What's actually included when you buy a Phangan villa: component parts vs. accessories under Thai law

If I buy a resale villa on Koh Phangan, what exactly comes with it — the built-in kitchen, the furniture, the rooftop solar system? Thai law answers this through Civil and Commercial Code Sections 144–148, which classify everything attached to or associated with a property into three categories with different legal consequences. Getting this right before signing avoids a dispute at handover — see The Sale and Purchase Agreement for how this feeds into the contract itself.

Component parts (ส่วนควบ) — Section 144: transfer automatically, no clause needed

A component part is anything that, by its nature or local custom, is essential to a thing's existence and cannot be separated without destroying, damaging or altering it — think embedded plumbing and wiring, mortared-in cabinetry, a structurally integrated water tank, or the concrete and roof structure itself. Section 144 gives the owner of the principal thing automatic ownership of every component part; no contract clause is required, and none can realistically exclude it, because separating it would damage the property. Section 145 adds a special rule for land: permanently planted trees are component parts of the land, while temporary crops and seasonal plantings are not — relevant if a plot's mature fruit trees are part of its value.

Temporary fixtures (Section 146) don't count

Something only temporarily fixed to land or a building — a tenant's fitting installed for the duration of a rental, for example — never becomes a component part, however solidly it appears attached. This is the carve-out that keeps a temporary installation removable by whoever put it there.

Accessories (เครื่องอุปกรณ์) — Section 147: the flexible middle category

An accessory is a movable item attached to the principal thing, by the owner's intention, permanently for its management, use or preservation — a freestanding air-conditioning unit, a roof-mounted solar array on brackets (see Off-grid solar and battery storage and PEA's rooftop solar buyback scheme), a water pump, or furniture chosen and fitted for that specific villa. Section 147's default rule is easy to get backwards: the accessory follows the principal thing, saving special disposition to the contrary — meaning it is presumed included in a sale unless the contract explicitly excludes it, not the other way around.

Why the default direction matters at the negotiation stage

• A seller who wants to keep furniture, appliances or a solar system must say so in writing. Silence in the Sale and Purchase Agreement favors the buyer under Section 147's default rule.
• A buyer should still insist on a written schedule regardless of the default. Whether a specific item counts as a component part, an accessory, or a bare movable the seller can simply take away is a legal characterization, not something settled by how attached it looks — get it itemized rather than argued over later.
• Section 148's 'fruits' rule matters for a mid-cycle handover. Natural fruits (a standing coconut or fruit harvest) and legal fruits (rent already accruing on a tenanted unit) belong to whoever holds the relevant right when they fall due or are severed — worth addressing explicitly if you're buying a villa with an active rental booking or a harvest-ready orchard.
• Built-in vs. freestanding is the practical dividing line on Phangan. A mortared-in outdoor kitchen counter is a component part; the gas range sitting on it is an accessory; a portable generator stored in a shed is neither and needs its own bill of sale if it's meant to be included.

None of this replaces a clear inclusion/exclusion schedule attached to the contract. The statutory default protects a buyer who says nothing, but an explicit written list — cross-checked against the due diligence checklist for the transaction as a whole — is what actually prevents an argument at the handover walk-through.