Peace of Mind for Costa Rica Homeowners
I was delighted to hear that a trusted realtor I know, decided to do something about a concern for all property owners in Costa Rica. Here's the deal. You own a property and buy title insurance so you think you no longer need to check to see that the title is free of encumberances. Wrong!
Having lived in Costa Rica happily for over 10 years now, you need to be smart and always look to protect what's yours. It's true living in North America, but particularly true living in a foreign country . For example, Recently some property owners have found they didn’t own their property anymore. Crooked attorneys and thieves have found a way to transfer the title of their property several times through corporations and put a mortgage on the property. PS: and sometimes it's even your own relatives living in North America, according to one story I heard at a dinner party.
Costarican notaries have “fe pública”, public faith, and can therefore say that the thieves’ signature is yours.
It doesn’t matter if you own a building lot or a house, the system is the same. Most property owners never check the title of their property. Property Guard will do it for you and for a very low fee. Especially those who own land where they never go to , or even a condominium they never use or rent out, should be careful and do a continuous title check.
Title insurance protected your title at the time of purchase of the property. But when your title is transferred by crooked parties, your title insurance will not save you from losing your title.
They do a title check on-line through the official National Register website and will show you in a report if your property is still in your name (or corporation’s name) and will flag any problems. I have to say as a property owner myself, I'm signing up. I don't have the time to do it myself, so having this service assures I'll sleep at night in my house!
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