Can a Thai prevent a foreigner from leaving Thailand?

[cjtrader]

I had a dispute with a hotel several years ago and the owner threatened to contact authorities and prevent me from leaving to go home if I did not pay the disputed bill. It was only 600 baht so I paid it. Now a conflict between 2 realtors might lead to one of them making a similar threat. This time it could cost me 30,000 baht. I am completely in the right, but of course this is Thailand.

Do I need to worry?  If a Thai wanted to keep a foreigner here to resolve a dispute, how would he go about it? Does he petition a court? If so, does the foreigner have a grace period to respond?  The hotel owner years ago made it sound like he could just make a phone call and I would not be able to board my plane to leave.

Has anyone had experience with this type of situation. I want to go home in March and need to make plane and airbnb reservations. I could lose a lot of money if a realtor could prevent my leaving.

[worldpunter]

I guess he would call the immigration police , not difficult to do this  , 

[CyberPro]

I don't have the references close at hand but what I remember is that if a Thai entity sues you then you are prohibited from leaving the Kingdom pending legal proceedings. This will take as long as it takes. 

Avoiding this in the first place is by far the recommended path, IMO. Good luck. 

Edited January 6, 2023 by CyberPro

[axunjaxn]

Any Thai in a uniform at the airport can certainly prevent you from leaving. 

                                                                                                                                  Jack

                                                       

[kansuwan]

On 06/01/2023 at 11:05, cjtrader said:

I want to go home in March and need to make plane and airbnb reservations. I could lose a lot of money if a realtor could prevent my leaving.

What happened?

[Perth West]

My Experience .

A phone call will not have any effect ,despite what U may hear the system here is very simlar to most countries ,in perticular the Thai government is trying to promote tourism and good will,

If the other party believes he has a winning case then he may request the court to place a holding order on U ,its is possible he is bluffing in the belief that U will pay to avoid being held up.

Many Thais think that being Thai is the begining and end all of any dispute with a farang ,thats not so in the Courts .

If U have a strong case tell him to GFH and wait for the police to issue the order,then get a Lawyer to challenge him/the order .

At that point U need to work out the cost of winning ,I do not think U can recover costs if U win .??

If it was me ,Ide cut my losses and FO quick ,

At the end of the day ,U may win the battle but cost wise U will loose the war (as they say)

Good luck ,b keen to hear how it works out for U

[snowbird]

The hotel bill question came to me a few months ago.

One of the two gf got a front desk job at a nice hotel, after doing jobs from mall work to bars. I cut my sponsorship down to about 5k baht a month. I used to waste far more each month and they will spend it no matter how much you send. The hotel training school was one of the few sponsored things that actually paid off 🤷‍♂️

The whole point is there is another side to this, the way they do things are different than back in your country. They are quick to make the worker pay for accidents and mistakes! Something that is damn hard to do on less than 15k baht a month salary.

A dumbass visitor had his credit card rejected on checkout from the hotel. Ok we have been in that position. That is why we carry enough cash on our departure to cover that or prepay part way through our stay or prepay the whole hotel room fees or at least carry a second credit card. Or at least call the number on the back of the card which can be asspain if its a 1800 number that doesn't work from Thailand so you have to google up the banks regular number and get transferred around to credit card desk. Nope mister dumbass couldn't be bothered to do any of that and pay his bill.

This asshat just said couldn't pay because his card didn't work and left. Her boss said then she would have to pay HIS charge! She asked me to pay it or what to do not to get fired and I damn sure wasn't going to pay asshat's hotel bill. I did look it up on how to file with immigration a hold on him. As usual for these girls that aren't so bright she waited until he was already back on the East coast US home before even bothering me with it so too late but could have put him in a nice bind when he tried to return since he didn't clear the bill even when getting back home.  She appealed to the hotel general manager and he gave her another chance but please do consider the the local's impact might be if you don't pay something. Not saying the Op was right or wrong just answering the immigration hold question and pointing out what difference it might make to a poor local.

[Greg_B]

Well stated @snowbird...

[manni2011]

I am not sure if the specific process but a landlord can prevent you from leaving the country. I recall a news story a couple years back in which a foreigner couldn’t leave the country due to a dispute over damage to furniture in the property.  The court process is extremely slow and cumbersome and he was essentially stuck in Thailand. 
 

I am not sure about the nature of your problem with the realtor but you may want to contact the office of the Consumer Protection Board.  
https://www.consumersinternational.org/members/members/office-of-the-consumer-protection-board-of-thailand

[axunjaxn]

20 hours ago, axunjaxn said:

Any Thai in a uniform at the airport can certainly prevent you from leaving. 

                                                                                                                                  Jack

                                                       

And businesses can  file a claim against you.  So pay.  Or stay. At soi 9.

🐒

[Redred55]

They absolutly can, anither foreigner can as well. Basicly if you have any kind of trouble involving you having to show up in court etc. you can be prevented from leaving the country.

I know a danish guy who got into a facebook feud(of all things, he called him a moron, or something similar) with a dude from Norway, the norweign filled a deframtion conplaint with the local authorities and they ended up settling in court. The danish guy lives here, but he was not allowed to leave, while the case was going.

Edited June 19, 2023 by Redred55