Wills for British expats in Thailand: foreign ownership and why you need a Thai will too

If you own anything meaningful in Thailand, you usually need a Thai will for those assets, written to sit alongside a UK will for your UK assets. A UK will can be recognised in Thailand, but recognition and smooth administration are not the same thing. Thai estates run through the Thai courts, Thai property law limits what a foreigner can actually own and pass on, and Thai intestacy rarely does what British expats assume. A Thai will built for Thai assets is usually faster and cheaper for your family than forcing everything through one document.

Here is what shapes the decision, starting with the part that catches people out.

Thai property is not one thing

What you can leave in a will depends entirely on how you hold the asset, and "my place in Thailand" can mean several very different things in law.

Foreigners generally cannot own land outright in Thailand. There are narrow exceptions, but the default is a firm no, and the rules are being enforced more tightly, not less. A will cannot turn land you can't legally hold into land your heirs can keep. If a foreigner inherits Thai land they aren't entitled to own, the authorities can require it to be sold, typically within a year.

Condominiums are the main exception. A foreigner can own a condo unit outright, provided foreign owners hold no more than 49 per cent of the floor area in that building and the purchase met the funding rules. A foreign-owned condo can pass on death, but whether a foreign heir can keep it depends on the quota and their own eligibility. Some heirs keep it; others have to notify the authorities and sell within a year.

Long leases are common but they are not freehold. A registered lease runs for a maximum of 30 years. Renewal is possible, but each renewal is a fresh agreement, not a guaranteed 60 or 90 years. And whether a lease can even be inherited is unsettled in Thai law: some structures preserve it, others end on death. Treat lease inheritance as uncertain and dependent on the wording, not a given.

Two other arrangements behave differently again. A right of superficies (owning buildings on someone else's land) is generally transferable and inheritable. A usufruct (the right to use and enjoy property) usually lasts only for the holder's life, so it's a poor tool for passing something on. A right of habitation can't be inherited at all.

One route deserves a plain warning. Holding land through a Thai company set up only to get around the ownership ban is a nominee structure, and nominee arrangements are illegal. Thailand stepped up enforcement in 2026. The old "everyone does it" reassurance is not safe, and a will can't fix it.

Thai intestacy rarely does what you expect

A common assumption is that a Thai spouse automatically inherits everything. Under Thai intestacy, that's often not the case.

Thai law recognises classes of statutory heirs (children, parents, siblings and others), and a surviving spouse shares with whichever class applies. With children, the spouse shares equally with them. With parents or full siblings, the spouse takes half. Only where none of those relatives survives does the spouse take the whole estate.

There's a step before any of that. Thai marriage law splits property into personal property (owned before marriage, or inherited) and marital property (built up during the marriage). On death, the marital property is divided first, and only the deceased's own share then passes under the will or intestacy. So the estate isn't simply everything in one person's name. This is why intestacy is a poor fit for most expat families, and why a will gives far better control over who gets what.

Why a Thai will helps

Thailand doesn't have probate in the English sense. Instead, the Thai court appoints an estate administrator, and that court order is what banks and the Land Office need before they'll release or transfer anything. This is usually required even when there's a will.

A foreign will makes that process heavier. It generally has to be translated into Thai and legalised, and the court may want evidence that it was validly made under the law of the country where it was signed. That adds cost and delay at exactly the moment the family needs access to money and property. An uncontested appointment often takes a few months; foreign documents and disputes stretch it further.

So a separate Thai will isn't about nationality. It's about administration. A Thai-language will covering your Thai assets, naming a local administrator, is simply easier for Thai courts, registries and banks to process. One worldwide will can look tidy on paper and still leave your family dealing with translations and extra court steps in practice.

Coordinating a Thai will with a UK will

The sensible structure is usually by location: a Thai will for Thai assets, a UK will for UK assets. UK assets such as a house, bank account or shares can still need English probate even if you died resident in Thailand, so the UK will keeps doing a job of its own.

The risk to manage is accidental revocation. Most wills open by revoking all earlier wills. Sign a Thai will after a UK will without limiting that wording, and you can cancel the UK one by accident, and the same the other way round. The goal isn't two wills, it's two coordinated wills: each should state which country's assets it covers and make clear it doesn't revoke the other. They need drafting together, not one after the other in isolation.

Two different tax stories

Thai inheritance tax is far narrower than the UK's. It only bites on inheritances above 100 million baht per beneficiary, spouses are exempt, and the rate is 5 per cent for children and parents, 10 per cent for others; heirs who are neither Thai nationals nor domiciled in Thailand are taxed only on Thai assets. Most expats will sit well under that threshold. Thailand also has a separate gift tax with its own rules, which people often confuse with inheritance tax.

UK inheritance tax is the one more likely to matter, and the rules changed on 6 April 2025. Whether your worldwide assets are in scope now turns on long-term residence: broadly, if you've been UK resident for at least 10 of the last 20 tax years you can stay within UK inheritance tax on worldwide assets, with a tail of up to 10 years after leaving. Anything physically in the UK stays taxable regardless. The familiar figures still apply: a £325,000 nil-rate band, a residence nil-rate band of up to £175,000 where a home passes to direct descendants, and 40 per cent above the threshold. There's no UK-Thailand inheritance tax treaty, so relief for double taxation depends on a unilateral credit rather than a treaty. The point to take away: you can be below the Thai threshold and still firmly within UK inheritance tax planning.

A few real situations

A British retiree in Chiang Mai owns a foreign-quota condo and Thai bank accounts, and is married to a Thai national with no children. Even if his wife does inherit under intestacy, she still has to go through Thai court administration to reach the condo and accounts, and the condo transfer must satisfy the foreign-ownership rules. A Thai will naming her and a local administrator would save the family weeks of translation and process.

Another expat holds only a 30-year villa lease in Thailand, plus shares and a bank account in England. He assumes the lease is as good as ownership. It isn't: it's a contractual right with a fixed term, and whether his heirs inherit it depends on the drafting. He needs a Thai will dealing with the lease and a UK will for the UK assets, coordinated so neither cancels the other, with his UK residence history checked for inheritance tax.

A retired widower who remarried in Thailand has UK savings and a share of a UK house, plus a Thai condo, car and bank account, and adult children in England. He wants some to go to his Thai wife and some to his children. Intestacy would almost certainly split things differently from what he intends. Coordinated Thai and UK wills give him control and let him use UK spouse exemptions and allowances properly.

Where this leaves you

For most British expats with real assets in Thailand, the strongest plan is a Thai will for your Thai assets coordinated with a UK will for your UK assets, checked together for revocation and tax. That's driven less by theory than by how Thailand actually works after a death: court-led administration, strict limits on what a foreigner can own, and intestacy rules that rarely match your wishes.

A properly drafted UK will is the anchor for your UK estate and the document your Thai planning is built around. That's what Expat Legacy provides: a clear, valid UK will for British expats, in plain English, ready to coordinate with your arrangements in Thailand.

Sources

• Land Code B.E. 2497 (Thailand), sections 86, 93 and 94 (FAOLEX, English translation)
• Inheritance Tax Act B.E. 2558 (Thailand), English translation (Revenue Department)
• Inheritance Tax if you're a long-term UK resident (gov.uk)
• Inheritance Tax (gov.uk)
• Inheritance Tax: double taxation relief (gov.uk)

This article is general information, not legal or tax advice. Thai property and succession rules are detailed and fact-sensitive, and your UK position depends on your own residence history and assets, so it's worth getting advice tailored to you, on both sides, before you act.