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My husband and I will be in Costa Rica on Friday and I am pretty sure we will be signing paperwork for a condo that we will be purchasing. I had a soon to be lawyer doing some research for me, nothing super legal, just mainly wanted her to contact the seller’s attorney and get some information on title of the property. I wanted to make sure there would be not problems. The seller’s attorney has not gotten back to her yet and the person I hired will be leaving for a few days to Colombia. I did know this beforehand and we agreed she would just do what she could in the time she had.
I mainly wanted someone to be there when we sign our papers to make sure everything is legal and we won’t have problems later on. Anyone know of someone in the Playa del Coco or Ocotal area that I could contact on short notice?
I tried to do the title search myself but I guess I don’t have the right property ID number. I know we can close this “absentee” but before doing that I want to make sure that everything is legally done.
Let me understand this correctly… You are about to sign legal documents to buy real estate in a foreign country and you have not yet checked the title?
I would suggest that you delay the closing, find yourself an attorney fast who will protect you and make sure that everything is in order.
Do not be rushed into buying real estate.
Scott Oliver – Founder
WeLoveCostaRica.comDkharlan, you should follow Scott’s advise about hiring an attorney ASAP. I recommnend you contact Cordero & Cordero Abogados http://www.corderoabogados.com their phone number in Guanacaste is 667-4242, ask for Hernan Cordero or write him an email hcb@corderoabogados.com. You may also try Casafont Estrada y Asociados 667-0700 http://www.casafont-estrada.com, ask for Juan Antonio Casafont 389-1548. Both of these law firms are located in Guardia, a little town about 10 minutes from Coco and Ocotal. Good luck!
While you are waiting to get proper legal assistance, you should be able to find the property at the national registry website. All you need is the correct property number (numero de finca) or condominium number. Choose the correct provincia, and the property will pop up with a brief history and name of current owner as well as any “gravamenes” asscociated with the property. Be sure to ask the lawyer about the gravamenes, if there are any. Those can be very serious property restrictions and represent hidden problems that only a good attorney can suss out.
I finally did hear back from the attorney and she did find that dreaded
“Gravamenes: Si Hay” Scott, I just got your book in the mail yesterday and read the whole thing last night so I know about the Gravamenes. Not too happy about it. Needless to say I won’t be signing anything until I hear back from my attorney about what the problem could be.If she does not get back with me, I may go ahead and just pay the money to hire another attorney to help us while we are in Costa Rica.
I have a big pit in my stomach now and I hope this will turn out to be nothing serious. I do want to take all the proper precautions before signing anything.“Gravamenes” are NOT always serious as we hope you will discover.
So just please do your homework, try to think of a good attorney as an ‘investment’ and not as an ‘expense.’
Scott Oliver – Founder
WeLoveCostaRica.comI agree with you, Scott. I think it would be a good investment to protect myself and have an attorney present. Hopefully I can arrange something ASAP.
I hope, too, that the Si Hay, turns out to be something minor. if not, there are plenty of other properties I have found that are in my price range.
Thanks so much. I tried to do a title search myself but I guess I did not have the correct ID numbers. I did find out that the Minnesota guys do use Casafont as their attorneys so I guess that won’t work to hire them for myself. I will check the others out.
Gravamenes are NOT always bad. My property had a gravamen and it was no big deal. I had a service road going through my build site. 6 months later, through an agreement, I moved the service road to a more convenient location still on my property. Yours may something similar.
sprite…I do know the Minnesota guys personally..I interviewed with them for a job. At lest the one I spent several days with seemed to be a very good and honerable guy. I do know that he said he was selling condos (pre-sale) before he recived the permission to build was offered and even offering for sale things on land that he may or may not have had an “offer” to buy on. He said he puts all earnest money in a title company and offers refunds or to switch to another of his several locations. I could not agree more with the rest however that you Should absolutely get your own attorney to check things out including the wording of the contract.
Terry From TexasMarvin Wiernik
Was recommended here on the webite. He is my 8th attorney but he returns calls.
Tell him that Stan Putra sent you. He says he charges more but gives his fewer clients more TLC
>> If you like go to http://www.attorneyscw.com to check out our practice
areas.
>> Stan here’s my contact information:
>> Office number: (506) 289-8576
>> Cel phone number: (506) 381-1595
>> Fax number: (506) 231-5996
>> Email: mwiernik@attorneyscw.com
Leave a message today Tomorrow is not a holidayThis may not be a big deal but the domain name for attorneyscw.com expired on May 31, 2007.
Thanks,
TomTom you are correct. This country has been one of the biggest disappointments. I am now in the lawyer loop. Marvin was good initially. Now this is the second time his email box has filled up. As Tom said The website expired. Their secretary is nice but she never knows when he is coming in just after 2 PM. She can’t tell me where to wire funds. I get this 3 paragraph letter initially about how thye run their practice. They charge more but that is because they have fewer clients and can then handle them with TLC. So I finally scraped together $1000 to wire Marvin and you know what? I might as well contact my former attorney that is holding my coporate books worth $500K of land that I can’t even show ownership of and ask him how much he wants to settle. In a previous forum they discuss how to get you money safely here. Keep your money is the USA and buy everything on credit here. Tell everyone you are heavily into debt.
Stanley Putra
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