Services / Administrative cases
Land expropriated: how the compensation is set
An owner told to come and collect the compensation usually has less time than they think, because the appeal period runs from the day the money is received, and the basis of the valuation is open to challenge on criteria the ministerial regulation states quite precisely.
The five criteria for the preliminary price
The Act in force is the Expropriation and Acquisition of Immovable Property Act B.E. 2562 (2019), which replaced the repealed 2530 Act. Section 20 requires the preliminary price to be set having regard, taken together, to the ordinary market price of the land on the day the royal decree under section 8 takes effect; the official land appraisal used for land and building tax; the capital appraisal used for registration fees; the condition and location of the land; and the grounds and purpose of the expropriation.
The regulation puts numbers on it
The Ministerial Regulation on the Preliminary Price for Expropriated Land B.E. 2564 (2021) is specific. The ordinary market price is taken from sales registered at the land office on the day the royal decree takes effect; if there are none, or the committee considers them not to reflect the ordinary market, sales going back not more than two years may be used and the median taken. Nearby land means land of the same or similar condition, locality, position and use within a radius of not more than two kilometres.
Market price is a floor, not just one input
Clause 7 of the regulation sets out the method: the ordinary market price and the appraised prices are averaged to give the base, except that where the average is lower than the ordinary market price, the ordinary market price is used as the base instead. Condition and location are then applied to raise or lower it, and where there is cause to increase it, a further increase of not more than ten per cent is allowed.
Compensation is not only the land
Section 37 lists the components. Where only land is taken, compensation comprises the value of the land, the cost of demolition, of removal and of rebuilding structures and other immovables attached to the land, and other loss arising from the owner having to leave. And where land is expropriated, if the owner wishes the buildings and structures to be taken as well, the officer is to act on that wish.
Ninety days, running from receipt of the money
Section 49 lets anyone dissatisfied with the amount appeal to the Minister within ninety days of receiving the money from the officer or receiving money that was deposited. Both the period and its starting point deserve care: the repealed Act used sixty days running from the letter calling the owner to collect, and that is still widely quoted. The committee then reports within one hundred and eighty days, the Minister decides within thirty days of that opinion, and section 50 gives a year to sue, with interest on any increase at the highest rate paid on Government Savings Bank fixed deposits.
PREPARE
What to bring
- The notice to collect the compensation, and the date it was actually received
- The title deed and the full set of title documents
- The royal decree defining the area, and the date it took effect
- Registered sale prices of nearby land over the past two years
- Details of the structures and of any business carried on there
QUESTIONS
Questions this raises
Does taking the money give up the right to appeal?
Section 49 requires the appeal to be made within ninety days of receiving the money from the officer or receiving money that was deposited. The provision is therefore built on the assumption that the money is taken first and the appeal follows. Taking it is not in itself a waiver; it is the event that starts the clock, which means the date of receipt is the date to write down.
Only part was taken, and what is left is unusable.
Where the remaining land is not enough to live on or to make a living from, section 35 of the 2562 Act opens a route: the officer may expropriate additional land to give in compensation instead of paying money, but the owner's consent is required. The criteria and procedure follow the royal decree issued under that section.
LAW
The legislation
- Expropriation and Acquisition of Immovable Property Act B.E. 2562 (2019), section 20
- Expropriation and Acquisition of Immovable Property Act B.E. 2562 (2019), section 37
- Expropriation and Acquisition of Immovable Property Act B.E. 2562 (2019), section 49
- Expropriation and Acquisition of Immovable Property Act B.E. 2562 (2019), section 50
- Ministerial Regulation on the Preliminary Price for Expropriated Land B.E. 2564 (2021)
ENQUIRIES
