The Consumer Protection Act B.E. 2522 (1979) grants the Contract Committee of the Consumer Protection Board the power to designate “contract-controlled businesses,” in order to control the contents of written contracts between certain businesses and their consumers in the course of sales or services. Designation as a contract-controlled business is intended to ensure that contracts contain necessary terms and conditions and to prevent consumers from being unreasonably disadvantaged by unfair contract terms.

On February 12, 2017, the Contract Committee used that power to issue “Notification of the Contract Committee Re: The Stipulation of Residential Property Leasing as a Contract-Controlled Business B.E. 2561 (2018)”, which was published in the Government Gazette on February 16, 2018. As a result, residential property leasing will be deemed a contract-controlled business as of May 1, 2018.

This will have a very significant impact on residential lease contracts in Thailand from May 1 onwards. A full analysis of the changes is provided in the PDF below.