The Hidden Risk Behind Renting a Warehouse for Medical Devices in Thailand

The Hidden Risk Behind Renting a Warehouse for Medical Devices in Thailand: A Legal Loophole Every Landlord Should Know

When foreign companies enter the Thai market and need a reliable address for Thai FDA purposes, they often look for a landlord who can provide a compliant location. At first glance, the process appears simple: the client rents an office or warehouse, uses it as the registered location for the import license, and operations proceed as expected.

Unfortunately, the reality is far more complex—and significantly riskier for landlords than most people realise.

When the Warehouse for Medical Devices Becomes a Liability

Imagine you are a landlord renting your warehouse or office to a company importing products regulated by Thai FDA: cosmetics, food, dietary supplements, or medical devices.

Thai FDA requires importers of all regulated product categories to maintain a declared warehouse address that is accessible for inspections, documentation checks, and regulatory communication. In this article, we use the example of a warehouse for medical devices purely for illustration purposes.

You provide the space, sign a proper commercial lease, and reasonably expect that your role ends there.

But what happens if the client disappears?

The Loophole: The License Stays Active Even If the Tenant Runs Away

In many cases—unfortunately more than “a few”—the foreign company stops paying rent, abandons the premises, and continues operating illegally from another undisclosed location.

However, their Thai FDA license remains active.

And Thai FDA will still consider your address as the official location of the licensed operation.

This means:

• You may be questioned about activities you have no visibility over,

• Regulatory notices and inspection requests will come to your office,

• You may face operational and reputational embarrassment,

• You cannot assign the address to another license until the existing one is cancelled.

And this is the critical part: only the Company Director—not the landlord—can cancel the license.

If the director is a foreigner who has left the country or stopped responding, the license remains valid indefinitely, even after you have legally terminated the lease.

Thai FDA has confirmed to us multiple times that this is exactly how the system works.

A Framework That Favors the Wrong Side

The current regulatory structure unintentionally protects the potential scammer. A tenant can misuse a warehouse for medical devices, vanish, and still maintain an active license they can use to import, store, and sell products without any oversight.

Meanwhile, the landlord is left with:

• regulatory exposure,

• operational risk,

• and an address “frozen” in the system until the unreachable director initiates cancellation.

When the directors are foreigners not residing in Thailand, the likelihood of resolution is extremely low.

The Only Effective Mitigation: Use ISO 31000 Principles

According to ISO 31000 risk management principles, risks must be mitigated upfront—not after the damage has occurred.

For landlords offering any FDA-regulated warehouse space, including a warehouse for medical devices, there is only one effective protection:

Require the tenant to sign a Power of Attorney authorising you to cancel their Thai FDA license in case of non-payment, insolvency, or disappearance.

Without this document, you have almost no legal or operational leverage.

A Final Consideration: Trust Dynamics Have Reversed

For years, the narrative was that foreign clients “did not trust” Thai service providers.
Today, the situation has changed dramatically.

Increasingly, Thai landlords and service providers must evaluate the reliability of foreign clients—especially those operating in FDA-regulated sectors—until outdated legal provisions are updated and this loophole is finally addressed.

At Siam Trade Development, we encourage all landlords, co-working spaces, and business centres providing a warehouse for medical devices or any FDA-regulated storage service to implement these safeguards.
Protecting your premises and your regulatory standing is no longer optional; it is a structural necessity in the current compliance environment.