When co-owners fall out: partition rights for jointly-held condos and structures on Koh Phangan

If co-owners of a Thai condo unit or a jointly-registered building fall out, can one of them force a resolution? Yes — the Civil and Commercial Code's co-ownership rules (Sections 1357-1364) give every co-owner the right to demand partition at essentially any time, and if the co-owners can't agree on how, a court can step in, including ordering a forced sale.

Where this comes up on Koh Phangan

• Two or more foreign buyers — business partners, friends, an unmarried couple — jointly titled on a single freehold condo unit.
• A foreign buyer and a Thai spouse or partner jointly registering a building under a superficies right while the underlying land stays titled to the Thai party, sometimes alongside a usufruct protecting the foreign spouse.
• Thai heirs left holding undivided inherited land in common, occasionally with a foreign spouse's usufruct layered on top.

The default rules, absent a contrary agreement

• Section 1357 — co-owners are presumed to hold equal shares unless proven otherwise.
• Section 1358 — co-owners are presumed to manage the property jointly; ordinary management decisions are made by majority.
• Section 1360 — each co-owner may use the property so long as that use doesn't conflict with the other co-owners' rights.
• Section 1361 — each co-owner may freely sell, mortgage or charge only their own share; the property as a whole can only be sold, mortgaged or charged with every co-owner's consent.

The exit valve: the right to demand partition

Section 1363 gives any co-owner the right to demand partition at any time, unless barred by an agreement or by the permanent character of the co-ownership's purpose — and critically, a contract can only exclude that right for a maximum of 10 years at a stretch. A co-ownership agreement that tries to lock partners in indefinitely simply doesn't hold beyond that window; the right to demand partition revives.

Where the co-owners can't agree on how to split, Section 1364 lets a court order either an actual physical division of the property (with monetary compensation if that leaves shares unequal), or — where physical division isn't practical — a sale, whether a private auction among the co-owners or a public one, with proceeds distributed according to each owner's share.

What this means in practice

• A single unit or structure rarely survives a physical-division order. A condo unit or one villa building can't sensibly be cut in half, so a genuine falling-out among co-owners usually heads toward a court-ordered sale and a split of proceeds rather than a literal division.
• A written co-ownership agreement can shape the exit, but not block it. Buyout rights, first-refusal terms, or an agreed valuation mechanism can keep a disagreement out of court — but any clause trying to waive the Section 1363 partition right for longer than 10 years won't be enforceable past that point.
• This is a different mechanism from a leasehold or company dispute. Sections 1357-1366 apply to co-owned title itself — two or more names on the same condo unit title or building registration — not to a deadlock among shareholders in a Thai company holding land, which is governed by company law instead.

Buying with a partner, friend, or business associate is common on the island, and it works well until it doesn't. Putting a co-ownership agreement in place before registration — covering buyout price, first refusal and decision-making — won't override the underlying right to demand partition, but it turns an eventual parting of ways into a negotiated buyout instead of a forced court auction.