TM30 explained: what Pattaya landlords need to file when a tenant moves in

If you rent a property to a foreign national in Thailand, you're required to notify the local immigration office within 24 hours of them moving in. That notification is called a TM30. It's a landlord obligation, not a tenant one, and it applies whether the tenant is on a tourist visa, a work permit, or anything in between.

Who actually has to file it

The obligation sits with whoever controls the property: the owner, a company acting as landlord, or a licensed property manager acting on the owner's behalf. If you self-manage and rent directly to foreign tenants, this is on you, not the tenant, and not the condo juristic office unless you've specifically arranged that.

What happens if it's skipped

In practice, enforcement is inconsistent, most landlords never hear about it until a tenant needs a TM30 receipt for a visa extension, a 90-day report, or a driving licence application and it doesn't exist. At that point it becomes the tenant's problem, and often the landlord's reputation problem. Fines exist on paper for non-compliance, though day-to-day the bigger cost is a tenant who can't get paperwork done and blames the property.

How it's typically filed

• In person at the local immigration office, with a copy of the lease and the tenant's passport
• Online, through immigration's TM30 portal, once a property is registered
• Through a condo or estate's juristic office, if they offer it

For owners managing a single unit, filing once and keeping the registration active is usually enough. For anyone with multiple units or tenants rotating through regularly, it's one of the small admin jobs that's easy to let slide, and one of the first things worth handing to a management company that already files it as a matter of course.