In a country like Australia, the government explains the land title system on its website as: "Property legislation in all states and territories is based on the Torrens principle of registration of title.

Each state and territory has a central register of all land in the state which shows the owner of the land. The land title is the official record. It can also include information about mortgages, covenants, caveats, and easements." Nearly all freehold land titles in Australia are Torrens Titles, basing on the Torrens system which had been introduced in 1863.

Not at all being an expert in Australian real estate laws, I understand that the correctness of such Torrens Title is typically guaranteed. Things are different in Thailand. Land in Thailand is covered by a system consisting of several title deeds offering different rights of use, possession, ownership, or alienation. Most titles are issued by the Land Department and fall within seven main categories. Another five categories are issued by other government departments for specific purposes.

More important: The title deed in the hand of the land owner could be different from the version stored at the local land office. It could be manipulated or otherwise forged. But even the land office version could be manipulated.

In my eight years of professional experiences in the Thai property industry and legal practice, I saw more than once such land title deeds which had been silently doctored by an imprudent land officer and a party interested in the land. But most problems arise from the fact that land transfers do not need a notary public (which does not exist in Thailand), and not even a person familiar with basic aspects of land ownership transfer. It is very easy to accomplish a registration at any land office in Thailand based on an invalid land purchase contract. As a consequence, a substantial amount of land title deeds do not show the real owner. 

It is important to understand that no one guarantees in Thailand the correctness of the land office register — neither the government, nor the registered owner, nor anyone else. If the register is found to be incorrect, it has to be corrected. And Thailand's law of purchase contracts in most cases does not give the injured party any compensation claim for their loss.

Thailand has the squatter's rights provision of an adverse possession doctrine, which results in a transfer of ownership after a ten year possession period. However, the legal requirements are in practice highly underestimated. Just to be wrongly registered for ten years does not result in the situation that adverse possession cures the legal defect.

The answer to the obvious question is easy: A due diligence examination gives the protection to secure your place in paradise. It should not only follow the chain of previous title transfers until the title deed had been issued by the government. It should also examine under which legal circumstances the title deed had been created. But that is another story.