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[quote=”srigsby”]OK, with that said what is a person to do if they want to build there and are living in the states? Seems to me it will be very difficult if you have no way of handling the monies between the investor and builder. There has to be another way…would a lawyer hold your money in an escrow account and distribute as needed to the builder?
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You can probably deposit the money to an escrow company like Stewart Title http://www.stewartlat.com/costa-rica1 , paying escrow fees which is not cheap. Attorneys are not so wild any more about getting huge amounts of money transferred to their accounts. SUGEF http://www.sugef.fi.cr/ is getting a real pain in the butt. They are also those who make it almost impossible to open bank accounts. If someone has an account in Costa Rica and receives $ 100,000.– or more per year, they are required to sign up with SUGEF, who charges a yearly fee of $ 1000.
At some banks one can open an account without DIMEX, only with the passport, BUT you still have to bring the income statement, tax returns or whatsoever. I understand that an accountant in the U.S. (or any other country) has to write up an income statement for the last 12 months, then this has to go the costarrican consulate (just like the residency papers) then it has to be translated into Spanish by an official translator, then it has to go to a Public Accountant in Costa Rica (contador publico) who has to write up a new statement, using the one that just came from the foreign country. Once you have this statement, they also want you to show the last electric or water bill from the place where you live in C.R. Plus some banks ask for recommendation letters from clients from the same bank, plus they ask for proof that you have been living in Costa Rica for 1 year or more (fake rental contract 🙂 plus Banco Nacional wants to see that you already own property in Costa Rica. It seem that BN and BNCR are the bigger pain in the butt, while HSBC and others are a little bit more pura vida.
I was in Scotiabank yesterday talking to the representative about our construction loan. She mentioned that an bank account holder was now required to have Dimex to wire money back and forth from the US. She said this could be set up with a Personario from the attorney.
[quote=”srigsby”]Bill–not giving up! My initial plan was to put the house on the rental market as I can only be there a few weeks per year. I have a few years before retirement yet. Was hoping the rental income would help offset the cost until I can enjoy it for any length of time. Long term goal is to spend 2-3 months out of the year enjoying the surf and fishing. Cheers![/quote]
Perhaps you could purchase an existing Home to provide Rental income and then build your dream home when you have made the final move?
Susan
[quote=”ballonfish”]I was in Scotiabank yesterday talking to the representative about our construction loan. She mentioned that an bank account holder was now required to have Dimex to wire money back and forth from the US. She said this could be set up with a Personario from the attorney.
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You do NOT need a DIMEX to wire money TO Costa Rica (to a C.R. bank account).
In order to wire money from C.R. to foreign countries they require that the person who wires the money has a bank account in C.R.
These are at least the rules in BNCR. May be different in other banks.Boy was it easy 20 years ago ….. where has the “pura vida” gone ?
Sometimes clients (without DIMEX) send money to C.R. via Western Union, for property management etc. no problem there.
I agree about wiring money to an account from the US to CR. Have done it several times this year to pay for fees.
The Scotia rep made several mentions about their new requirements that a person could not wire money back and forth from a Scotia account (in my case a corp account) without certification and Dimex for payments. It sounded like this was the case now or in the very near future. That’s all I can remember since many other topics were being covered at the time. It does sound like things are getting complicated though.
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