Buying Real Estate
Lic. Rodrigo José Pastor Peralta
Attorney /Abogado
rpastorp@abogados.or.cr

In Costa Rica, a private contract celebrated between two or more parties is viewed as a law by which the participants must abide. Some contracts, like real estate purchases, must produce effects on to non-participants of the contract. For this reason, real estate sale contracts must be performed before a Notary Public in a signed legal instrument, and registered in the Real Estate section of the Public Registry.

It is very important that people are fully aware of the registry situation of the property they wish to buy before they commit to the sale. Furthermore they must verify the registry of their properties once the sale is complete. It is the Notary Public ´s duty to inform all parties involved of the legal ramifications the sale might have. It is also the Notary Public ´s job to perform the initial study and situation of the piece of real estate subject of the contract and submit the deed to the Public Registry for inscription. It is not unheard of, however, that some unscrupulous Notary Publics associated with hustlers or con men will take advantage of ignorant or naive clients, most often foreigners, and sell properties that belong to other people, or sell the same property more than once having not registered any sales to begin with.

As I stated, it is the Notary ´s obligation to register the transaction in the Public Registry. Sometimes, the deed will have a defect which will prevent it from being registered. When this happens, the Notarial Code states that the Notary Public has exactly one year to correct the defect. If, after that year the correction has not been made, the presentation of the deed is cancelled. This means that in the eyes of the Public Registry, the contract never existed, giving way to uncertainty and eventually to fraud and legal battles. This is why you must always ask for proof that the deed is in fact registered, a small detail that will inevitably save you a lot of headaches.

It is also a pre requisite for registration, that the property, edification, condominium, etc. you buy, have a plat map drawn up by an accredited surveyor and dully filed in the cadastre and authorized by the corresponding Municipality.

It may happen that the property you wish to buy is not registered. There are remote places in Costa Rica that have still not been plat mapped. This does not mean you cannot buy the property with a private contract, but to be able to register the piece of real estate as your own you must go through the proceedings called “Información Posesoria,” but that will be addressed in an upcoming issue.