so why did you mention the grandfather clause?

Because some posters had indicated to the op that his father may have 800,000 baht in his bank account , no-one knows the amount in his bank account and the op has to consider how much he would spend with lawyers over here applying through the courts for to be granted executor of his Father Thai Estate

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Basically you have to come to a practical agreement with the landlord -- which may involve you paying the rent for some time -- so that you or someone representing you have access to his condo and can go through his papers and his mail and other things and determine whether there are any bank or other assets worth pursuing through formal estate administration. But I agree that due to immigration requirements, there is a good possibility there are funds worth pursuing in a bank account.

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18 minutes ago, vinny41 said:

Because some posters had indicated to the op that his father may have 800,000 baht in his bank account , no-one knows the amount in his bank account and the op has to consider how much he would spend with lawyers over here applying through the courts for to be granted executor of his Father Thai Estate

And no one (perhaps except the son) knows how long he has been here.

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If I'm following this right, the OP is in the UK at present... So that means that he pretty much would have no ability now or for the coming weeks to travel to Thailand even if he wanted to... given the current ban on incoming international flights.

 

Trying to resolve this kind of thing from afar in a distant country, with no documents in hand regarding the father's assets, is going to be next to impossible. 

 

PS - Under Thai law and such, I don't believe an adult son would have any personal liability for any of the expenses/debts associated with a now deceased father -- unless the son voluntarily decided to take those on for whatever reasons.

 

Edited by TallGuyJohninBKK
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21 minutes ago, thainet said:

As someone familiar with these type of affairs, I agree fully with the last paragraph above.

Even if you were in Thailand, which obviously won't be possible for a long time due to C19, the process of dealing with the Police (death certificate, and they will have taken important docs/passport from the room), Hospital (possibly an autopsy), Embassy as a liaison between all parties, Lawyer possibly involved and of course the Thai Court system, would take months, and seriously your health would suffer. 

So as the funeral has been taken care of already, I would advise not to get involved anymore, unless of course you need the money (that may, or may not be there). But even then, a bank will not release funds without a Court order, which can take up to 6 months, taking into account all of the above.

 

so... what would be the accumulated total of Costs of all the above items? 

 - could they near exceed the value of the assumed 800,000 in the bank?

 

sounds like - just let the landlord acquit himself on the belongings in the rental...

 - beside; one never knows how much back rent is involved too

 

OP releasing himself of entering into possible complicating affairs (walking away) - means the Landlord can more quickly get back to releasing the Flat to the next renter  

 

and life goes on

Edited by tifino
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British Embassy as they are already notified on a citizens death. Next would be to contact possible Expat group friends (if it were Chiang Mis, I would start with Chiang Mai Expats Club or LannaCare Net. But with the added difficulties involved with Covid-19 issues and not having been close? Funeral arranged? Those involved with arrangements not contacted by any English friends or Thais? Good luck. Reason I have a Will here and separate Will in US. Cleaner death remnants.

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I would certainly contact the British Authorities and Embassy in Bangkok to ask advice. Also ask if they can claim his passport. Whoever, landlord etc are not allowed to keep it. It might give clues.

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Q: Do you know if there is any liability passed on to us, his family, to sort out his estate?  We have not agreed or counter signed anything as we were not asked to.

 

A: You have no liability to administer his estate, and you have no liability to cover any claims made against the estate.

 

Q: The landlord is wanting to claim for damages, again, would we be liable for them when we haven't agreed to be a guarantor.

 

A: No.

 

Q: Finally, if we do not go forward, and the state take hold of the possession, but find a Thai will, would the instructions of the will come into effect, or would the state just keep everything.

 

A: Technically the will should be executed and the Court would have to appoint a professional executor. This probably isn't going to happen if the value of the estate is low.

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2 hours ago, geisha said:

I would certainly contact the British Authorities and Embassy in Bangkok to ask advice. Also ask if they can claim his passport. Whoever, landlord etc are not allowed to keep it. It might give clues.

As I mentioned in post #23. The police contact the Embassy once they have finished their initial report, ascertaining his nationality. There is a proper protocol for this. The Embassy will appoint or send an official to Pattaya. The passport will be given to the Embassy at that time, but not any other documents or personal effects.

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