What legally counts as "common property" in a Thai condo — and why it can never be mortgaged away from the units

Freehold condo buyers on Phangan often assume "common property" is whatever a sales brochure describes — the pool, the lobby, the parking. The Condominium Act B.E. 2522 is more precise: Section 4 defines common property as everything in the building that isn't an individual unit and is provided for joint use or benefit, and Section 15 lists eleven specific categories. Two further sections attach protections that matter well beyond a marketing description, and neither is addressed by this site's existing condo governance or sinking fund and CAM fees guides — those cover who runs the building and who pays for it, not what the building's shared spaces legally are or what happens to them if the building's finances go wrong.

What Section 15 actually includes

• The land the condominium building sits on, and any land designated for the joint use or benefit of all unit owners.
• The structural frame and load-bearing or stability systems of the building itself.
• Buildings, equipment and machinery provided for common use or shared benefit.
• Facilities and services provided for common use.
• The condominium juristic person's own office.
• Immovable property the juristic person separately acquires under Section 48(1) — for example, using sinking-fund money to buy an adjoining plot.
• Security, fire-prevention, lighting, ventilation, drainage and waste-disposal systems.
• Property maintained using the Section 18 maintenance fund (the CAM-fee pool).

Section 16: why it can't be mortgaged or auctioned away from the units

Section 16 states it plainly: "common property which is immovable property shall neither be prosecuted for division in the enforcement of mortgage nor sold by auction separately from personal property." If a developer, or a fellow unit owner's creditor, forecloses or executes a judgment, the common areas can't be carved off and sold on their own — a unit's title carries its proportional share of common property with it, and the two can't be split. This is part of why a healthy freehold condo purchase doesn't expose a buyer to losing pool or lobby access just because a single unit owner, or even the developer, runs into financial trouble. It's a protection against severance, though, not a guarantee of upkeep — whether common areas are actually maintained still depends on the sinking fund and CAM fees being properly collected and spent.

Section 17/1: business-use restrictions on common property

Trade or commercial activity in a condominium's common areas is restricted to a specifically designated zone approved for that purpose — a unit owner or the juristic person can't simply open a shop out of the lobby or another area never designated as commercial, precisely to protect other owners' peaceful use of the building. This matters to a buyer eyeing a ground-floor unit or common space for retail or a rental check-in desk: it's a structural building-code question distinct from the Hotel Act licensing already covered in the short-term rental crackdown guide.

Practical implications for a buyer

• Check the condo's registered common-property list at the Land Office, not just the marketing materials — the juristic person's registration documents should itemise what actually falls under Section 15, particularly interior car parks, roof terraces and adjoining land a developer might otherwise try to retain privately.
• Verify the legal basis of anything pitched as "exclusive use." A rooftop terrace or specific parking bay marketed that way may be separately titled personal property, or common property with a private-use allocation that a juristic-person vote could in principle revisit later.
• Remember Section 16's protection is about severance, not maintenance. It stops a foreclosure from splitting off the pool or lobby, but says nothing about whether they're kept in good repair — that depends on the sinking fund and CAM fees actually being funded and spent.
• Confirm any planned commercial use sits inside a Section 17/1-designated zone before assuming a common area is available for a shop, café or rental-management desk.

"Common property" in a Thai condo isn't a marketing term — it's a defined legal category with real protections attached. Reading the juristic person's registered Section 15 list, alongside who governs it and who pays to maintain it, gives a much more complete picture than the sales brochure ever will.