Whether you are buying a resort villa, selling a piece of land or developing investment property, transforming any financial deal into a profitable investment can be a rocky road. Aside from sound accounting and tax planning advice, it is important that a key member of your team be your legal advisor.
All too often, individuals or businesses look only at the cost rather than the overall lowering of associated risks – including the possibly of a catastrophic impact poorly-constructed deals often bring.Matches are not often made in heaven. Finding the right legal advisor takes time, research and in many cases a trial-and-error approach. While picking a name out of a phone book certainly is one of the more common way of finding council, the results are often a hit-and-miss proposition.
Start your search by speaking to friends, businessmen or other contacts. If possible, ask for an introduction by means of a phone call or email. If you are a developer, sound out other developers and see who is representing them and how they assess performance. Look closely at what your needs are. If you are buying a home, do you need a multinational firm - or will you do better working with a smaller organization or individual lawyer? Right-sizing the approach ultimately saves time and money.
Here in Phuket, the property market has evolved and developed to the point that we have a wide variety of choices, from well-respected local firms such, as International Law Offie, to firms with local and Bangkok offices: Belmont Limcharoen and McEvily & Collins, and firms with international offices
