A Phuket listing may say "chanote" or "Nor Sor 3 Gor" in its small print, or say nothing about the document at all. The words describe different legal positions, and the price of the land should not be the same under each. Our due diligence guide said the deed types deserved an article of their own. This is it.
The method is plain. We read the Land Code Promulgating Act B.E. 2497 in an unofficial English translation current to the 2008 amendments, and checked its vocabulary against the Department of Lands' own public pages and service manuals, all on 20 October 2026. Only the Thai text of the Code has legal effect, and amendments after 2008 were not checked. ZEN Real Property sells villas in Phuket, so read the buying advice below with that in mind. This is not legal advice.
Two families of document
The Department of Lands (DOL) sorts land documents into two groups on its own public encyclopedia. The first is the documents showing ownership (กรรมสิทธิ์): the title deed, โฉนดที่ดิน, which is the chanote, and its older forms. The second is the documents showing a right of possession (สิทธิการครอบครอง): the certificates of utilisation, หนังสือรับรองการทำประโยชน์, issued as Nor Sor 3, Nor Sor 3 Gor and Nor Sor 3 Khor. The Land Code uses the same split. It defines a Title Deed as the document showing ownership of the land, and a Certificate of Use as the document from the competent official certifying that land has already been put to use.
| Document | What the Code or the DOL calls it | Covered by the Code's registration rule (s.4 bis)? |
|---|---|---|
| Chanote (โฉนดที่ดิน) | Title Deed — shows ownership | Yes |
| Nor Sor 3 / 3 Gor / 3 Khor (น.ส.3, น.ส.3 ก., น.ส.3 ข.) | Certificate of utilisation — DOL files it under possessory rights | Yes |
| Sor Kor 1 (ส.ค.1) | Notice of possession (ใบแจ้งการครอบครองที่ดิน) — a claim lodged under the 1954 Act, not a deed | No: section 4 bis names the Title Deed and the Utilization Certificate only |
| Nor Sor 2 (ใบจอง) | Pre-emption certificate — authority for temporary occupation | No, for the same reason |
Section 4 bis says a transfer of ownership or possessory right in land for which a Title Deed or a Utilization Certificate has been issued must be made in writing and registered with the competent officials. Section 456 of the Civil and Commercial Code is blunter: a sale of immovable property is void unless it is made in writing and registered by the competent official. On the statute's wording, an unregistered sale is void however much has been paid.
Nor Sor 3 and Nor Sor 3 Gor
Both are certificates of use, and both can be registered against. The translation of the Code we read never uses the words "3 Gor". What it does say is more specific than any listing: section 58 ter lets the Minister announce that Title Deeds will be issued, province by province, for land that already holds a Utilization Certificate with an aerial photo map. The map from the certificate is used for the deed without a fresh ground survey, except where necessary.
We read "Nor Sor 3 Gor" as that aerial-photo certificate, and a news report of a 2022 Department of Lands order supports the reading: it describes 59 revoked certificates as Nor Sor 3 Gor issued in 1978 under a survey that used aerial photographs. Treat that as our reading and confirm it with the Land Office. The practical consequence is the same either way. A plain Nor Sor 3 and a Nor Sor 3 Gor are both a step below a chanote, and the question for a buyer is how firmly the boundary is fixed on the ground.
The Code also treats the two families differently in small ways. Land with a Title Deed that is abandoned or left waste for ten consecutive years is deemed renounced; for a Utilization Certificate the period is five. In both cases the Director-General must go to court before the document is revoked. The shorter period makes a Utilization Certificate the more exposed of the two.
Sor Kor 1: the one not to buy as a deed
A Sor Kor 1 is a notice that someone possessed and used land before the Land Code took effect on 1 December 1954. It records a claim. It is not on the Code's list of documents for which transfers are registered, and section 58 bis treats a holder as a person with evidence of a claim to possession, from whom a deed can be issued.
That route has narrowed. Under section 8 of the Land Code Amendment Act (No. 11) B.E. 2551, holders had two years from the Act to apply for a deed on the strength of their notice. The DOL's public service manual for the later case says an application lodged after 8 February 2010 can proceed only after a final court judgment that the person lawfully possessed and used the land before 1 December 1954, with the DOL checking the earliest available aerial photograph for the court within 180 days. Land held with no document at all follows a separate individual-application route under section 59 bis, and the same Land Office manual gives the wait for a survey slot as anywhere from 15 to 1,000 days, depending on the office. Phuket's wait is not stated; each office publishes its own monthly survey performance report.
A seller offering "chanote soon" on a Sor Kor 1 is describing that process. Price it as land that may or may not become a deed, on a timetable you do not control.
A deed can be cancelled
Section 61 gives the Director-General of the Department of Lands the power to order the amendment or annulment of a Title Deed or a Utilization Certificate that was issued inaccurately or illegally. It runs through a committee of inquiry, with a notice to interested parties and thirty days to object. It is not a theoretical power. On 29 March 2022 the DOL revoked 59 Nor Sor 3 Gor certificates covering 2,111 rai in a permanent forest area in Chom Bueng, Ratchaburi, issued in 1978, after a committee found they had been issued unlawfully. That case is not in Phuket, and it is one case. It shows what the inquiry can do to a certificate that looks complete on the table.
One more statutory limit is easy to miss. Under section 58 bis, a person who has occupied land since the Code with no earlier claim document may not transfer land issued to them under that route for ten years, except by inheritance or to certain public bodies. Ask whether the document came from that route and whether anything is endorsed on it.
What to check, in order
- Get the document type in writing, with a full copy. Ask which of the four it is. The front page and every endorsement page are needed, not only the cover.
- Run the Land Office search. The due diligence guide sets out the four questions to put. The register is the authority, and the owner's copy is not.
- Compare the two copies. Under sections 57 and 75 the document is made in duplicate, one for the holder and one kept at the Land Office, and the terms of any registered agreement are recorded in both. A page the holder's copy lacks, or one the Land Office copy lacks, is the thing to ask about.
- Test the area. Under section 69 bis the Land Office can verify a deed's boundaries at the owner's request, and where the survey disagrees with the map or area on the deed it may correct the record to match the survey once adjoining owners have confirmed the boundaries. A listing's plot size is marketing until a survey backs it.
- Ask when and how the document was issued. A 1970s certificate on a hillside or beside forest or state land deserves a question to the Land Office about where it sits, given what section 61 allows.
- If it is not a chanote, ask for the upgrade first. Sections 58 ter and 59 are the routes. Ask your lawyer to make the upgrade a condition of the price, not a promise after it.
- Insist on registration. The sale is registered at the Land Office, in writing, or it is void under section 456.
What our own book tells you, and does not
On 20 October 2026 our book held 730 sale listings with a published price. The public catalogue has no field for the type of land document, and none of the 43 feature tags on our listings concerns title. That is an absence in the data, not a finding about the land. Ask for the document type on any listing you like, ours included.
Foreign buyers meet a second question the deed type does not answer, which is who may hold the land at all. Section 74 tells officials to refer to the Minister when a purchaser appears to be buying on behalf of an alien. That is covered in our guide to freehold, leasehold and company ownership, and the cost of the transfer itself is in the guide to transfer fees and taxes.
What this does not cover
The article does not describe Nor Sor 3 Khor beyond its name, does not cover state, forest or agricultural-reform land documents, and uses an English translation that stops at the 2008 amendments. Check every section above against the current Thai text, and against the Land Office, before you rely on it. If you want to see which villas on our book fit a budget while you do, take the three-minute quiz or browse villas for sale.