Services / Enforcement and asset recovery
You won the eviction, and they are still there
A judgment for possession does not by itself move anyone out. What moves them out is the enforcement procedure the execution officer carries through in the order the Code lays down, and knowing that order saves the owner from wasting time on anything else.
Two kinds of order, separated from the start
Section 350 of the Civil Procedure Code separates them at the outset. Where the judgment or order requires the judgment debtor to leave immovable property, a dwelling or property in their possession, enforcement follows sections 351 to 354. Where it orders the demolition of a structure, enforcement follows section 355. Which limb a judgment falls under is therefore the first thing to establish.
Demolition under section 355
Section 355 empowers the execution officer to carry out the demolition and to remove the contents from the structure being demolished. The judgment debtor bears the cost of demolition and removal, and that cost stands as a judgment debt that can itself be enforced. It is not a burden the successful party carries permanently.
The notice of not less than fifteen days
Before demolition begins, section 355 requires notice of the demolition to be posted at the site for not less than fifteen days. This figure needs care: the superseded provision used seven days, and many Thai legal sites still quote the older number. Anyone planning the works from the old figure will have their dates wrong from the outset.
Property inside the structure
Goods removed do not become the successful party's own. Section 355 applies the second to fourth paragraphs of section 352 with the necessary modifications, and those govern the keeping and disposal of what has been removed. Dealing with the goods outside that framework creates fresh liability at the very point where the original case has already been won.
What the winner still may not do
Changing the locks, cutting the utilities, moving the goods out or pulling the structure down oneself is not enforcement, whether or not a judgment is in hand. The power to go in belongs to the execution officer. A successful party who acts alone usually ends up a defendant in a new case, when the proper route existed and would not have taken much longer.
PREPARE
What to bring
- The judgment or order and the writ of execution
- Whether the order is to vacate or to demolish
- A plan and the location details of the property
- Who is currently occupying the property
- An estimate of the demolition and removal costs
QUESTIONS
Questions this raises
Do I have to fund the demolition first?
Section 355 puts the cost of demolition and removal on the judgment debtor, and treats it as a judgment debt that remains enforceable. In practice the owner often has to advance the money so the work can proceed, and then recover it through that route, which is different from bearing the cost permanently.
Someone else moved in after the judgment.
Where the occupier is not the judgment debtor, the position has to be looked at separately, since section 350 speaks of compelling the judgment debtor to leave. When they moved in, under whose right, and whether they knew of the case are the facts to gather first, rather than pressing on with enforcement and running into the problem on site.
LAW
The legislation
- Civil Procedure Code, section 350
- Civil Procedure Code, section 355
- Civil Procedure Code, section 352
ENQUIRIES
