Me again.

[Smiles]

Oh, and I forgot... Is the land already in his name, or does he need to flip it over into his name? If the latter, then yeah, I guess 15,000 baht sounds about right. I didn't really understand the explanation Leo gave, but I guess switching land ownership to another person is quite expensive for some reason.

One of the reasons that changing ownership of land takes a fairly long time (and expense) is that the new owner has to get his own new 'Chinote'. It's not simply a change of names on an original chinote. Part of the bureaucratic process in doing so also includes a completely new survey of the land in question (including a few pickup trucks, lots of equipment, half a dozen staff. Often it takes week or months for your name to get to the front of the queue. None of this is free.)
Some of these pieces of land in the country side have been owned by families for a very long time. Many do not even have a chinote: property lines get forgotten, stakes go missing, cement or iron placements get covered over or they disintegrate over time. Trust me ... we've been there!

The rules I mention regarding this process are of cause Thailand's rules, but I'd place a bit of a bet on the rules in Lao being very similar.