The Buying Process
Purchasing
incorporation appraisals home inspections attorneys contracts survey map registration notary taxes titles closing
Notary
The Public Notary's main function in a Costa Rican real estate transaction is the central most important step in the real estate transaction, registering the deeds with the Registro. The Notary who drafts the contract for the sale of real estate and completes the closing is entitled by law to charge a fee of 1.5% of the first one million Colones of the sales price and 1.25% on the remainder. The public notary whom you work with must be an attorney, but you cannot assume that any attorney can serve as a public notary. Most experienced Costa Rican real estate professionals will recommend that you choose a contract lawyer that is a public notary so that you can consolidate services. If the seller decides that they would rather have an unaffiliated public notary it is their right to do so as the law requires that both the buyer and the seller agree on who the notary will be. Regardless, having a notary as your attorney will help in the process.
Choosing a notary can be a difficult situation because of what is at stake during the process. In general, if you are paying the full purchase price upon closing, then the buyer gets to choose, if you are getting financing from the seller then they get to choose, and if you are getting a mortgage or a bank loan then the bank will try to choose. If this is a highly contested issue then two notaries can be hired to work together.
Once you have your notary, you should review the steps taken during the real estate purchasing process to make sure that everything done by the broker, seller and your attorney are consistent with what the state will recognize as the true transaction. The notary should notify you of any liens or restrictions so that they can be explicit in the deeds, double check to see that the owner's name is documented and they have the right to transfer the title and check the Registro for encumbrances or registered conditions that could have been undisclosed by the buyer or broker. Upon completion of these tasks, the notary will draft the transfer deeds. The contract will be placed in the notary's protocol book that contains all public documents issued by that individual.
After you sign, the notary fee must be paid and the notary immediately annotates and registers the deeds at the Registro. All relevant documentation must be included during the registration process: Power of attorney (if necessary), authorization to split a single parcel of land (if necessary), survey map, map #, receipt of payment of notary fees, receipt for transaction fees, receipt for taxes and proof that the seller is currently up to date with land taxes and municipal taxes. Without these things the notary must present the transfer deeds for annotation, but is not required to follow through with registration. It will be temporarily listed in the Diario section of the Registro.
If the deeds are complete and you choose not to go through with closing there is a fee of 25% of the full notary fees. If you plan on closing you must do so within a year of presentation or the documents will be annulled.
