Public Records Offices in Costa Rica
Published in the Costa Rica American Chamber of Commerce Business Guide
Thomas A. Burke, Real Estate Attorney and Amcham-CR Member
The single most important Institution in terms of securing legal protection for an investment in Costa Rica is arguably the Public Registry or Public Records Office, "Registro Nacional", in Spanish. One building complex houses all of its records covering the entire country in one location, specifically at Curridabat on the eastern side of the capital city of San José. Outlying users not wishing or able to travel to the central location are served by private or municipal computer links making the most essential real property and vehicle information quite readily available. The "Registro Nacional" actually groups not only property records, but also has sections for corporations, non-profit associations, vehicles, marine boats, plot maps, mortgages, pledges, intellectual property rights, trademarks and patents, among others. The tendency has been to gradually shift responsibility for all types of public records referring to property rights of all kinds and corporate registrations to the Public Registry, making it a very handy centralized resource when investigating any type of investment.
Let's take a look at the individual Records Offices grouped together in the Public Registry:
Commercial or Corporations Registry
This is the section in charge of reviewing the articles of incorporation, by-laws and powers of attorney of and for business corporations, as well as later modifications to these that must by law be publicly recorded, as well as issuing corporate identification number certificates. Preventive receivership and bankruptcy procedures are also recorded by judicial order on the individual corporate record. Some corporate business, for instance transfers of ownership of the capital stock of corporations are not required to be publicly recorded. This Registry also handles those matters falling under the scope of the Persons Registry which records the granting, modification, revocation and resignation of full powers of attorney for individuals, as well as court decrees affecting the civil status of a person such as tutorship, insolvency, mental incapacity, physical absence, presumption of death and the appointment of an estate executor.
Associations or Non Profit Organizations Registry
It handles exactly the same matters as the Commercial Registry does for business corporations, except in reference to non-profit associations that include every type of private organization from churches (non-catholic) to parent-teacher associations to conservation groups. Some organizations such as foundations, sports associations and community development associations are still formally controlled by different government ministries with oversight in these areas.
Intellectual Property Registry
Intellectual property rights have been given a big boost recently with the approval new protection laws in Costa Rica and even some relatively energetic administrative enforcement in a few cases. This registry divides its' responsibilities into the following areas:
Patents, covering inventions of machinery, processes, pharmaceuticals, and such as well as innovative industrial designs for commonly used products.
Trademarks, covering brand names, corporate or business names, marketing names, etc.
Copyrights, covering literature, computer programs, music, plays, graphic arts, etc.
Cattle brands, these are issued according to a standard alphabet based designs. Special brands take several months to clear and have more requirements.
Real Property Registry
This Registry will record title conveyances, as well as original titles granted by court review procedures or government title programs and subsequent property transfers. Any other property connected rights such as mortgages, easements, limited rights of use, some lease contracts and liens in general are also evident on the individual property record.
The bulk of property records are kept directly in a summarized form in a modern computer data base. Full documents are stored in a microfilm library and as of a couple of years now, documents referring to property transactions, liens, mortgages, etc., are digitalized or scanned and integrated with the property data base. Nonetheless some property records are still retained in large handwritten or typed Registry books, yet even this information is partially accessible through a general owners' listing, albeit in a less than perfect and older electronic database. All procedures are executed by registry clerks controlled via a unique access code for each one.
Other security measures include the mandatory use of special identifying document receipts assigned to the specific attorney-notary formalizing the transaction, comparison of signatures on record for each attorney-notary, a precise order of priority in processing documents which are given a consecutive entry number and clocked to the second to ensure the right of priority in the order of presentation to the Registro. A precisely controlled procedure for checking the fulfillment of the legal requirements for each type of real estate transaction won't allow recording documents with incomplete or conflicting information. Finally, the actual recording of a property transfer or other property related matter such as a mortgage, lien, etc. occurs "on line", that is the data base user obtains up to the second information on the legal status of a particular property.
Although a Mortgage Registry does exist on paper, it is handled by the Real Property Registry clerks.
Concessions Registry
Concessions in this case refer to state owned shoreline property which can be leased under contracts called "Concessions". The contracts are recorded and accessible to investigation by interested persons via a microfilm library and a computerized listing. Over 90% of the shoreline in Costa Rica is owned by the State and is not transferable into private hands. Instead there is a complicated body of law and regulations governing long-term leases of limited parcels from the government to individuals and corporations mainly for residential and tourism business purposes. The state owned areas, excluding port towns, comprise the first 50 meters from the median high tide line, which is reserved for public access and cannot be closed or claimed by anyone, and then the next 150 meters make up the strip of land that is open to be leased from the state under approved regulatory plans, which must exist as a precondition for a concession, something that is frequently not the case.
National Cadastre
The Registro Público keeps copies of plot maps, in Spanish "Plano Catastrado", in the National Cadastre division for virtually all titled real estate. All plot maps give measurements according to the metric systems following the legally mandated system in force, and are technical renderings, following precise legal, geometric and topographic rules, of an individual property, showing location, surface area, adjoining property borderlines, road access and frontage, etc.
A Note of Warning!: The owner's name registered on a plot map is no proof of current ownership, as property transfers are not reported to the Cadastre unless a new owner formally does so. A very common mistake made by foreigners and some locals as well, is to assume that a plot map is evidence of title. It is not. It does have a small information box with reference to the property record. However this information can be outdated, incomplete or misleading depending on the topographer responsible for preparing and registering the plot map and legal complexities such as whether the property in the process of being titled, sold, split, added on to, or otherwise legally changed. Remember only the actual current property record can give you legal security as to true ownership and type or legal condition of the property.
There is a long range project underway to unify the Property Record, Cadastre and Tax Value Data Base into a sole correlated data base, but as yet, there is no national system whereby property data can be found merely by specifying a location although a few areas have been covered by regional master cadastre or plot maps. In these relatively rare cases, it is possible to correlate location to property data by first identifying the plot map corresponding to the property record.
Movable Property or Chattels Registry
This one registers all titles to automotive vehicles including motorcycles. It also has a special section for boats of all classes and is due to receive the records on registration aeronautical vehicles from the Transportation Ministry in the near future. Court liens, pledges, and traffic tickets are also recorded against each individual vehicle record.
This document is published and distributed by Burke & Quirós S.A., and is under copyright. The information contained within may be copied in part or in whole if accompanied by a clear reference to the author's name with complete phone, fax and email addresses, and notice is given to same of the use of the information with a copy of the corresponding publication.
Thomas A. Burke, LL.M.