A foreigner inherits Thai land directly: why Section 93's ministerial permission is effectively unobtainable

My Thai spouse or relative left me land in their will — can I actually keep it? Legally, yes, you can inherit as a statutory heir or a named beneficiary; Thai succession law doesn't block a foreigner from inheriting land. What it can't do is let you register as the owner without a permission that, for almost every foreigner today, doesn't exist to be granted.

How Section 93 actually works

• The text. Land Code Section 93 permits an alien lawful heir's ownership "upon permission of the Minister" — the Minister of Interior, delegated to the Director-General of the Department of Lands for Bangkok plots and to the provincial governor elsewhere.
• The catch: it depends on Section 86. Section 93 was written to work alongside Section 86, which lets a foreigner acquire land "by virtue of the provisions of a treaty." Thailand's last such treaty (with Sweden) was terminated in 1970, and no country currently has one in force.
• The practical result. With no treaty basis, there is no current legal ground for the Minister to grant Section 93 permission to an ordinary foreign heir — approval is refused as a matter of course, not case by case.

What happens when permission isn't granted

An heir who can't register ownership is treated the same as someone who acquired land unlawfully under Section 94: the Director-General sets a disposal period of not less than 180 days nor more than one year, during which the heir must sell. If the land isn't sold within that window, the Director-General can arrange the sale directly — with proceeds still going to the heir under today's law. A separate proposal to remove that entitlement and forfeit unlawfully held land to the State outright is under study but not yet enacted; see Section 94 may soon mean forfeiture, not a forced sale for where that stands.

Does marrying a Thai national change this?

• No — a foreign spouse is a statutory heir under Section 1629 of the Civil and Commercial Code, the same as a child or parent, but statutory heirship doesn't create a land-ownership right. The Section 93 permission constraint applies identically whether the heir is a spouse, a child or an unrelated beneficiary named in a will.
• This is a different gateway from the THB 40-million investment route. A Ministerial Regulation under Section 96 bis lets a foreigner *purchase* up to 1 rai of land for residence against a large qualifying investment — see The THB 40 million investment route. That route is unrelated to inheritance and can't be used to retain land you've inherited.
• Be cautious of claims that a spouse can simply keep up to 1 rai of inherited land indefinitely. That claim circulates online but conflicts with the treaty-based limits above and with how the Section 93 permission process actually works today; verify with a Thai lawyer before relying on it.

Why this comes up at all: how the land got titled in the first place

If a Thai spouse bought land during the marriage, a 1999 regulation required both spouses to declare at the Land Office that the funds were the Thai spouse's separate property, precisely so the foreign spouse wouldn't hold an indirect ownership interest — see Protecting a foreign spouse's interest in property bought during a Thai marriage. That declaration is what makes the land solely the Thai spouse's to leave by will or intestate succession — and what puts the foreign heir back in Section 93's path when it's inherited.

What to do instead of relying on inheriting the land

• Plan before death, not after. A Thai landowner can grant a foreign spouse or intended heir a registered lifetime usufruct and a superficies over the building now — rights that are inherited or survive differently from the land title itself. See Superficies vs usufruct vs lease.
• If land is inherited outright, move quickly. The disposal clock starts from acquisition; a lawyer-managed sale on your own terms beats waiting for the Land Department to arrange one.
• A house on the land may be separable from the land sale if it's structured as a distinct superficies before the issue arises — this isn't automatic and needs advance legal planning, not an assumption made after the fact.
• Condominium units follow a more forgiving rule — a foreign heir who doesn't otherwise qualify to hold a unit has 60 days to notify the Land Office and one year to dispose of it, without the treaty-permission problem that blocks land. See Freehold condo vs leasehold villa.

The safe default is to never plan around inheriting Thai land itself. A registered usufruct, superficies or long lease set up while the Thai owner is alive passes to a foreign spouse or heir on terms the law actually supports — inheriting the title outright does not. See Inheritance on Koh Phangan for how a lease, building and company shares each pass on their own terms.