Purchasing Costa Rica Real Estate should be an exciting opportunity for the newcomer, a condo, a townhouse, a farm or a beach house as second homes or as a permanent new house, the country offers a well established property registry in which Costa Rican Real Estate lawyers and Notaries are responsible for conducting Costa Rica real estate law procedures such as:
- Costa Rica Title Search
- Costa Rica Escrow Services
- Options to Buy Costa Rican properties.
- Costa Rican Guaranty Trusts
- Costa Rica Closings Services for Costa Rican properties.
- Title Insurance for Costa Rican properties.
- Costa Rica Post Closing
Our Costa Rican lawyers are specialists in Costa Rican Real Estate Law and will guide you safely every step of the way in a professional manner.
In that sense we visit the Costa Rican National Registry, the Municipality where the property is located, determine the tax status of the seller and specially inform our client if the property has a clear title with no liens, encumbrances, mortgages or any other note present in the registry report of the centralized system.
GLC will recommend the best legal structure to proceed with the negotiation once the title search has been carefully analyzed.
-
Costa Rica Escrow Services
Escrow services is a common practice in North American closings, the escrow services are provided in Costa Rica only by authorized entities. In that sense GLC will be able to assist you in the opening of a Costa Rican escrow account with specific instructions that will describe in detail how the payment disbursement will occur.
-
Costa Rica Options to Buy
Once the title search determines that the property can be purchased, our real estate lawyers will draft an option to buy agreement, which constitutes a promissory contract in which both parties, the seller and the buyer agree on the terms in which the purchase will take place, price, timeframe, special conditions, payment schedule, all prior to the closing of the property.
The option to buy is government by Costa Rican real estate law and should be prepared by qualified real estate law specialists, in many cases it is a sine qua non requirement for obtaining financing from local and international banks.
-
Costa Rican Guaranty Trusts
Today most of the considerable land transactions taking place in Costa Rica are conducted through a guaranty trust that has basically substituted the use of mortgage recording offering several tax, fees and image benefits.
The Costa Rican guaranty trust has three main parties, The Trustor (The Seller), The Trustee (a third party depositor) and the Beneficiary (The Buyer). If you find a property that you want to purchase and don´t have the all the necessary funds, you could obtain private financing through the figure of a guaranty trust, in which the owner of the property transfers the property to a recognized trustee until you make all the payments, once the payments are confirmed the trustee will transfer the property to you, if the terms are breached by the buyer, the property is transferred back to the seller.
-
Costa Rican Closing Services
Our attorneys specialized in Costa Rican real estate law are also public notaries who will take care of all documents and procedures necessary to record the property in the buyer's name and Legal representation at closing. We work on:
- Creation of the legal structure for the closing, which could include the incorporation of a Costa Rican company.
- Draft of the Purchase and Sale Agreement in a public transfer deed or Share Endorsement Agreement, according to the specific needs of each client for the closing.
- Professional coordination with the seller and his attorneys.
- Registring of the Transfer Deed at the Public Registry and specialized legal follow up after the Closing.a
Prior to the closing our Costa Rican real estate lawyers will calculate all the closing expenses and fees so that you can negotiate payment with the seller, please take into consideration that transfer deed expenses are estimated by the government based on percentage of the declared fiscal value and at the same time real estate lawyers have a mandatory predetermined official fee based also on the value of the transaction, it is important to have a clear idea of this aspect so that you can focus on the negotiation.
-
Costa Rica Title Insurance
Even though Costa Rica has a modern centralized property registry system and qualified real estate law experts, the legal and business difference encourage mostly North American investors to purchase an additional insurance for their property from a recognized US American title insurance company. GLC offers title insurance through Stewart Title Latin America.
The title insurance covers the following:
Invalid documents executed under expired or non-existent owner
False assumption of identity of the legitimate property owner
Falsification of documents, legal power, and other papers related to the transfer of property title.
Other financial burdens charged to the previous property owner.
Hidden heirs of previous property owners
Documents executed by minors
Invalid documents delivered after the death of the previous
Property Taxes
It is mandatory to pay for property taxes in the corresponding local government, the taxes are paid every three months and include land taxes and municipal services. Our firm can establish a property tax service for you so that you can avoid dealing directly with this aspect.
