There are unlimited ways to lose your shirt in Thailand and sadly many Westerners have lost it all.
It doesn’t matter whether you are employed, run a business, are married, have kids or own land / other assets.
Even with tourists there is no guarantee that your assets are safe, or even that your stay in Thailand is permanent.
Disputes with business partners, locals, relationships gone pear-shaped or even troubles with other foreigners in Thailand have the propensity to get ugly and can take a course they never would in your homeland.
Merely voicing disapproval, even when it is absolutely justified, can see a simple disagreement escalate into a very awkward and difficult situation.
And in a worse case scenario you just might have to flee. Or as it rather too common than it ought to be, you might find that documents you signed in the local language weren’t quite what you thought they were, or didn’t give you the rights you thought you had.
Your beer bar is actually hers, or the car is really in her name, not yours. Even if lawyers were involved setting things up and counsel sought, sometimes they aren’t set up as you expected, and what was once yours is gone.
Even the most prudent and careful have come unstuck. Perhaps the regulations weren’t explained to them. Perhaps they misunderstood, or perhaps they were the victim of a crime that will take years in the courts to sort out.
In Thailand there are no guarantees and any assets in Thailand can be taken away with very little in the way of appeal or redress.
I live by this quote and have few assets in the country.
I’ve seen too many come unstuck to operate any other way.
