Who can legally act

Three separate questions, three different answers. Most guidance runs them together.

Who can collect the body?

This is decided by hospitals, district offices and embassies. It is administrative practice rather than a single rule, and the definitions vary by country.

The UK's service page for body-release letters states that next of kin in Thailand means the spouse, a child over 20, or a parent. Anyone else needs that person's written authorisation, and the page publishes the exact wording required.

The US Embassy publishes a longer hierarchy: legal spouse, then all children, then all parents, then all siblings, then all grandparents. It also confirms that since same-sex marriage became legal in Thailand on 23 January 2025, a US citizen married in Thailand to a same-sex spouse can be considered next of kin.

Australia uses the term throughout its guidance without publishing a definition.

The practical consequence: a childless, unmarried Briton whose parents have died may have no next of kin at all under the UK definition. An American in identical circumstances has siblings and grandparents to fall back on.

Who inherits if there is no will?

This is decided by Thai law, and it is not flexible.

An estate without a valid will passes to six classes of statutory heir in a fixed order: descendants, parents, full siblings, half siblings, grandparents, then uncles and aunts. A surviving spouse sits outside those classes and shares alongside whichever one qualifies. A higher class excludes every lower one entirely.

Unmarried partners inherit nothing. Thai law does not recognise cohabitation or common-law marriage, regardless of how long a couple has lived together.

Who can actually deal with the assets?

Nobody, until a Thai court says so.

There is no probate court in the common-law sense. A provincial court appoints an estate administrator, and it must do so even where the deceased left a valid will. Naming an executor in a will is a recommendation to the court, not an appointment.

Banks freeze accounts on notification of death and will not release funds on a will alone. They require the court's appointment order. Reported timelines vary: several months for bank funds where the order is obtained promptly, longer for property.

Set that against the 30-day deadline before an unclaimed body goes to a pauper's funeral. Weeks to act. Months to reach the money.

What can you arrange in advance?

In order of how much they achieve.

• Marriage. Resolves more of this, more cheaply, than any set of documents. Since January 2025 it is available to same-sex couples.
• A professionally drafted Thai will. Inexpensive and necessary.
• Written authority, prepared in advance. The Dutch government advises unmarried people in Thailand who want their remains released to their partner to have a local law firm with notarial powers draw up a will or a statement to that effect. The US Embassy states it can produce a letter of instruction on receipt of written guidance in the form of a legal will or a signed statement.
• An inventory of what exists and where it is. No legal force, but much of the delay is not the court. It is finding the documents the court asks for.

What cannot be arranged?

No document you write will give an unmarried partner a right to inherit that Thai law withholds.