Thai Title Deeds: What is a "Black Chanote" (Nor Sor 3 and Nor Sor 3 Khor)?

Transcript of the above video:

As the title of this video suggests we are discussing Title Deed; that is real estate Title Deed here in the Kingdom of Thailand. We are going to go ahead and throw this image up on the screen. 

I use the term "Chanote" in the title because I often find that foreign nationals here in Thailand use the term "Chanote" ubiquitously to describe all types of title. To be clear, a black title deed and again let's throw this image up, when we say black we mean the colour of the Garuda emblem on the title is black in this case. That denotes a Nor Sor 3 or a Nor Sor 3 Khor.  So you can actually upgrade a Nor Sor 3 to a Nor Sor 3 Khor and Nor Sor 3 Khor, generally you will see that in green but it is possible that they can be upgraded. It has been explained to me by our Thai legal staff that in that event, sometimes they will just leave the actual documents so it will be black. So you could have this for Nor Sor 3 or Nor Sor 3 Khor.  It has been explained to me that you will never see a Nor Sor 3, I don't mean to confuse everyone, which is green. You might see a Nor Sor 3 Khor which is either green or black depending on circumstances, oftentimes sometimes depending on the age. It is also my understanding that this colour scheme is a relatively newer phenomenon although it has been around a while. So again we will put that up on screen. These are both black and green are in contrast to red which denotes full Chanote Title. So red Garuda emblem means Chanote which truly means freehold title.

Nor Sor 3 and Nor Sor 3 Khor imply different levels of certificates if you will or certification or registration of utilization of land. It does not necessarily imply title in the western sense of the common law sense where one can fully alienate that land or sell it. For this reason we often see Nor Sor 3 be upgraded to Nor Sor 3 Khor and then upgraded to Chanote title before title can be conveyed from one person to another, from a buyer to a seller. So Chanote is sort of the ultimate level of freehold title in Thailand and then in descending order Nor Sor 3 Khor or Nor Sor 3. There are is even other types of Title here in Thailand but those are the three. Then there is this colour differential between black, green and red in the Garuda emblems on these documents. Black generally means either a Nor Sor 3 or a Nor Sor 3 Khor. As noted in prior videos, the green Chanotes Nor Sor 3 Khor and red denotes Chanote Title and there is a difference between the rights associated with those different types of Title Deed for lack of a better term here in the Kingdom of Thailand.